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The Idealistic American Dream as Depicted in The Great Gatsby

According to the American Dream, regardless of one’s class, gender, race, or nationality, they can be become successful only if they work sufficiently enough (Jerrim & Macmillan,2015). Therefore, the dream presents a pretty rosy viewpoint of the American society that pays no attention to challenges, like misogyny and systematic racism, tax avoidance or evasion, xenophobia, income inequality, and tax avoidance. While the dream ignores a class equality myth, Markowitz (2000) contends that the truth is that America has a well-developed hierarchy of classes. The 1920s in America’s history was a tumultuous period owing to the increased immigration, changing roles of women that was instigated by the right to vote, and amazing income inequality (Jerrim & Macmillan,2015). It was during this period (1925) that the book/film, The Great Gatsby, was published. The Great Gatsby is a story about passion, crime, desire, and lust with the underlying message regarding the idealistic American Dream. In the book/film, Jay Gatsby gives warnings as to why the American Dream is both unattainable and perilous to pursue. To everyone, Fitzgerald and Bruccoli (1925) argue that the American Dream is different. Nonetheless, for Franklin, the dream is all about becoming rich in addition to having all that someone could ever need. As is evident in the book/film, The Great Gatsby, Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is available to all people is incorrect since Gatsby determinedly and tirelessly pursues the American Dream but fails to realize it in all its aspects, including happiness, wealth, and love, which are the lifestyles needed to master and surmount the idealistic American Dream.

To live in accordance with the American Dream, love is crucial since getting one that loves you back has the effect of making other plusses of success worthy. Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby, is making all possible efforts to win back Daisy, the love he lost five years then. At the time when Gatsby went back to pursue Daisy, she had moved on already.  During this time, Nick was already Gatsby’s close friend. In one moment while they were sitting down, Nick said to Gatsby that, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams – not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (101). Holding onto his former ideas about who Daisy was, Gatsby failed to accept the fact that Daisy had been married to a man with whom she loved and already had a child, and that she had grown and undergone significant transformations during the time they were apart from one another. In his mind, Gatsby perceives Daisy as his principal American Dream. According to Franklin’s assertion, to attain something of the value of the American Dream, one must forget the past and forge ahead, remaining focused only on future things. Nonetheless, Gatsby is not letting his past (Daisy) go, making it seriously difficult and close to impossible for him to attain the American Dream. Naturally, it is human to hold onto certain elements of our past. Nevertheless, it is upon each and every one to ensure that their past does not interfere with their present and bar them from achieving their future goals. By Gatsby holding to his past, he is held back from seeking and attaining happiness. Instead of learning from the memories so that he can know how to approach and define an extra successful future, Gatsby is held up onto the past, deterring him from attaining his American Dream, even of love. Throughout the story, Gatsby’s life revolves around what he can do to win back Daisy, making a life that he thought would impress her. In so doing, Gatsby was not living a life that would allow and enable him attain the American Dream, instead he was assisting Daisy live her American Dream.

Since attaining the American dream is associated with being rich, people do all that they can to become rich, exposing how difficult it is to achieve the Dream. Gatsby is an uncouth, ill-mannered, and discourteous man. He hides under the cover that he is James Gatz, the son to North Dakota’s unsuccessful farmers. He invites famous and rich guests to parties with the intention of keeping his “rich” appearances. Despite the American Dream comprising of a powerful and rich status, Gatsby often tries to be different. In the story, he acquired his rich status via smuggling and organized crimes. Daisy, conversely, was born and brought up in aristocratic family. Her family, because of their socio-economic status, looks down upon people who began from humble backgrounds and had to acquire riches as they grew, like Gatsby, who acquired his wealth and richness via engagement in unlawful means. Becoming rich in addition to entering the upper socio-economic status to Gatsby was a significant component of the American Dream since according to him, it is wealth and richness that he needed to win back Daisy. Daisy and Gatsby reunite in some short love affair, an affair that leads Gatsby to begin thinking that his plan had worked, and that he would be the first to have a feeling of a glorious triumph in his pursuit for the American Dream. Nick states, “He [Gatsby] wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she obliterated three years with that sentence, they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house–as if it were five years ago” (89). Still living in the past and failing to let his past go, Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom (Daisy’s new husband and dad to her child) that she did not love him at all. In his mind, Gatsby thinks that that will bring to an end the marriage and help him get back Daisy so that they can begin a family together. It appears that Gatsby is not willing to arise from his slumber and acknowledge that he has been running after the wind possibly since he is afraid of moving on with his life. Appearing to fear his future, Gatsby holds onto his past. Money and love are what Gatsby thought would help him realize the American Dream, forgetting to think concerning his happiness.

