Unattainable Dream In The Great Gatsby And Richard Cory By Edwin Arlington Robinson

The Unattainable Dream The American Dream is known as a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the United States. It’s the overall thought that one can self invent themself, being able to construct their own life by starting over and setting the past aside. In today’s society, the American Dream is categorized as either being something that is attainable or unattainable, but the three sources that I have chosen being Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Cory from Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Walter Mitty from The Secret life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, all explain how the American Dream is unattainable. Although satisfaction is never permanent
and trials and tribulations are always just around the corner, the American Dream has disillusioned Americans for its attainability. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about a man named Jay Gatsby, who embarks on an endless pursuit of his lost childhood love, Daisy Buchanan. Throughout the novel, Gatsby becomes the “embodiment” of the American Dream, working extremely hard to hopefully improve his future but realizes that all of his hard work isn’t enough to satisfy and obtain his needs for his dream, Daisy. Showing an imperishable determination and hope, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further…”(171). Gatsby lives glamorously and luxuriously, with all the finery that money can buy, yet the one thing he desires most is out of his grasp. Gatsby desires to relive the past; even though he is loaded with money, Gatsby isn’t satisfied because the only thing that no amount of money can purchase for him is his love. In contrast to the last quote, Gatsby devoted his entire life to a goal that he later realized was impossible to achieve and through the course of time, Gatsby’s realization makes him feel that, “he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream… A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air drifted fortuitously about...”(153-54). Gatsby has finally realized that his devotion to a single goal that resulted into something that couldn’t be achieved has disillusioned his own dream. Critics may say that if Gatsby stayed with Daisy instead of going off to war, then Daisy and him would still be together, living happily ever after but this can’t be true because Daisy is a gold digger and really only cares about wealth and back then, Gatsby wasn’t a man of wealth when they were together. In the Poem, Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson is about a man named Richard Cory whose outward appearance contradicts his inner disturbance.
In this poem, the main character, Richard Cory, is portrayed as the “American Dream” that everyone wants to achieve in his town. Throughout the poem, Richard Cory went through stages of deep depression that no one had known about since he never showed his inner emotions in person. For example, Richard Cory was said to be “quietly arrayed... he was always human when he talked…he fluttered pulses when he said, ‘Good morning’, and he glittered when he walked”(lines 6-8). Richard Cory was a man of integrity, always dressed nice, and presented himself as a guy that was always happy and shined in the eyes of people when seen. In these lines, Richard Cory’s generosity delivers a positive message to his surroundings, showing how he is fully satisfied with his own life. It isn’t until the end of the poem when Richard Cory, “Went home and put a bullet through his head”(line 16). The people that Richard Cory was surrounded by never really knew about his inner world. Richard Cory was respected way too much to the point that he was more of an idealization rather than a living, breathing person. As a result, he was never truly befriended by any of them; consequently, he became isolated and permanently lonely causing his depression. Richard Cory had all of the money in the world but didn’t gain his happiness, which correlates to my thesis
because even though Richard Cory was the wealthiest man on the block and may have seemed to be a satisfied man to others, he was never able to live his own “American Dream” by obtaining his own permanent satisfaction that he desired. Critics may say that Richard Cory wouldn’t have killed himself if he had the chance to befriend all of the people that looked up to him, but this isn’t true because in the poem, Richard Cory occasionally interacted with people and had a chance to make friends but never asked nor made any gestures in doing so. In the short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber, is about a man named Walter Mitty, who constantly daydreams whenever he is bored.
The daydreams that Walter Mitty encounters are all triggered by the heat of the moment when he’s driving, thinking about what he can become, foreshadowing all of his American Dreams. Throughout this short story, Walter Mitty had to put up with an environment that constantly interrupted his daydreams. For example, at the beginning of the story when Walter Mitty is driving, he enters a state where he’s in war, flying the hydroplane that he had always dreamed of flying. “We’re going through!... Throw on the power lights! Rev her up to 8,500! We’re going through… The pounding of the cylinders increased ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa…”(625). At the time, Richard Cory is in complete satisfaction with himself until his wife suddenly says, “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!”(625). Another example of Walter Mitty’s American Dream is created when he puts on a pair of gloves, dreaming that he’s in an operating room with his partner that tells him to, “Get on with the operation…”(626). At this point, Walter Mitty is an amazing surgeon until a parking attendant suddenly yells at him and says, “Back it up Mac! Look out for that Buick!”(626). Both of these examples support my thesis because Walter Mitty’s American Dreams are to become all of these things but he never gets the chance too because there’s always someone or something
that holds him back, therefore, he is never able to obtain the permanent satisfaction that he always wanted. Critics may say that if Walters surroundings didn’t interfere with his daydreams the way that they did, then he may have been able to achieve all of his dreams but in reality, this is false because all of the daydreams that he had were things that he could never do in the real world. Therefore the American Dream has disillusioned Americans for its attainability. In today’s society, everyone has their own particular needs and wants and the wants of having money and fame doesn’t necessarily bring satisfaction to the average human being.