Gatsby Paper
Adv. Eng 11 B6
26 January 2018
The American Dream
Characters in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby achieve the American Dream by having the perfect family and love life with their spouse, having a lot of money and material goods, and being wealthy. Towards the end of the novel the main characters become obsessive over this perfect lifestyle. Gatsby’s infatuation for Daisy grows. Nick’s craving for this lavish lifestyle causes him to lose himself. Gatsby’s strive for the American Dream is ultimately the cause of his death. Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy try to obtain so much more than they already have which lead to the significant downfall in their lives. Fitzgerald is trying to tell readers that nobody can truly achieve the …show more content…
Ridiculous things are done in order to have that perfect love life. Real love is rare in this novel, as if love and lust get mixed up very easily. Gatsby desperation creates a future with Daisy in his head. He still craves her love and affection after five years and does a lot to try to impress her. Gatsby completely disregards the fact that Daisy is married. She already has this perfect family. He thinks in order to achieve the American dream is Daisy. However, Daisy falls victim to her love for Tom and her lust for Gatsby. Gatsby managed to sacrifice his whole life to become Daisy’s dream guy. Although wealth and money were not inherited, he earned his wealth by bootlegging. Gatsby allowed his fantasy of having a life with Daisy control him. He risked his life by breaking the law just to become wealthy. Gatsby doesn’t realize is Daisy doesn't really love him. Overall she loves Gatsby’s lifestyle, Daisy ends up staying with Tom because he is the perfect representation of “old …show more content…
The topic consumes the novel and continues to be a root to most of the characters problems. The Valley of Ashes represents America’s downfall due to the obsession with wealth. The Valley of Ashes lies between East and West egg. Dusty and somewhat abandoned, this divides the upper and middle class. Other characters in the novel want the life of those living in East egg, because being born into wealth makes life easier. Towards the middle of the novel, Daisy and Gatsby are finally together in Gatsby’s mansion. Daisy sees Gatsby’s expensive shirts, and begins to cry over them. Daisy isn’t actually crying over the shirts. She cries because of the overwhelming luxury of the shirts and Gatsby’s mansion. Materials and physical belongings mean a lot to Daisy, and this really brings that out to the reader. Gatsby did many illegal things to become rich. Safety was not a major concern compared to his social status. Gatsby sold alcohol illegally during the Prohibition Era. Hence this could be done because of his affiliation with gangs. Gatsby also owned drug stores which was a contributor to his