Running head: THE AMERICAN DREAM REALITY

The Reality of the American Dream Shaelyn Gleave English 1010 April 9, 2013

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The Reality of the American Dream In todays news we have been hearing about the one percent in America. What it boils down to is that, one percent of the population controls ninety-nine percent of our nations money. Making it the most exclusive club in America and comprising the social class elite. To join and rise to the level of this social class, a person needs to generate a minimum income of $569,944 per year. Money is the determining factor in excelling oneself into a higher social class, which for many is the American dream and even though the American dream is an ideal that is constantly evolving, its roots are always connected to wealth and class. The American dream is heavily sought after and desired, but people striving for this dream often times come to realize its harsh reality. The accepted character of beliefs of the United States is a set of principles that allows all people the same opportunity of success and chance to move upward into higher social classes. This is the accepted simple definition of the American dream but by using Gatsby as his vehicle, Fitzgerald was able to draw back the curtain and see the actual character that drives this accepted mentality. Fitzgeralds ability to see both sides of the coin and see that one side is beautiful and inspiring while the other side is ugly and disheartening. Fitzgerald used style, language and created characters that contradicted and brought light to the reality of the American dream. Fitzgerald drives this point with the use of his style and language throughout the novel. Kimberly Hearne points out some of these contradictions in Fitzgeralds Rendering of a Dream looking at passages that Fitzgerald used throughout the novel. Mr. McKee asleep on the chair in Myrtle and Toms apartment looking like a photograph of a man of action (Fitzgerald, 1925), as well as through the strained counterfeit of perfect ease (Fitzgerald, 1925) that Gatsby

AMERICAN DREAM REALITY displays when meeting Daisy after a five year separation (Hearne, 2010). The description of a man using photograph like a still image he sits on the couch but still conveying action as he sleeps. The entire phrase of strained counterfeit of perfect ease (Fitzgerald, 1925) is a great contradiction. The words perfect and counterfeit signify the journey of Gatsbys American dream. To quickly ascend the ladder of social classes, Gatsby discovered that the act of bootlegging as the most direct path to his dream, Daisy. Only after obtaining his wealth and

stature was Gatsby perceived as perfect to people around him. This statement of stained and ease also embodies the thought shared of all people and their journey towards the American dream. That the journey of ascent will be straining but once it is obtained, a persons life will become simplistic and comfortable. Hearne also cites Nicks depiction of Tom and Daisy as two old friends whom [he] scarcely knew at all (Fitzgerald, 1925). We hold unity in the highest esteem, but we are divided by our ambitions and we are willing to oppress others to achieve our individual goals (Hearne, 2010). Americans hold up many values, but none higher than selfambition. This is the ugly side of the American dream, by creating so much value in social class striving individuals will abolish all those who stand in their way. Through these statements made by the characters in the book we can see the style and language contradictions used by Fitzgerald in the novel, but even the characters created by Fitzgerald oppose each other and represent certain populations within social classes. Characters used in The Great Gatsby are symbols of certain individuals of social class and order and how they oppose each other. Jay Gatsby is a young, self-made man who has risen in social class from a poor farmer in North Dakota to a wealthy business man. Driven by his love for Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby through illegal business ventures acquired his wealth. Gatsby is a symbol of new-money and a poster boy of the American dream. Today many people treat the

AMERICAN DREAM REALITY American dream less like an ideal and more like a religion and like religion it should be thought of in the highest rank and never questioned. Roger L. Pearson writes about this in Gatsby: False

Prophet of the American Dream, stating Gatsby has come to espouse the gospel of the corrupted American dream. His existence is founded on a lie, a delusion, and terms this monstrous lie as Gods truth (Pearson, 1970). On the opposite side of the spectrum there is Tom Buchanan, his family were enormously wealthyeven in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproachbut now hed left Chicago and come east in fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance hed brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that (Fitzgerald, 1925). Husband to Daisy, Tom comes from money he has inherited a fortune from his family. He is arrogant and believes heavily in the morality within the social classes. Although he is very expressive in his opinion of morals, Tom sees no problem in cheating on his wife with Myrtle Wilson. In the article, Deceitful Traces of Power: An Analysis of the Decadence of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby state the nature of a person who comes from money. Using Nicks description of Toms vast wealth in college and has since grown to even greater heights Carraway furnishes the reader with essential information by mentioning the source of Buchanans income as well as his spending habits. Thus, enormous inheritance renders him the diametrical opposite of the self-made man (Lena, 1998). Tom and Gatsby offer another look into social classes and the hidden truth that these two characters will never be equals. Gatsby has escalated in class and acquired great wealth but the weight of Toms money is somehow perceived as having greater power and being superior. The eponymous central character embodies the stereotype of the self-made man who has risen from nowhere, Buchanan represents the type of millionaire that is anchored in a solid tradition of socially acceptable (because

