|
The American dream is such a major theme in The Great Gatsby that whether you are studying it was just reading it for fun you must be wondering what Fitzgerald is trying to say about. Some people argue the book of the criticism of the American dream, some people think Fitzgerald is trying to say the American dream is dead, others think the criticism is solely of Gatsby who paid the price of living too long with a single dream. Let's have a look at some quotes from The Great Gatsby. Every character in the book seems to have a dream of some kind, to climb the social ladder or win the affections of someone or other, but the most prominent of the book has to be Gatsby's. He changed his whole identity with to be able to achieve his dream but he never did. The reader thinks he will for a brief moment in Chapter 5 when he meets Daisy again, but thats' not enough for him, nothing will eve be. He is the personification of the futility of the American Dream. Character's like Myrtle and Wilson look up and Daisy and Tom. They want what they have, they think that they have achieved the American Dream. The reader knows different thought, we can see exactly how happy Daisy and Tom are. Behind the façade of perfection they present, their perfect marriage, in their lovely house with their beautiful daughter, they are both bored and unhappy. With no job and no purpose in life they have grown 'restless.' Both of them have affairs and neither seems to care about there child. Fitzgerald is trying to say that life isn't what you imagine at the top. It is obvious that, at least in the world of the Great Gatsby, money doesn't buy you happiness. Unfortunately it is just as clear that the lower classes are obsessed with money and view it as their ticket to living the dream. When you only look at their bank balances Gatsby and Tom are both wildly successful and that is all the lower classes see . Gatsby's own father carries around with him a photograph of Gatsby house. This suggests he feels that the most impressive aspect of Gatsby's life if the money yet accumulated, this is obviously a common view at the photograph is cracked and dirty with many hands. We the reader know however that Gatsby's money brought nothing but misery and he died alone with a broken dream. What can we draw from this then, does Fitzgerald think the American dream is dead. On the contrary I believe that he thinks it will continue perpetually, the people always look at the rich and wish they could be like them. And so the book is not telling you the American dream is dead is telling you that it will always live on and be wary of its promises.
Related Articles -
American Dream, The Great Gatsby,
| 
