The Great Gatsby Essay, Research Paper

Haja Turay

English 3b

Mrs. O?conner

In the book the Great Gatsby, none but a few people had the idealistic ?American Dream?. To some characters it seems the ?American Dream, ?has replaced by materialism and greed. What does the American Dream mean? What does it stand for? If a person has achieved their American Dream how should they go about living? The American Dream is the vision to be successful and to provide from and family the best way you can. Their dream is to also have money.

In the book the Great Gatsby there are many characters with money. Someone who assume they have really accomplished their mission to have the American Dream. Confused with the tremendous mansions, jewelry, fancy cars and clothes, however they have yet to discover the feeling of the American Dream. These characters are reluctant to live their lives on a positive note. Therefore, they peruse lives of materialism and greed. The characters such ass Tom and Daisy Buchanhan, Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson have all misplaced the American Dream with materialism and greed.

Tom Buchanhan has replaced the American Dream with materialism and greed in many ways. He works for nothing he has and plays all day. Another thing he does which takes up much of his time is have an affair. Never the less he has his wife Daisy sitting in his huge mansion alone with his daughter which he barley sees regularly. He has an Affair with a woman named Myrtle Wilson. A woman who has no feeling for anybody but herself and cares about living the highlife rather than living he own life. She lives to have Tom shower her with gifts and take her as her number one priority.

Jay Gatsby?s obsession with materialism and greed is somewhat different from others in the novel. Gatsby had an overwhelming love for Daisy, Tom Buchanhan?s wife. He felt so in love that his greediness of mind overwhelmed his actions. He began buying jewelry, furniture, clothes, automobiles and mansions to buy her love. All to impress his long lost love of 5 years. Daisy is a lightheaded, non-chalant woman. She too was obsessed with material items. Her life was based on money. As Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story implied, ?Her voice is full of money?. She herself wouldn?t marry the man she loved because he was poor.

For example in the novel when Daisy introduced her daughter to Gatsby, she asked, ?Don?t you think they are pretty?? Why would she ask her daughter such an materialistic question. If the same people were in her house and were all less fortunate, would she still have asked that question? If Gatby weren?t rich, would she still love him as much as she does now, since he has money? When Gatsby proposed to Daisy that her to leave Tom, she wasn?t thinking about her daughter and how she would feel and how Tom would react. All she could think about was herself and how glorious it would be to live with a man with that much power and money.

All of the Characters in the novel live in an illusion that their lives are in a correct path and that what they have is good. Basically to all in the novel the high life is life, without it you?re nothing and your not important. The problem with the characters is that they want more. They see nothing wrong with wanting to achieve more. There is nothing wrong with wanting more. That is what the American Dream stands for wanting the best. But there becomes a limit when the wanting turns to greed. When people want and take things we don?t need just to have it. All of the characters mentioned in the novel have obsessions with wanting the best in life.

If the characters in the novel took more precautions with their money and what they want. If the characters in the story stuck to the real idealistic modem of the American Dream, the outcomes of their lives wouldn?t have been so diverse and tragic. Therefore, if Tom and Daisy Buchanhan, Gatby and Mytle Wilson followed there dreams postivly they might have lived happier and maybe in harmony.