The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald: on the Representation of the American Dream
Considered as a book about disillusionment with the American Dream (Gross and Gross 35), The Great Gatsby is the quintessence of the Jazz Age of American Literature. This paper discusses the representation of the American Dream. It will try to find the answer on how the novel embodies the concept of American Dream. Additionally, citations from the text will be added to support the arguments presented on this paper.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s legendary masterpiece – The Great Gatsby recognizes the curtailed representation of the belief of the American Dream as the concept of pursuing material wealth and romance. Kuehl (in Bloom 18) summarizes it as “the tragedy of a romanticist in a materialistic society.” But the fact that this novel likewise includes the important feature of morality, this piece of literary masterpiece applies to the present-day situations. As a common belief, the American Dream is all about success, wealth, and fame. It is also depicted as getting rich the fastest way possible and that is equated to immigration in the U.S. The American Dream is an all-inclusive phenomenon that people all over the world seeks for its materialization. Further, Canterbery deemed that “the premises of the American Dream associating money with success” (298). People, most especially from underdeveloped and developing countries are constantly on the ultimate quest to be able to accomplish the fulfillment of such dream and the aspiration to step into the ‘land of milk and honey’. With personal reasons and unknown circumstances, such people are driven by their ambitions to live the American Dream – a dream that without their knowledge constructed out of unknown saga.
Initially, the need to deconstruct the idea of American Dream as success is necessary in the novel. The American Dream was originally conceptualized for the purpose of giving every individual the opportunity to acquire material wealth, success, and eventual achievement of their dreams. It is by the means of developing oneself and that people should strive harder in order to be on the top or superior over the others. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was significantly explained and applied. A comprehensive explanation was presented in the novel and brought out possible outcomes on what the American Dream can bring.
The American Dream in The Great Gatsby is represented by the actions, circumstances, philosophy, and characters especially Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald is noted with his outstanding representation of the realities of the American Dream as evident in the key and selected characters of his novel. The rendering of Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Tom Buchanan highlighted how he represents the other side of the irrevocable reality of and frequently unnoticed concept of the American Dream – its thirst for morality and true happiness. Most importantly, the characterization of the American dream was apparent in the adventures of Gatsby. Gatsby clings to the idea that the American Dream is solution to his ultimate search of life’s meaning. Gatsby’s individual and deliberate quest appears to be an extension of the American Dream (Bloom 94). Because in the search and fulfillment of his personal dream, he has no choice but to choose the material acquisition demanded by the American society in which he lived and of which he was a part. For him, “his incorruptible dream” (p.147) is fulfilled by the personal acquisition of all the material things reachable within his grasp. He was blinded by his personal judgments as a “matter of infinite hope” (p.7). Gatsby as well as the American Dream centers on sufficient wealth that can bring back and fix everything – even the ephemeral, illusory qualities of youth and beauty (Canterbery 297). But in reality, Gatsby’s dream exceeds the accepted modes of the American Dream to comprise man’s elemental concepts. The critical evaluation on the factual character and the realities that enslave these individuals of the novel provide the understanding of the claim.
Daisy, on the other hand, was to get her share of the American Dream upon marrying the rich Tom Buchanan. However, the morale of her character was discerned in the real identity of her happiness which is to be with Gatsby despite the luxury she endures. Lastly, Tom Buchanan was the epitome of the popular and definition of the American Dream being really rich and in being able to marry a woman of Daisy’s stature and looks. Yet, all the while, he showed the traits of unhappiness in the midst of the ideal American life of his time. He was never able to find the essence of contentment as well as that of happiness. All his acquisitions and properties were mere answers to the expectations of the society.
Another representation of the American Dream revolves on the concept that that America and its race are superior among others. Aside from the usual interpretation present in the novel, there are also some visible manifestations. “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be — will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved” (p.18). Tom Buchanan, the novel’s antagonist firmly believed that “[us whites] who are the dominant race” (p.18). As a brief segment of the American Dream, the racist view is proliferated. In the realization on the latter parts of the novel, arguments are elicited citing that there is no difference at all. “It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well” (p.118).
