What Is The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream has a different meaning for all who believe in it, but at its core is the idea of personal elevation. Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby seems to have experienced the loftiest possible version of the American Dream by rapidly rising from destitution to opulence, but he sees his life as yet unsatisfactory because it lacks the love and companionship of Daisy, who is as much a part of Gatsby’s American Dream as wealth. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s play The Death of a Salesman believes in a much more modest dream characterized by the ability to build a comfortable and independent life for oneself and one’s family through hard work, and is falsely convinced that he has attained this.
To Gatsby, the American Dream means accumulating however much wealth and power is necessary to attract Daisy. While Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy may not seem to exemplify the American Dream, he dedicates the entirety of his talents and abilities to elevate himself to her level, so his stratospheric rise to prominence can be interpreted as the culmination of the American spirit. Gatsby devotes his life to a never-ending search for validation from Daisy, and sees wealth as a means to attain this. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is the culmination of this dream, and symbolizes “the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”(189). As with all dreams, the fulfillment never quite lives up to expectations. When Gatsby recognizes that his dream has been realized, it loses all meaning to him: “‘You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.’ Daisy put her arm
Willy has unconditional faith in the dogma that a man’s hard work and personal attractiveness will afford him prosperity: “the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead”(33). Willy considers himself to be very well-liked and therefore highly successful, but this is far from the truth. Willy reveals the reality of his financial state by expressing concern when Linda reminds him of their bills that must be paid: “A hundred and twenty dollars! My God, if business don’t pick up I don’t know what I’m gonna do!”(36). Willy has worked tirelessly his entire life, and in accordance with his Dream, this should provide him with moderate prosperity, or at least the ability to pay his bills. Willy believes in the American Dream to the point where he cannot accept its falsity and the fact that it has failed him, so he convinces himself that he is indeed living the prosperous, self-sufficient life prescribed by it. Willy is forced to confront reality when Biff reminds him that he is nothing but “a hard-working drummer who landed in the ash can like the rest of them”(132). Faced with the crushing realization that the entirety of his life has been fictitious, Willy resorts to committing suicide, as the fact of his failure