AMERICAN DREAM REALITY inherited) wealth, and the power derived from it (Lena, 1998). The only connection linking these two men is their love for Daisy, Toms wife. Gatsby has acquired his wealth to win Daisy over and take her away from Tom, but Gatsby fails in his attempt. Even though Gatsbys intentions were well in nature and Tom mistreats his wife and treats women like possessions he will never have to answer for his wrong doings. In an article titled Possessions in The Great Gatsby by Scott Donaldson, Donaldson writes about the fight for Daisy, even discounting how much there is of it, Toms old money

has a power beyond any that Gatsby can command. His wealth and background win the battle for Daisy, despite his habitual infidelitiesan outcome that seems grossly unfair and morally wrong, another point that Fitzgerald is making is that if you have enough money and position you can purchase immunity from punishment (Donaldson, 2001). Gatsby received this type of treatment, after breaking the speed limit. He was released after showing the officer a card from the commissioner. The card worked as a get out of jail free card for providing the commissioner with a favor. Gatsby had accrued so much power from his money that laws no longer applied to him. We see this even today that the higher you climb in the social class the more freedoms and gifts you receive. Money and social class are power. People gravitate towards it, an example of this is Fitzgeralds character Myrtle Wilson who wants these gifts, freedoms and admiration just as Jay did as a young man. Gatsby is not the only character in the novel who dreams of a life in a higher class, Myrtle Wilson wants to rise from the Valley of Ash, just as Jay did from the farms of North Dakota. Myrtle is Toms mistress, she balances her time between the low social class in the Valley of Ash and the upper class of Toms apartment on West 158th Street. She is obsessed with the thought of rising in class and buys gossip magazines to keep up with what is going on in the

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social elite. She craves to be a part of what she is reading, She aims for extravagance, but has no experience with it (Donaldson 2001). While at Toms apartment she changes her dress three times and when complimented on one of them she plays it off as a lounging garment for inside the apartment. Inside the apartment she becomes another person, a person of high social class. She revels around the apartment and even changes the level of her voice and laughter into a higher pitch. She is trying to immolate the people she reads about and even starts to mimic the one person she knows from the upper class, Tom. In the apartment she starts to share Toms ideals about the lower classes. This is evident when she is upset over the elevator attendant being slow to bring up the ice, these people! She declares. You need to keep after them all the time. Tom is quick to bring Myrtle down back to earth and remind her that she is a possession, much like a dog. Among Myrtles purchases, the dog of indeterminate breeding best symbolizes her own situation. She is, for Tom, a possession to be played with, fondled, and in due course ignored (Donaldson 2001). Much like the dog the Tom buys Myrtle on the street, she is nothing more than a mutt, not of blue collar blood like the other woman in Toms life, Daisy. Tom was not unusual in regarding women as objects to be possessedeither temporarily, as in this case, or permanently, if like Daisy they warrant such maintenance through their beauty, background and way of presenting themselves to the world (Donaldson 2001). Her positions in the social classes make her an easy target for someone like Tom. For Tom its easy to travel down the social class and provide someone with a small taste of high class society. Unlike Jay, Myrtle has failed to do one thing that Gatsby knew he needed to do, reinvent himself, by creating a new name, background and money. Jay was able to reach the playing field to win over his beloved Daisy, but it was no match for Tom. The limitations of this background finally make it impossible for him to win the

