Essay on The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The...

The American Dream in The Great Gatsby The American Dream is deeply rooted in American ideals. It implies that an individuals determination is the deciding factor in the accumulation of wealth, freedom, and total happiness. It creates an equal ground on which anyone and everyone can attain spiritual and material fulfillment. Although these ideals can be traced back to the original settlers, perhaps one of the earliest written manifestations of the Dream can be found in Jeffersons Declaration of Independence (Spindler 41). The Declaration of Independence promises the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all American citizens. Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby is both a qualification and a†¦show more content†¦Initially, he appears to follow in its tradition, the archetypal self-made man. Nick Carraway, newly arrived in West Egg, sees Gatsbys enormous imitation-French mansion with its marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawns and gardens and assumes he is just another member of the fashionable super-rich. Yet Gatsby is not the florid and corpulent man Nick expects. He is young, elegant and charming. Nick has established himself to be a good judge of character, and when he instantly likes and approves of Gatsby, he guides the reader to do the same. Gatsby is something of an enigma at first. Nick cannot understand how such a young man can drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound. At this point in the novel, Gatsby is living the American Dream; a self made, wealthy man, he is a shining example of how hard work can lead to material success. Gatsbys mansion also provides the location for his lavish parties. However, when Nick attends one such party he finds Gatsby to be the focus of malicious gossip, suggesting all is not well. Gatsbys true past, or at least a fraction of it, is not revealed until the end of chapter four, and the full story until chapter eight. Jay Gatsby confesses to have been the carefully constructed creation of his seventeen year-old self, James Gatz. Gatsby has demonstrated that it is possible to achieve wealth and success through imagination and determination. The child ofShow MoreRelated The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby1134 Words   |  5 PagesThe American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a brilliant illustration of life among the new rich during the 1920s, people who had recently amassed a great deal of wealth but had no corresponding social connections. The novel is an intriguing account about love, money and life during the 1920s in New York. It illustrates the society and the associated beliefs, values and dreams of the American population at that time. These beliefsRead MoreF. 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Scott Fitzgerald wrote mostly short stories but became famous because of his novel This Side of Paradise and became even more famous because of The Great Gatsby which was released in 1 925. The time period in which Fitzgerald lived