The Great Gatsby The American Dream

The American experience is dreaming. People prefer to dream about their fantasies rather than face their sad depressing reality. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by Scott Fitzgerald, the main idea is people tend to come up with unachievable goals in order to replace happiness with wealth. Gatsby spends his life wooing over a lost love from his childhood. As nick thinks about Gatsby's life, he comes to the realization that Gatsby never truly had a chance at taking Daisy completely away from Tom, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp.” (154) Gatsby is stuck in the past because he holds on to this impossible dream of him and Daisy driving off into the sun set. It is what drives him to do what it takes to be able to be good enough for her.
His parties were used as bait to get Daisy “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night,' went on Jordan.” (p63) His money is meant to be the gateway to his happiness. This is also prominent in American culture, as in the 1920’s people liked to party and did whatever they wanted even when many were unhappy with their lives while trying to cover it up with a smiling mask. That is the American dream, get to the top doing anything it takes no matter the cost, just so you can reach that one unreachable