Fitzgerald seems to be saying that what keeps Americans going as individuals is the belief in that dream, and so they struggle like Gatsby to attain it. But they are like “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Americans row and row against the current of time, trying to get back to that dream, bearing themselves backward like Gatsby, who believed the past could be repeated, but doomed by the hand of time to failure. Whether Fitzgerald believes Americans can recapture that dream, or whether it’s part of their lost childhood both as individuals and as a nation- is something you ” ll have to decide for yourself. The Great Gatsby is not, then, just a book about the 1920 s. It is a book about America- its promise, and the betrayal of that promise.
Throughout the book Fitzgerald has contrasted Gatsby the dreamer with “the foul dust” that preyed on his dream. The tragedy of Gatsby is that he still dreams the dream, but that he is not wise enough or strong enough to see that Daisy is not worthy of his devotion, of his sacrifice. He cannot step back to see where he has gone wrong. Nick can. Nick loves Gatsby, but he knows what is wrong with Gatsby’s dream. And so, his education completed, he returns to the Midwest to begin his own adult life.
The Great Gatsby – Pursuit of the Dream The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is central to many novels. This dream is different for different people, but in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness.
The Term Paper on American Dream Gatsby Daisy Fitzgerald
... with this image that Fitzgerald makes his strongest criticism of the American dream. The light is out of reach for Gatsby, as he has ... these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' The Great Gatsby is set during 1922 in two 'eggs' just outside of ... and for show also; for example Jordan assumes that the books in the library are merely for display when in fact ...
To get this happiness Jay must reach into the past and relive an old dream and in order to do this he must have wealth and power.
