American Dream: Selfessness or Selfishness - Essay Example

. . because I don't think you should be guaranteed anything other than opportunity’.In my view, Gatsby from the ‘The Great Gatsby’ lived an American dream. He went to every extent to meet his loved one and could cross every limit that could bring him closer to his love, Daisy. American dream leads to live life with full enthusiasm, depending upon the opportunity available. McCandless of ‘Into the wild’ was not a follower of American dream. Infact he was against the materialism of American dream and that is the reason why he left the world of materialism and went away from human intimacy.

So Gatsby is the one who lived American dream. As it is assumed by reading the novel that the career of Gatsby is kind of mysterious. Although he was born to a rich person, his wealth came in inheritance as well as Wolfshiem. So his notorious reputation explains the fact that he believed in pursuing his goals by any and every possible way. Gatsby threw weekend parties every week in this hope that Daisy will visit it. As the observer of the novel, Nick said ‘I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited.

People were not invited - they went there’ (chap 3, page 41) There are other instances in the novel which tell that after loving Daisy, Gatsby had forgotten himself and his other goals. The meaning of life and happiness changed for him. ‘[Gatsby] wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was.

’ (Chap 6, page 111-112) His life lost the idea of his own identity and he started living for achieving his love. In pursuit of single dream, he passed a good part of his life. ‘Gatsby himself didn't believe [her call] would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream (chap 8, page 162) The above quote tells that despite losing all hopes, he still had a ray of light in his mind which would keep him stick to wait for his loved one.

He asked Nick to bring Daisy to his weekend party some day and he was amazed when she came. Daisy also remembered him and their love affair started again. This thing justifies the American dream, which is an ironic phase for living a selfish and individualistic life. A person becomes so much addicted to his own interests that sometimes his other relations do not remain important. For Gatsby, it was not important that Daisy was married. It has been mentioned that the lifestyle of the people living in the Mid-east not materialistic and individualistic.

Everyone had his own social community, extra marital affairs were common and they used to enjoy parties and clubs. They were luxurious people who worked for their own comfort. ‘I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all - Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.’ (Chap 9, page 177) The people who migrated from east also adopted the lifestyle of Middle West people.

In other words, Gatsby was already an American dream follower and his suburbs had made him more focused towards his goal. Although it is said in the