Notwithstanding the wealth that Gatsby amassed to himself, Fitzgerald suggests the American Dream’s materialism does not warrant happiness. Weekly, Gatsby did host grand parties for several guests: “At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys” (40). Glamour filled the parties, exemplifying the carelessness of the U.S. during that period. The parties were attended even by uninvited guests who only desired to indulge in the drinks, food, and extravagance that characterized them without even meeting Gatsby. Most guests were interested in enjoying Gatsby’s wealth and the American Dream’s luxury. At one time, a guest stated: “He’s a bootlegger…One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil” (61). This gossip insinuates that Gatsby never formed any real and genuine association with his party guests. So focused and mad with his dream, Daisy, that Gatsby never bothered to institute genuine friendships until he eventually met Nick. Fitzgerald is conveying that concentrating so much on the American Dream has the effect of distracting people from living in their present moments.  Fitzgerald conveys that it is extra crucial to concentrate upon things that matter other than money, like friendships/relationships. The life of Gatsby became happier and fuller upon becoming friends with Daisy and Nick, and not as a result of wealth. By throwing lavish parties, Gatsby was able to build a name. Through the parties, Gatsby desired to become and feel important and welcomed, like he did mean something to the people. Nonetheless, after it all, he ended up being used and lonely. The guests who came to his parties did not bother concerning him, instead about the extravagant and ornamental foods, drinks, as well as the social climbing that they could enjoy during these parties. While many guests often attended his parties, Nick, Gatsby’s true friend, and Gatsby’s father (Owl Eyes) are the only individuals who attended his funeral in the end. Gatsby fashioned and moulded himself into the figure and personality that he thought Daisy would want. After the death of Gatsby, his generosity to his former guests was forgotten and ignored, showing the selfish and insensitive society that has been produced by the American Dream.  He told Nick that he never swam in his swimming pool all summer long. It speaks volume for Gatsby to have had a luxurious swimming pool and a lot of leisure/free time that he seemed to have, yet failed to use it. Gatsby did have extravagant parties and luxury items, yet they did not make him merry. Evidently, Gatsby could never be happy because of the luxurious parties and things that he had to himself, but would be if he won Daisy’s love back and that she loved him as he did love her. Eventually, Gatsby died since he so much loved Daisy that he lied concerning Daisy driving the vehicle that ended the life of Wilson’s wife. Despite the fact that daisy would not abandon Tom for Gatsby, Gatsby continuously threatened Tom, making Tom live an insecure life. Tom told Wilson that it was Gatsby’s vehicle that knocked and killed Wilson’s wife. Before Wilson committing suicide, he killed Gatsby in Gatsby’s swimming pool. Fitzgerald communicates a fall in societal morals and careless lifestyles of the American society, and warns that should the Americans continue living that way, they will experience hardship and destruction.

It is not possible, from the foregoing, to achieve the American Dream if one’s idea about it is all about happiness, love, and wealth. Without wealth, it may be possible for one to obtain the happiness and love that they desire, yet one would still have not achieved the American Dream. Personally, the American Dream means acquiring a PhD and becoming a loving, caring, and inspiring parent.  I choose not to be deterred by what people say about the best career to pursue and the number of children to sire and bring up. In my view, Franklin’s notion about the American Dream is not achievable since it insinuates being better tomorrow than today. While it is a good thing to continuously grow, there is a sense that growing by the day makes it impossible for one to be satisfied with one’s self. Often, growth is accompanied with some setbacks, besides the fact that growth does not stop. It is, thus, imperative for one to embrace their future and tailor make their version of American Dream.