The Great Gatsby and the ‘American Dream ” In Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the concept of the ‘American Dream’ appears in two ways. On the one hand Fitzgerald’s view and imagination of the American Dream and on the other and, within the plot, Gatsby as the ‘possible’ personified American Dream come true. O: P /O: P Francis Scott Fitzgerald practically puts the notion of the American Dream on the same level as ‘human dream’. But more remarkable is the fact that Fitzgerald’s concept of the American Dream corresponds with the history of America. It has to do with the history of the pioneers and their slogan ‘conquer the West’ with a land of ‘new beginnings, hope and unlimited opportunities’. O: P /O: P So Fitzgerald actually knows that The Great Gatsby is about the American Dream – even if the term itself hasn’t been coined yet and remains the ‘fragment of lost words’ that Nick Carraway almost remembers as he listens to Gatsby’s appallingly sentimental account of Daisy Buchanan at the end of Chapter VI.
O: P /O: P Jay Gatsby represents two ideals or aspects of the American Dream. First, there is the myth to make it ‘from rags to riches’. On the other hand, there is Gatsby’s dream of ‘preserving the idyllic moment’. To enlighten the purpose of distinguishing between these two concepts, I have to mention that Gatsby’s materialistic dream, the rags-to-riches- myth has really come true.
The Essay on The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations: A Comparison
Since the beginning of time, society has been separated into classes; the rulers and the ruled, the rich and the poor, the nobility and the common folk. One can find examples of social caste systems in any time period. Over time, social standards have changed, but one thing has not. Those who possess wealth are thought to also possess happiness. From the outside looking in, the common man always ...
He has a great ‘white palace’ for the fabulous parties he throws. But those parties serve for the sole purpose of regaining the ‘green light’, which means Daisy. A negative aspect of Gatsby’s dream is that he has acquired his possessions by illegal means. he pays dearly for the efforts to regain the ‘fairy-tale princess’, namely with his life. O: P /O: P To conclude my chain of thought, I would like to say that the American Dream in this novel never reaches total fulfillment, since Gatsby’s personal dream, the dream of regaining his lost love Daisy, never comes true in contrast to Gatsby’s materialistic dream.
