The American Dream in "The Great Gatsby"
A Quest for Power, Fame and Fortune in Fitzgerald’s Classic Novel
Nov 12, 2008
Although everyone’s idea of the American Dream varies a little bit, for Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby the American Dream is all about finding a life less ordinary and reaching the top.
Daisy Buchanan:
Daisy Buchanan is the love interest of Jay Gatsby. She comes from an aristocratic family and is used to the good life. She marries Tom because he is wealthy and can provide her with the material luxuries she is used to. Daisy shows no compassion for anything including her daughter and often hides behind her money.
Furthermore, in the end, she chooses to disappear out of Gatsby’s life and go back with Tom, never to be heard from again. Daisy Buchanan is fickle and materialistic, but also attractive and desirable. She is the personified version of the American Dream.
Jay Gatsby:
Jay Gatsby is the epitome of every man trying to find the American Dream. He is looking for a life better than the one he grew up with, filled with fortune and materialistic wealth. When Gatsby meets Daisy, he finds what he is looking for. For Gatsby, Daisy is his American Dream. From then on he does everything he can to achieve her. Gatsby refuses to see Daisy’s faults and she can do no wrong.
In reality, Daisy is the epitome of everything that is wrong with the American Dream. She is shallow, greedy and concerned with nothing but external wealth and material luxury. Gatsby’s failure to realise this symbolises America’s failure to realise that the American Dream is not all that wonderful.
Gatsby comes from a poor family and he rose to the top of wealth, something every American in the 1910-1920’s was trying to do. Making his fortune off illegal alcohol and stolen securities, Jay Gatsby demonstrates his place at the top with his illustrious Saturday evening parties. However, like many struggling to get to the top, for Gatsby, the American Dream is still out of reach and his goal will not be complete without Daisy.
Gatsby transforms to get to the top. Instead of working hard and going to school, Gatsby drops out and takes the criminal highway to wealth. The moral rights and ethics of good are overshadowed by the need to become rich, something that was happening frequently in the 1920’s. He changes his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, and re-invents himself and his surroundings to suit what he strives for- the perfect world of a life less ordinary. On the one hand, he demonstrates with his immoral rise to fame how the American Dream of wealth was nothing but shallow money and unprecedented wealth.
The Reality Behind the Glitz and Glamour
The American Dream is not what it seems. In the 1920’s, the American Dream was nothing but an idea of materialistic wealth and objective pleasures. The reach for the American Dream represented the demise of America where hard work and good ethics were abandoned for wealth and the good life.
In reality, the American Dream is based on nothing but immoral wealth and materialistic desires for the pleasures in life. However, once at the top, there is nowhere to go but down. And, for those who took the easy road of immorality to reach the American Dream, the ride down is nothing short of a ride from Hell.
Works Consulted:
Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
