Exclusion from the american dream in the great gatsby

Essay by ambar132High School, 12th gradeA-, November 2014

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The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925, illustrates a variety of themes between the lines of its story. As the beautiful and charming Daisy finds herself torn between two loves, Gatsby and her husband Tom, we see her emotions split between the desire for new money and old money. As the book comes to its close, she chooses old money, symbolized by her husband Tom, because it envelops a net of safety created by social connections. As a representation of the American Dream, the golden girl makes more than choices; she defines who is a true part of the ideal life, and who is not. In a similar way, Tom defines who is a lady worthy of being heard and who is not, rejecting Myrtle the privilege of recognition. The exclusion from the from the American Dream of the New York Jazz Age of new money and poor characters is exposed Daisy's neglection of Gatsby, the irrelevance of tertiary characters, and Tom's neglection of Myrtle.

Daisy's neglection of Gatsby, exposed by her carelessness in the face of Gatsby's funeral and her escape into a newly perfect life, demonstrates that the new rich would never truly live the American Dream. It is often pointed out that Daisy selects her husband over Gatsby because he belongs to the old money society. Yet, the marginalisation of Gatsby, who representant all the new rich in search of the dream, goes even further than abandonment. After leaving him, Daisy ignores his death, silencing his existence forever and moving on to a new life as if he had never existed. As Daisy and Tom, "retreated back into their money," the reader is left with the realisation that no amount of hard work could have ever lead men who,