Sharma 1
Dakshya Sharma
Cedrone
ENG4UO
July 21, 2013
It Was Only A Dream
The American dream can be defined as the desire to live a comfortable life of opportunity, safety and good health with your family. The roaring twenties was a time when people dared to dream of more. The common man dreamt of immense wealth, a high social status and a respect that can be gained through hard work. In Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Gatsby's dreams had been too grand and extraordinary to be attainable. Jay Gatsby's dreams go beyond just material wealth, he dreams of the respect, class and sophistication that he could never experience due to his lowly family background. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby's early ambitions, his pursuit of Daisy, the symbolism of the green light and his bitter end suggest that the American dream only exists as an imagined idealistic circumstance that once attained⦠is diminished.
1983 Gatsby Griffin
The Great Gatsby
“I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and fel...From the very beginning of his manhood, Gatsby dreamt impractical dreams, the image of which led him to live a made up life. He never accepted who he was or where he came from. While describing his hidden background Nick says, "His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people- his imagination had never accepted them as his parents at all" (Fitzgerald, 95). Gatsby's dream had been to live a wealthy, uncommon life and was willing to work hard to achieve this but his disregard for his family background could not lead him to achieve an honest dream. His dreams had been unrealistic and therefore unattainable, yet he sought after them. When imagining his future, Gatsby dreams of an almost supernatural outcome: "For a while there reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a...