Gatsby and His American Dreams

A detailed Summary of Gatsby and His American Dreams

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many themes are enclosed; the most notable of these themes is related to the American Dream. The American Dream is based on the idea that any person, no matter what they are, can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also embodies the idea of a self-sufficient person, an entrepreneur making it successful for themselves. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream during the 1920s, an era when the dream had been corrupted by the relentless pursuit of wealth. In this novel, the pursuit of the American Dream and the pursuit of a romantic dream are the ultimate causes of the downfall of the book's title character, Jay Gatsby.

Throughout the story, Jay Gatsby avoids telling the truth of his hard, unglamorous childhood. He does this to keep his superficial image of himself and to save himself from the embarrassment of being in a state of poverty during his youth. Jay Gatsby's real name is James Gatz and he is from the very unexciting North Dakota. He changed his name to Jay Gatsby when he was seventeen years old, which was the beginning of his version of the American Dream. Though concealed for most of the story, Gatsby's embarrassing childho

This is the tragic end of Gatsby's life. All of his heroism, his rapid rise to the top, all brought to a calamitous end because Daisy did not love him as much as he loved her. Although Gatsby's romantic dream was already dead, his version of the American Dream was still alive and beaming. He still had everything going for him; his youth, money, and personality. Gatsby is morally superior to his fellow East Eggers and Nick acknowledges this when he tells Gatsby, "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." To have it all taken away for something he had not even done was the greatest misfortune of the entire novel. Gatsby's death is made even more saddening at his funeral. Nick tried to make Gatsby's funeral respectable but only he, Gatsby's father, and one of Gatsby's acquaintances attended the funeral. None of Gatsby's racketeering friends came, nor did the "love" of his life, Daisy. Nick truly cared about Jay Gatsby although nobody else did. He exemplified wha!

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accident. Gatsby's love for Daisy causes him to be willing to take the blame if the death was traced back to his car. If Daisy's love for Gatsby was based on true love, instead of wealth and material items, then she would have stepped up and confessed to her crime especially since she was riding in Gatsby's car and it could easily be assumed that he was the killer. Daisy was not concerned with the well-being of Gatsby and this is shown when she is back at home conversing with her husband, over cold chicken and ale. Gatsby waits outside the Buchanan mansion because he worries that Tom might beat on Daisy when he gets home. These things never happen but it is the fact that Gatsby was concerned about her well-being and Daisy was not concerned with Gatsby's well-being that is important. She is a very shallow person who does not know the meaning of the word love. She is caught up in times and in living the moraless and careless lifestyle that she leads. She could care less!

Fitzgerald deliberately tries to mislead the audience on how Gatsby became wealthy throughout the novel. Gatsby claims on several different occasions that he inherited his parents' immense fortune. This is a story that Gatsby made up in order to keep his self-image up by not letting people know about his childhood. The truth is that Gatsby got rich by illegal measures. Gatsby's methods of gaining wealth corrupted the morality of the American Dream although they help him to achieve it. It did not take long for Gatsby to attempt to win Daisy back after he returned from the army. Jay Gatsby had this romantic view of Daisy and himself together and happy forever. He felt the best way

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Approximate Word count = 1841
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels