The Great Gatsby

English Essay - The Great Gatsby

The main theme of the novel "The Great Gatsby" focuses on the American Dream and it is portrayed through the life of Jay Gatsby. Through Gatsby's life we see the withering of the American Dream, a tragedy that struck Jay's near finished dream. The American Dream is what many have hoped of achieving, it has existed in the past and is in the present. The American Dream gives people a goal that they can work towards, it also gives them a purpose in life. The American Dream represents luxury and wealth it believes the goodness of the quality of life. For Jay Gatsby, he was so close to achieving the American Dream. He had the wealth and the class, all he needed was his long lost love, Daisy. Gatsby truly believed that he could once again be together with Daisy we see this when he says "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can" (P. 116). However what made the story such a tragedy was that Gatsby came so close to wining Daisy however he was killed by Mr. Wilson which he was just inches away from successfully completing the American Dream. In the past, only a small amount of the American Dream turned out to be successful, most have failed. Many people who did not achieve the American Dream ended up committing suicide or other means of giving up on life because they believe there was no other purpose in life.

Gatsby represent the American Dream in many ways, in order to accomplish his Dream he knew exactly what he desired, when Jay met Dan Cody at the shore of Lake Superior, Dan shown him a vision of success a vision of what wealth would offer, the excitement of being rich. Jay Gatsby has an ambitious nature, there for he would do anything just to live the American Dream. He started by building a past, he changed his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby in an attempt to construct a foundation for his dream. He then composed an image for Jay Gatsby, a well gentleman who was born in the west, educated at oxford and fought in World War I. Gatsby was then able to attain a great deal of money working with Meyer Wolfsheim. He then bought a huge mansion in the "West Egg", however he would throw extravagant parties in hoping of attracting his long lost love Daisy, the one who he had an affair with before he went to the war. Nick describes Gatsby's feelings about Daisy:

"He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy and I think that he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of the response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way as though in her actual presence none of it was any longer real. Once he even toppled down a flight of stairs" (P.96 - 97)

Daisy means everything to Gatsby, his American Dream is merged with his dream of being with Daisy. Without Daisy, Gatsby's American Dream is incomplete.

A major factor that makes Gatsby's American Dream so tragic is that everything seemed to be so perfect in the beginning, for example we see that he almost had the perfect life. He had collections of nice cars to a nice grand white mansion to collections of imported shirts. Nick Describes Gatsby's parties:

"Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiter in New York - every Monday there same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves." (P.43)

This shows the amount of wealth Gatsby had, he threw parties weekly and most of his guests haven't even seen Gatsby. He didn't throw the parties to show of his wealth, he threw the parties in hope of attracting Daisy. Gatsby needed Daisy to complete his life, his dream to be with Daisy fused with his American Dream. However, it was tragic that he had to die at such a young age, epically when he's so close to achieving the American Dream.

Generally speaking, the American Dream is mostly achieved