AMERICAN DREAM REALITY enduring love of Daisy Fay Buchanan. Jay, like Myrtle, is guilty of a crucial error in judgment. They are alike unwilling or unable to comprehend that it is not money alone that matters, but money combined with secure social position (Donaldson 2001). To come to a summary of this character by using a quote by Scott Fitzgerald, he speaks of women around Myrtles age the faces of most American women over thirty are relief maps of petulant and bewildered unhappiness. Just as Tom and Jay are opposites of each other in the novel, so are Myrtle and Daisy. Daisy represents the most desirable object of all (Donaldson 2001). James M. Mellard author of Counterpoint as Technique in The Great Gatsby, writes Myrtle Wilson is seen in wholly

physical, dynamic terms, while, on the other, Daisy is seen only in metaphysical and static terms (Mellard, 1996). Everything about Daisy screams social class elite, Gatsby even mentions that her voice is filled with money. There are a lot of descriptions of her voice in the novel. Fitzgerald describes these characters in ways to support this idea using phrases that support Myrtle as an earthly creature and Daisy as something not of this world, stating that immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering (Fitzgerald, 1925). Now compare that to how, Fitzgerald describes Daisy, sad and lonely face, bright eyes and bright passionate mouth are attractive to men, but it is the singing compulsion of her voice that holds the promise that she had done gay, and exciting things just a while since and that were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour (Fitzgerald, 1925). Fitzgerald is quick to show the later side of the mystique that surrounds Daisy. He shows that she is not perfect, but weak, dependent, and shallow. The real Daisy and Tom Buchanan can be seen near the end of the book as Nick describes them as careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smash up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness,

AMERICAN DREAM REALITY or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made (Fitzgerald,1925). This is the realization that when people reach a certain level in social class they expect to be taken care of by the people beneath them. People like Tom and Daisy who have grown up in wealthy families, feel like they are entitled to special treatment that bears no consequences. We can see the ugly truth that accompanies the American dream. Fitzgerald contradicts this idea by using style, tone and phrases that work against each other, which is just like the perceptions and realities of the American dream. He also creates characters that oppose each other in a way to show the differences in behavior as it relates to wealth. This allows us to open our eyes and see the harsh reality of the American dream. People are never going to stop trying to ascend the social ladder, but people need to do so ethically. They attack it with a bulldozing

mentality and dont care what they destroy along the way to the top. This criticism will end with a quote that best represents the American dream by Scott Fitzgerald, that truly embodies the truth and beauty of the American dream life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of the struggle(Fitzgerald, 1925).

AMERICAN DREAM REALITY References Audhuy, L. (1980). The Waste Land Myth and Symbols in The Great Gatsby, in Bloom. F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby. Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1986. Dawson, C. (Jan. 18, 2008). The American Dream and the Great Gatsby. Humanities 360. Retrieved from http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/the-american-dream-and-thegreat-gatsby-3-59542/ Donaldson, S. (2001). Possessions in The Great Gatsby. Southern Review, 37(2), 187.

Received from http://firewalkwithme.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Great+Gatsby+2.pdf Fitzgerald, S. (1925). The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon & Schuster. Hearne. K. (2010). Fitzgeralds Rendering of a Dream. The Explicator. Received from http://www.holmdelschools.org/faculty/sdante/attachments/eng%202/gatsby_dream_souc e3.pdf Lena, A. (1998) Deceitful traces of power: An analysis of the decadence of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Canadian Review Of American Studies 28(1). Retrieved from http://www.synergiescanada.org/journals/utp/120776/x206465l5723/qt75q32611v18380 Mellard, J. (1996, Oct.,). Counterpoint as Technique in The Great Gatsby. The English Journal, Vol. 55, No 7. Pp 853-859. Retrieved from http://www.stjoe.k12.in.us/ourpages/auto/2014/2/19/43844035/Gatsby%20Counterpoint %20as%20Technique.pdf Pearson, L. (1970, May). Gatsby: False Prophet of the American http://firewalkwithme.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Great+Gatsby+2.pdf. The English Journal, Vol. 59, No. 5. Pp 638-642+645. Retrieved from http://mmagsig11.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/gatsby-false-prophet1.pdf

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Smiljaic, S. (2011, April). The American Dream in the Great Gatsby. Academia.edu. Received from http://www.academia.edu/3071602/The_American_dream_in_The_Great_Gatsby Will, B. (2005). The Great Gatsby and The Obscene Word. College Literature, 32(4), 125-144. Received from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lit/summary/v032/32.4will.html