Two american Dreams essays

Two american Dreams essays In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many themes are enclosed; the most salient of these themes is related to the American Dream. The American Dream is based on the idea that any person, no matter what they are, can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also embodies the idea of a self-sufficient person, an entrepreneur making it successful for themselves. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream during the 1920s, an era when the dream had been corrupted by the relentless pursuit of wealth. In this novel, the pursuit of the American Dream and the pursuit of a romantic dream are the ultimate causes of the downfall of the books title character, Jay Gatsby. Throughout the story, Jay Gatsby avoids telling the truth of his hard, unglamorous childhood. He does this to keep his superficial image of himself and to save himself from the embarrassment of being in a state of poverty during his youth. His parents were lazy and unsuccessful peop le who worked on the farm, and because of this Gatsby never really accepted them as his parents. Jay Gatsbys real name is James Gatz and he is from the very unexciting North Dakota. He changed his name to Jay Gatsby when he was seventeen years old, which was the beginning of his version of the American Dream. In all realities Gatsby arose from his Platonic view of himself, the idealistic self-view that a seventeen year old boy has of himself (Fitzgerald 104). Though concealed for most of the story, Gatsbys embarrassing childhood is a major source of determination in his attempt to achieve the American Dream. During Gatsbys early adulthood, he joined the army. He first met Daisy when he was at Camp Taylor and he and some other officers stopped by her house. He initially loved Daisy because of her extraordinary house and because many other men had been with her already. One evening in October, during 1917, Gatsby fell in love with Dai...