Compare And Contrast Harlem And The Great Gatsby

What is the American Dream? The American Dream is the ideal that every U.S. citizens achieve their dreams through hard works and determinations, as portrayed in The Great Gatsby; a novel that pursuits the American Dream, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Through the uses diction and imagery, the author, Fitzgerald has successfully revealed how each character in the story pursuit their own versions of the American Dreams; prompted numerous life lessons at the end of the story. To begin, the author uses man great diction to create certain tones, where these tones then lead to ways that the characters pursue their American Dreams, and expose life lessons that readers can easily take away. For example, in chapter 5, the author states, “Gatsby got himself

1920’s America was, perhaps, the most influential and prosperous time period that the United States has ever experienced. Not only was Wall Street climbing up higher and higher, but egos grew larger, lifestyles became more peculiar and less traditional, and physical possessions became an intrinsic part of life. It is in the midst of the chaotic and flashy 20’s that Jay Gatsby, the main character of The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, finds himself. An affluent and cultured man, Gatsby has built up a dream around him full of physical objects and goals.

In the widely acclaimed American novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald incorporates the Valley of Ashes and the green light as symbols of destitution and unfulfilled desires, demonstrating how all members of the social stratum face the impossibility of achieving the American Dream. The morbid scenery of the Valley of Ashes symbolizes the undesirable class left behind by the benefit-reaping titans of the Industrial Age, illustrating the unfulfilled dreams of the impoverished and the moral decay of the wealthy. To Nick Carraway, a witness of the affluent expanses of East and West Egg, the valley seems horrid, crowded with “men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 27). Deprived of motivation for ambitious

Gatsby is even shown to gamble and illegally make cash in different ways, but when he passes the Valley of Ashes, we see the illusory nature of the American Dream and how it can destroy lives. The valley of ashes is “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys-”. (23)The sharp contrast between rich and poor show the corruptness of wealth, which is how it is first portrayed. The reader feels a sense of compassion for those who are unable

The American Dream, as portrayed in the Great Gatsby, was the idea that one can achieve prosperity through hard work withal of their social class. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is an indirect satire of the American dream. The death of the American Dream is depicted through the characters in the novel.

America has always lured people with an unfulfilling promise of more; people come to America with nothing to try and gain something that’s unobtainable; Unfortunately, what they find is far from what they wanted to gain. F. Scott Fitzgerald expressed just how much of a lie the American dream was in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald lived as a captive of the dream 's unlawful grip that promised so much but gave so little. He was born middle class and tried his hardest to become more than what his father was, but as ambitious as he was he never gained the wealth and elite status that he desired. The Great Gatsby was his way of stating the way that things were at the time, and he writes about how the American dream is unobtainable through symbolism.

The Great Gatsby: Compare and Contrast The Great Gatsby is an infamous book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald around the 1920s. It is about a man who tries to gain the American Dream, while obtaining the “Golden Girl.” However, no matter how hard he tries, he will never get the things he wants. The Great Gatsby was made into a movie in 2013.

The small passage above is something I found while writing an entirely different final assignment about wealth and poverty, but this passage made me want to write about The American Dream in The Great Gatsby. I like how this blog says by the 1920s the dream has been ruined into a need for money, getting it any way possible. This is so true in The Great Gatsby. For example, Jay Gatsby seemed to get most of his money from bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition. He felt he needed this money to have a happy ending with Daisy.

“The American Dream” is an idea integral to the work ethic and overall ideals of the United States; simply put: the idea is that through hard work, the opportunity for prosperity and success is possible for anybody in America. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby as a critique of the rampant materialism and declining moral values he witnessed post-World War I. The novel tells the story of a man named Nick Carraway, who gets a glimpse of the frivolous, lavish lifestyles of New York’s elite, including that of the hopelessly hopeful Jay Gatsby; Gatsby is willing to do anything to win over the heart of the woman he loves, the unattainable Daisy Buchanan. Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too, Sing America” was published in pre-Civil Rights United States (a hotbed of racism) and serves as his patriotic declaration that African-Americans will one day achieve equality in the United States and also be able to live the American Dream.

For many American citizens, wealth represents the ideal American dream, something many strive for but not everyone achieves. The novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is set on Long Island in the fictional town of West Egg in 1922. Fitzgerald focuses on the representation of old money, which is families that have been wealthy for generations, and new money, which is self- made money on current trends, through the character’s motivations and interactions or relationships with others. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald uses the nature of wealth and status to show its dehumanizing or corrupting nature with characters through differences in wealth and how they came about it. Analyzing Daisy Buchanan, one of the main characters, Fitzgerald uses her actions to show the corrupting effect of wealth on people.

The Great Gatsby presents us with a dichotomy in the upper class between the nouveau riche of West Egg, the likes of Gatsby, and the established upper class founded on “old money”, represented in East Egg by those such as Tom and Daisy who have inherited a fortune from their predecessors without having gained it through their own labour. Through the Buchanan’s characters Fitzgerald provides us with a social commentary on the “old money” people, presenting them as careless and shallow characters. In doing this Fitzgerald demonstrates the mentality among the East Eggers that not everyone is equal, clearly highlighted by Tom’s disapproval of Gatsby: ““An Oxford man!” He was incredulous. “Like hell he is!

The 1920’s was a time where the rich were not afraid to flaunt their wealth. They held outrageous parties and spent their money on lavish things. It was a time where some people were living the ‘American Dream’, while others struggled to get food on the table. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby he displays the extravagant lives of the wealthy through the luxurious life of James Gatz, or Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald influences the plot and conveys themes with symbols such as a simple green light, an abandoned set of eyes watching over the American society, and a bleak gully of dark ashes.

Throughout the book, Tom and Gatsby as characters are shown in contrast to each other, through the significance of the valley of ashes, the American dream, and their relationship to Daisy. One of the biggest parts of the book is the fact that Gatsby and the Buchanan's live on opposite sides of the bay, in west egg and east egg, respectively. But separating them on land is the Valley of Ashes. The Valley is described as being, “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke…”(Fitzgerald, 26). It’s a place of hopelessness and poverty, and it illustrates how the American dream can never truly be achieved.

The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald can be seen as the American dream, where characteristics of hard work and ambitions of many characters are shown. The novel exemplifies many themes especially during the 1920s; however the most important one is the American Dream corruption. The American Dream as seen in The Great Gatsby is someone of lower economic social class. They have a high ambition to work hard towards prosperity and stardom, such as the character Gatsby. Throughout the story it is possession of fortune, a luxurious car, huge mansion, and a happy go lucky family that depicts the perfect American dream.

The Valley of Ashes represents the poor and impoverished people in the US. They are the lowest of the low and aren’t respected by anyone in the East or West Egg. It is a dull and sad place where the “men move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 27). Nick also describes how everything is covered and made out of ashes, which shows that nothing they have here is valuable and there is little money in the valley. Overall, Fitzgerald is trying to express the different types of classes that were around during the 1920’s.