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The American Dream symbolizes prosperity, happiness, and even hope. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents the book and the American Dream from a different point of view. For many people in the book, it is just a fantasy of living in poverty hence the term ‘rags to riches’. The main character Gatsby losses cite of the American Dream and goes spiraling down because of trying to acquire Daisy’s love and more power and money. This novel shows how people over the years have twisted and contorted the reality and ideas of what the American Dream should look like.
To many people, Gatsby is the definition or inspiration of the wealthy and living embodiment of the American Dream in full motion. Nick Carraway says “something glorious” about Gatsby, and that he is filled with “some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life” (8). To the poor and non-wealthy people, it appears to them that Gatsby has made it to the top with fame and fortune, completing the American Dream. But instead of Gatsby being satisfied with his wealth, he wants to be like the “Platonic conception of himself” (89) and he becomes more powerful and rich so he can feel like a ‘God’ to himself. The American Dream is a very tricky and controversial topic with it having so many meanings, Gatsby, however, holds on to the idea that the American Dream is solemnly wealth and power, not looking over more concepts that come with the American Dream. An understanding of the American Dream is climbing the social and wealthy ladder, sadly Gatsby forgets about the other things to look out for such as happiness and love fulfilled. Gatsby believes in the idea of “the rock of the world is founded securely on a fairy’s wing” (89). Putting false realities in his dream, Gatsby finds comfort in wealth, not realizing that he needs and long-term supply of happiness, that being Daisy. Replacing his happiness with cold cash makes his soul and mindset stagger and not feel complete, there not finding his actual source of happiness. For many people of wealth, they fail to see that the American Dream isn’t all about gaining wealth and luxury things, but more about being stable and supplying loved ones with things they need, and gaining steady mental health.
Instead of following the concept of the American Dream of ‘finding happiness’, Gatsby more looks toward materialistic things to make his life more fulfilled, but it leads to him being lonelier and sadder. This idea of the American Dream helps boost Gatsby’s persona in the social realm of things because before they would not have accepted him, because of living in poverty and being poor. Gatsby thinks that wealth leads him to be a ‘son of God’ because of always maintaining his wealth and gaining power along with the money, but he forgets that to feel fulfilled in this life, we need someone to love and admire, and that is one major part that Gatsby forgot about. To get his wealth and ‘accomplish’ the American Dream, Gatsby gambled in some corporate scandals to easily gain wealth and power. Gatsby loses sight of what the American Dream is, as he states, “no sound” of warning upon his conscience, fading into an omen that becomes “uncommunicable forever” (100). Gatsby is showing that not only is there a loophole in the American Dream concept, but also scandals and illegal acts make America seem like the land of lies instead of the land of the free, because of this he fell short, “must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (159). But since he “does not know that it is already behind him” (159), Gatsby continues to seek contentment in fattening his purse. Unable to find his happiness, Gatsby fills those voids with things only money can buy, such as cars, clothes, watches, and huge houses, all just to go back to feeling lost and empty inside because that is all false happiness and he fails to change that.
Gatsby attempts to make his life better by using false hope and materialistic things to replace the void of no happiness. Gatsby tries to ‘buy’ Daisy Buchanan’s love back because when they first fell in love, he was financially incapable of doing so. Even though Gatsby’s “number of enchanted objects have been reduced by one” (84), with even a little bit of hope Gatsby has Daisy is more comfortable with a secure life of luxury and comfort. The thought of this made Gatsby frustrated because Daisy is attracted to materialistic possessions while Gatsby is the same way, with his wealth he has purchased many things to remind him of his riches. Gatsby is aware that “youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves” (132), Gatsby’s immaturity and selfishness hold him back from giving up his riches and wealth. Gatsby in some ways is rich physically but poor mentally, “the price for living too long with a single dream” (142). Gatsby has a false reality of life and it ends up hurting him. Instead of Gatsby trying to reverse his miss fortune and make his life work for the better, he ends up wallowing in his failures, as he describes as “a boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (159). Through all of this, a rhyme that states ‘life is but a dream’ had Gatsby realize that the quote was correct.
If you do not gain happiness, life is going to seem empty and pointless. So, is Gatsby throughout the whole novel meant to represent that in fact that money can’t buy happiness and that Gatsby’s struggles show us what we may turn into if we do rely on wealth to get us through life? In a survey taken by wealthy countries such as America and lower-end countries such as Nigeria, it shows that Americans are far more depressed and sadder with money and without, they are more rejoiced and find new meanings, and in Nigeria, the communities are always festive and for the most part happy. This novel is showing us the American Dream is not what it seems, and that hopefully we will see it before it’s too late.
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