Great Gatsby Paper

Chasing Hollow Dreams Only Leads to Misery The idea of an American Dream dates back to the 1600s when people started having different hopes and aspirations coming to America. The main reason for settlement was to have more money and live a better life. A settler of moderate wealth in their country of origin might be considered of greater wealth in a colonial settlement. People of lesser wealth see early colonization as an opportunity that might not otherwise be open to them. Immigration into the United States may have sounded like a good thing but, all the new money and opportunities led to greed, similar to the characters in the Great Gatsby. Essentially the idea of an American Dream seems to promise that through hard work, anyone can succeed and live a happy life; however this dream can mean different things to different people. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows that not all American Dreams are ideal and can lead to corruption in one's life. Through the characters of George Wilson, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald symbolizes that chasing hollow dreams only leads to misery. George Wilson is the prime example of a character that chases a hollow dream. He depends on selling Tom Buchanan's money and selling his car to make a living. George Wilson lives in the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes represents poverty and hopelessness. “This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”(Fitzgerald 26).The lower classes who inhibit this region all want to leave but cannot. When George sees Tom driving to his garage, Nick says that he sees a "damp, gleam of hope in his eyes"(Fitzgerald 25). Compared to Tom, George is a weak character. He gets pushed around by Tom, and will do