The Great Gatsby - The American Dream Essay - 767 Words

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The statement made by Marius Bewley’s critical essay â€Å"Scott Fitzgerald: The Apprentice Fiction†, â€Å"Fitzgerald’s ultimate subject is the character of the American Dream in which, in their respective ways, his principle heroes are all trapped.†, can be justified through Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and his short story â€Å"Winter Dreams†. In both pieces of literature, Fitzgerald explores and comments upon Americans and their pursuit of the American Dream through Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green’s pursuit of their â€Å"golden girls†. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Fitzgerald shows that the American Dream is not easily achieved by giving each leading man obstacles in the pursuit of their golden girl. Both Jay†¦show more content†¦For example, Dexter Green, although he has been hurt and abandoned by Judy Jones several times, broke his engagement with another woman as soon as Judy Jones stated she wanted to marry him. Fitzgerald is showing the reader that Americans will do anything, no matter how much they’ve experienced suffering because of it. Through Green, Fitzgerald shows that the American Dream is the most important thing to an American once they’ve decided to achieve it. Furthermore, Gatsby becomes a gangster and lives an empty life with lavish parties. Gatsby does all this because Fitzgerald wants to show how much an American will change their lives to achieve the dream. Gatsby’s suffering of an entire lifetime is just to win Daisy, which shows that an American is able to suffer lifet imes of hardships and low points in hopes of one day having the American Dream. Fitzgerald, through the actions of Gatsby and Green, comments upon the unlimited things that an American in pursuit of the American Dream will do. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Fitzgerald also shows his readers how Americans in pursuit of the American Dream live only for that purpose. For example, Gatsby lives and builds his whole life in pursuit of Daisy. He tries his whole life to relive the past in hopes that oneShow MoreRelatedThe American Dream : The Great Gatsby Essay1568 Words   |  7 PagesThe American Dream: The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface, but its most commonly understood as a suspicious critic of the American Dream. In the novel Jay Gatsby overcomes his poor past to gain an incredible amount of money and a limited amount of social cache of in the 1920s NYC, only to be rejected by the â€Å"old money† crowd. The focus of my paper would be the pathway towards the American Dream and how it affects the person and others around. The American dreamRead MoreThe Great Gatsby and the American Dream1401 Words   |  6 PagesThe Real American Dream Since its institution, the United States has been revered as the ultimate land of ceaseless opportunity. 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