Furthermore, American Dream is also signified as the ultimate state of liberty. America, the land of the free, puts particular emphasis on the concept of liberty. In relation to the American Dream, liberty is a subjugating mechanism to fulfill the quest. Bloom reiterated that the American Dream is a limitless freedom of the sign (142). He stated that:
“The American Dream, like Daisy’s voice, may be confused with money, but it is ultimately an exhilarating kind of liberty which deifies the individual will and erases all its impediments. (142)”
Gatsby’s freedom to choose what decision to take in doing immoral acts in accumulating riches, to bring back what he lost (Daisy), and to struggle for perfection (the fulfillment of his dream) are classic examples.
Gatsby forgot that the American Dream is not only the common belief on the necessity of acquiring material wealth for the sake of living, experiencing, and exhausting the most convenient life possible to mankind. “The truth was that Jay Gatsby…sprang from his Platonic conception of himself (p.95)”. It is not to be alive, to struggle, and to tire out oneself for the sake of a quality or good life worthy of praise and high regard. As critics of the novel always noted, The Great Gatsby gives a mocking criticism of the myth of the American Dream (Bloom 93). The American Dream and Gatsby’s personal dream are as if synonymous and those were the prime reasons why The Great Gatsby offers, in effect, a criticism of the American Dream (Bloom 93). The reality is that American Dream is more than an economic drive and motivation shared by the American people as it recognizes the true value of living the good life. It subtly seeks to identify the importance of morality as the center of quality existence.
Lastly, the American Dream in the novel was “an affirmation of the romantic possibilities of the human imagination and a belief in man’s inherent greatness” (Bloom 94). For Gatsby’s quest is not youth and wealth which are the suggestive goals of the American Dream. Instead, Gatsby’s personal quest centers wholly on his acquisition of the object of his love, Daisy – which is really the quest of the mythic ideal. The great Jay Gatsby, who at a certain point in his life was tricked by destiny in the separation of his ideal true love due to military duties and felt lowest in his existence. Such life experience, however, eventually motivated him to gain the wealth and general respect of the society and of Daisy in particular. His moral drive, to be worthy of the love of the woman he adores, made him fulfill the popular conceptualization and idea of the American Dream. Yet beneath the economic and social success lies the moral and true morality of his character which is to be with Daisy.
Gatsby’s personal philosophy synchronizes with this outlook. However, apart from this common faith, the actual direction that Gatsby’s personal dream took does not follow the pattern of the American Dream. According to Bloom, “Gatsby’s American dream is like a Freudian nightmare, replicating what is repressed, concealing its meanings, and preventing any mechanism for change” (163).
All in all, the story’s depiction of the universal thought of the American Dream was almost unnoticeable. Innate and real pursuance of true happiness of each of the characters in the story claws into the moral significance of the author’s true depiction of the American Dream. Despite the economic and social success of the key characters in the story, the real American Dream for each of them is clear in the real objectives of plotting their lives the American way to achieve real source of their respective happiness. Such claim is slightly buried in the literal and popular connotation of the concept of the American Dream which further textual reading will most interest the readers.
Personally, the belief that wealth is good in the eyes of God and people who are able to attain a prosperous life is blessed and in conformity to the praise of God was claimed as the root of the great economic stability enjoyed up to this date by the Americans. The concept of the American Dream varies from one perspective to the other. Although, the general idea is evident differences are bound to be observed. These differences sprang form the multitude of objectives by individuals as well as the variety of moral values and motivations embodied by every individual.
In The Great Gatsby one of the finest values of Western culture, the American Dream, has lost its meaning (Gross and Gross 9). It is still essential to consider that the American Dream is felt within the author’s self (Troy cited in Bloom 10). Fitzgerald both recreates ‘the American dream’, the dream of an innocent, pastoral America created by man’s capacity for wonder, and sees it as a nostalgic desire for that which time itself defeats (Bradbury cited in Bloom 53). Fitzgerald’s final sentence in The Great Gatsby is borne back into its own past (Layng 95).
In conclusion, the representations of the quest and the reality of the American Dream are pursued through the integration of personal judgment and freedom. It is still great to consider that the ultimate quest of the American Dream should be directed to realization of its true meaning – success. It should be a driving force that will push people to do something to improve their situation financially or socially. This driving force is founded on the personal or the dreamers’ motivations, philosophies, and moral values.
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