Roy Flores P5 Dream or Nightmare?

What exactly is the American Dream? Although each individual is sure to have their own variation of what that dream is, it is easy to agree that it be condensed to the pursuit of happiness. It is this pursuit that has kept aspirations alive and ultimately coined this widely used term. So therefore, the question to ask is, what determines happiness? Generally in the past it could have been defined as the satisfaction of knowing that you have risen above your initial circumstances and have achieved something greater. But during the last century, the materialistic vision of the American Dream has overcome the intellectual one due to hype and propaganda of living a luxurious life. The story of Jay Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is the ideal personification of this occurrence. He is so eager to obtain Daisy that he fails to realize that no amount of money can ever substitute or even less create happiness which in his case would be to have Daisy. Traditionally, the American Dream has represented the social ideology in which the United States was founded on. These values included equality, democracy, and individual freedom and independence. The outcome of these standards is evident in the early years of the nation. People experienced economic opportunities which led to success. Hard work is inevitably involved in the pursuit of this dream, but maybe that is what gives someone the sense of achievement once they do reach their goal. The 1800s were a period filled with instances of dreams being reached such as the

California gold outbreak of 1849 in which several hard working gold miners found instant success. Such is the case that is referred to in The Great Gatsby where settlers such as Gatsbys parents have moved west to make a better life. Real izing his future was not on a farm, he decided to venture off looking for his own dream. As the century went on and even more into the twentieth century, the ideals which represented the American Dream slowly began to deteriorate into ones based less on moral substance and human intellectual, and more on the fake visualization of being rich and having material wealth. This is definitely due in great part to the media, and its huge effect on peoples mentality. When television sets came out, companies and businesses were now able to indoctrinate Americans into living a meaningless life based on apparently glamorous possessions. In reality, these messages from the radio and television were having a negative effect on the goals people had for their lives. This is what occurs to Gatsby except he is not so much influenced by the media, but by the incentive of the possibility of obtaining his dream. This is what ultimately causes Gatsby to try to achieve his dream by gaining wealth. Perhaps the path that Jay Gatsby was following can best be put into context by analyzing the following quote : full of money that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals song in it (Fitzgerald 127). Here Daisys voice is being personified to being full of money which symbolizes the eloquence in her voice when she spoke. This type of shallow observation is the type of things that apparently Gatsby has chosen to seek in his dream women which he thinks is Daisy. Fitzgerald does a good job of explaining Gatsbys situation by writing "what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of

men." It is clear that the American Dream had a great transition from th e 1800s into the 1900s. One can argue that this transition has not been a positive one toward greater enlightenment and prosperity, but it rather has suffered a downfall towards shallow expectations and values. It was caused in part by the media, but as in the case of Jay Gatsby, it was his own extravagant dream that eventually led to his demise. Fitzgerald ending the book by saying Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but thats no mattertomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. So maybe the problem isnt the actual dream itself, but the corruption of that dream which transformed it into a hopeless nightmare.