The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

What does the American Dream mean? Is it this perfect life? Who is able to obtain this dream? The American Dream was debauched back in the 1920’s and it really made this concept of the American dream very elusive and a bit illogical. It was viewed as too perfect in a sense. In The Great Gatsby we can see how there is a major flaw in this once grand idea of the perfect or closest thing to a perfect life. Once the idolization of your own way of life comes into floriation you end up wanting more and that when the idolization of your feelings takes place. Fitzgerald shows us that the path to achieving wealth and fame comes with a price and that life never seems to be true instead a performance, basically propping up your life to be something
Fitzgerald creates a Jay Gatsby that seems to have it all, fame and fortune, but come to realize that he is missing the most important part of success and true happiness which is, love. This one complex yet simple concept of love leads to his demise and later death. For Jay Gatsby his reason to achieve this dream was because he wanted nothing more than to win Daisy Buchanan’s heart. Gatsby felt that if he were to achieve these goals that he would eventually find peace and happiness that he seemed to so desperately want and he was trying to satisfy those feelings with Daisy. “His heart beat faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own” pg. 107. Daisy has been propped up to be Gatsby’s beacon of hope for this life he wishes to obtain. Nick not only points out the contamination of the American Dream but the flaws within Gatsby’s pursuit and his idolization of this perfect image he has created of Daisy. The common perception of the American Dream is, if one works hard and does not necessarily need to come from a stable background or finical support system, anyone can make it in this country. Fitzgerald mentions clocks and time throughout the novel frequently and it’s the evidence provided to us that with this dream of success Gatsby is trying to reach he has a fixation for controlling time and the idea of going back in time. Nick goes on to tell the reader, “Whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers.” Pg.84. This shows that even though Nick doesn’t believe in this augmented reality, he is still showing us how Gatsby has distorted his own reality because of his pursuit of the American Dream, which puts him in a mindset that there really isn’t anything out his reach and it just plays to the fact of instant gratification for this time period. One illusion that plays into the American Dream