The Great Gatsby Is The American Dream Not Real

The American Dream is everybody’s greatest aspiration. The American Dream is the belief that each individual can, through hard work and strength of mind, achieve everything they desire. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novel The Great Gatsby, chose to portray the American Dream not as the wonderful thing most people believe it is, but as corrupt and not real. All of Fitzgerald’s characters in his novel strove throughout the book to achieve their version of what they believed the American Dream to be. Using his characters, Fitzgerald conveyed a deep and unique message that the American Dream is not real, and that no matter how hard you try to reach it, it will never be obtained. On the final page of the book, Fitzgerald wrote what is now
considered one of the best last lines ever written, and those last lines support and finalize the message that he was trying to spread to the world about the American Dream. According to Fitzgerald the American Dream is not attainable. In the final paragraph of the novel Fitzgerald tied up the story with a brilliant metaphor of the American Dream. The final passage says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter –– to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And on one fine morning ––– So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (Fitzgerald 180). This quote was Nick Carraway reminiscing to himself about how he, and all of the other characters in the book, believed that their hopes and aspirations were not attainable. However, as life went on and they continued striving to achieve their goals they slowly came to realize that in reality they were not achievable after all. While it was not directly stated in the book, the last sentence infers that once that was comprehended, they attempted to make new goals to pursue but their past and previous desires incessantly held them back from doing so. The life goals that the characters have are synonymous to the American Dream because the American Dream, as previously mentioned, is the belief that anybody can achieve what they desire if they work hard.
Winning Daisy Buchanan’s heart is a goal Jay Gatsby has worked towards for most of his life. This American Dream of his is a prime example of the lesson Fitzgerald was attempting to illustrate. Gatsby built his whole life around the fantasy that if he gained enough wealth Daisy would want to be with him again. In chapter four we discovered out that “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” (Fitzgerald 78). He purchased this particular house because he had loved her from afar for so long that he needed to be closer to her and to potentially win her back with the lavishness of his home. Furthermore, Gatsby also bought all of the possessions he had to impress Daisy with. When Daisy went to Gatsby’s house for the first time and saw everything Gatsby now had, Nick thought this to himself about Gatsby “...I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.” (Fitzgerald 91). At this point in the story Jay Gatsby believes that he has been successful in achieving his dream of winning Daisy’s heart, however, later in the book things went awry. Once Gatsby dropped Daisy off at her home after she accidentally ran Myrtle over, he waited outside her house and told her that if she needed anything “to turn the light out and on again.” (Fitzgerald 144). Thus, Gatsby stood watch behind a bush in her driveway for the flicker of light that would signify that she needed him, and also in a way, still wanted him. Unfortunately, Gatsby “waited, and about four o’clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light.” (Fitzgerald 147). Consequentially, the indication of her solely turning the light off and not back on meant that the relationship they had was over, and that Gatsby’s conquest for his American Dream was too. Gatsby’s journey towards his American Dream faultlessly supports Fitzgerald’s message to the readers that the American Dream is not real and that it will never be obtained and also the final paragraph of the novel.
Jay Gatsby fought hard to see his dream fulfilled, but in the end all of his effort was not enough for it to become actualized. This corroborates the concluding paragraph of The Great Gatsby because the paragraph touches on a person seeking out to accomplish their dreams but as time went on they slowly came to realize that those dreams can never be and will never be accomplished. This is synonymous to what Gatsby passed thorough with his hope of winning Daisy’s
heart.
In a journal entry in the Journal of Business Ethics, the author Tony McAdams states “We catch glimpses of that dream via his heroic, ultimately foolish, quest for Daisy, and we find it embellished in Fitzgerald's picture of Gatsby; his youth, his beauty, … his romantic commitment, … his very capacity to dream. Fitzgerald seems to be suggesting that the American Dream lies in the limitless possibilities in being human while warning of the risks in losing sight of those possibilities in the glare of wealth and its accoutrements.” (McAdams 657) The entry talks about how the characters lost sight of what actually was real as a result of getting lost in the glamour of their unrealistic dream. This quote from the journal supports the lesson of the American Dream that Fitzgerald was educating to the readers because they both are about how the American Dream is not real.
Similar to Gatsby’s dream of having Daisy, all Myrtle Wilson wanted in life was to be wealthy.
However, back in the 1920’s women did not work, and they depended on the men in their lives to provide them with the money they needed to buy and do the things they wanted. At the time when Myrtle married her husband, George Wilson, she believed that he would be able to do just that for her. “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,” she said finally. “I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” (Fitzgerald 34). Myrtle married him because she thought he was a good person and would be able to supply her with all of her wants and need, but after marrying him she learned that he barely had enough money to provide for the both of them. Myrtle’s solution for this was to have an affair with a wealthy man named Tom Buchanan. Tom bought her anything she desired. One day while driving to the secret apartment they rented they saw a man selling dogs on the side of the street for ten dollars each. Myrtle wanted one of the pups so Tom stopped the taxi, chose a dog, and said to the vendor “‘Here’s your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it.’” (Fitzgerald 28). Therefore, Tom payed the man one hundred dollars for the puppy without any thought. This is the life that Myrtle wanted. A life where she could spend however much money she wanted without a second thought about it. However, while Tom bought her whatever she wanted and showered her with
money, the life she had with him really wasn’t a life at all because he was not her husband and they did not have a real life together. Her impoverished life with George Wilson was her reality. While the popular belief was that “‘She really ought to get away from him,’” because “‘They’ve been living over that garage for eleven years…’” (Fitzgerald 35) she could not do so because Tom was married to Daisy, so if she did leave George for him, Tom would not have been able to be with her the way she desired. This dream of hers was not accomplishable, and no matter how hard she tried to have it become true, it was not feasible.
Myrtle’s American Dream was to be wealthy and to be able to obtain everything she desired. However, at the end, you discover that this dream of hers is not a possibility for her. This correlates with the message Fitzgerald was attempting to spread and the last paragraph of the book because they state that the American Dream can never be obtained and her dream is inaccessible.
To conclude, F. Scott Fitzgerald was trying to spread a message to the readers of The Great Gatsby about how the American Dream is not real, and that no matter how hard you try to reach it, it will never be acquired. This message connects with the final passage of the book because the final passage talks about how Gatsby and the other characters in the book all had dreams that they wanted to achieve, however as time passed by they all slowly started to realize that these dreams they had were unachievable.