The Failure of Jay Gatsbys American Dream - Research Paper Example

The Failure of Jay Gatsby’s American Dream in the Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby is the fictional main character in the novel, The Great Gatsby, who is struggling to live up to the American dream of joining the higher society, but the whole attempts prove to be an illusion, when he finally fails to realize his dream. The Great Gatsby is a story of a self-made young man, who is infuriated by the state of poverty he was living in, trying to support himself as a janitor in his college life, only to decide to leave college and join a mentor who introduces him to the ways of the rich, until his death. His need for money had become so great that he "was in the drug business" (Fitzgerald 95). Therefore, the failure of Jay Gatsby’s American Dream in The Great Gatsby, occurs in the form of a transformed personality, from the initial humane young man to a corrupt individual who fights his way up the wealth ladder ruthlessly, to the extent that this pursuit completely corrupts his moral values, in that his "enormously wealthy" state, seems to have made him lose all sense of being kind (Fitzgerald 10). Jay Gatsby had achieved success in the initial stages of pursuing the American dream. However, the successes achieved did not amount to any happiness, rather creating a platform for more greed and hunger for wealth and status, thus grants Jay neither fulfillment nor joy, but only creates more problems for him (Callahan, 369). His is involved in a mixed line of pursuits, marred by love, material wealth and higher society entitlement. At some instances it can be argued that he loves Daisy, since He values her more than his possessions. At one time “He stared around at his possessions... in her actual and astounding presence, none of it was any longer real” (Allen, 289). In other instances it can be argued that he wanted her just to make her happy, as observed where he looks at her, “In a way that every young girl wants to be looked at” (Bevilacqua, 45). The first instance of the failure of Jay Gatsby’s American Dream is where he becomes a perpetual party host, always throwing parties without even specified invited guests, just to see whether Daisy can attend the party, since he has been in love with her for a long time, starting the days he was poor and penniless (Allen, 272). He therefore misuses his wealth to attract the attention of Daisy, who does not appear to be enticed by the parties that are thrown so frequently by Gatsby. While he had worked towards accumulating wealth for himself; a long standing desire that he had since he left his poor family, the dream of having Daisy proves to be an illusion, making him misuse most of his resources in pursuit of her. The pursuit for Daisy ends-up creating a confrontation between Gatsby and daisy’s husband, when Daisy "had told [Gatsby] that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw” (Fitzgerald 125), during a visit to New York with some of their friends. In the confrontation that ensued, Gatsby requested Daisy to declare her love for him, while denying that she had ever loved Tom, something that Daisy avoided. According to Gatsby, “She should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you” (Callahan, 371). While Gatsby dream was that; with such immense wealth that he had accumulated through criminal activities, it could be easier to lure Daisy to love her and despise Tom, it certainly does not seem to happen, or at least seem to be taking too long, something that turns the once so real dream into an illusion (Marsh, 7). This can be seen from the statement; “[Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock....his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him]” (Giannetti, 13). The other instance of The Failure of Jay Gatsby’s American Dream in The Great Gatsby, occurs where the wealth that Jay Gatsby had accumulated gave him more problems and eventually led to his death, making him fail to enjoy the wealth that he had desired and accumulated with much effort. Daisy had completely become a thorn in Gatsby’s fresh, since he had made all attempts to win her over but to no avail. After the confrontation that Gatsby had with Tom, he takes off from the scene of confrontation with Daisy driving his car. On the way, they happened to find Myrtle near Wilson’s garage, where she runs into the road and is struck by the car and killed. After the incidence, and against Gatsby’s expectation, Daisy reconciled with Tom, and they hurriedly left the neighborhood, only to have Tom claim that Gatsby is the one who was driving when Myrtle was hit by the car and killed. This makes Wilson believe that it was Gatsby who was having an affair with Myrtle, who was his wife; and thus plans to take a revenge on Gatsby by killing him (Allen, 255). The revenge ends with Wilson shooting Gatsby and later himself, bringing an end to the life of the three; Gatsby, Wilson and Myrtle. Therefore, the dream of Gatsby to enjoy his ill gotten wealth, while also applying it to win the woman that he had fallen in love with, despite her being married, did not come to realization. The end of the dream was so drastic and unexpected, since Gatsby was killed for a mistake that was not his. It was not him who had knocked Myrtle down and killed her, but Daisy. But for the love that he had for daisy, he had agreed to take the responsibility for the action, despite the dire consequences he could face. His love for Daisy was real, such that he “read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy’s name” (Bevilacqua, 52). Nevertheless, the dream that he will once win Daisy over, and share happiness and the wealth that he had with her, did not come to fruition, because he was killed way too long, before the dream could be realized. The dream of enjoying a happy life with Daisy remained a mere illusion to the end. Thus, “[There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.]”. The Failure of Jay Gatsby’s American Dream is also identifiable in the instance where Gatsby is travelling together with Nick to New York to have lunch, where Gatsby gives a false account of his past life and his origin, claiming to be a son of a wealthy family from a Midwestern city, only to have Nick later discover "his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104. This false account is meant to hide his poor backgrounds, since he is now associated with the high and the mighty in the American society, thus shies away from associating himself with a poor background. He goes on to claim that he had been educated at Oxford, yet he had dropped out of college in pursuit of wealth ad status (Mitgang, 75). This is a clear indication that his dream of becoming a well educated individual in the society had turned out to be an illusion, and could no longer be achieved. While taking lunch in New York, Gatsby introduces Nick to his business associate Meyer Wolfshiem, whom he terms as the one responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series (Allen, 284). Nick observes that Gatsby is never settled, since he is "never quite still; there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand" (Fitzgerald 68). It later emerges that Meyer Wolfshiem was a master of the underground business, which made it apparent that it was the same thing that Gatsby was involved in, and thus it was the source of his wealth. This serves to indicate that dream of Gatsby of becoming a wealthy individual with a legitimate business and profession was not achieved, rather turning him into an underground business operator, just to earn the wealth and status that he had desired since his childhood. “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (Mitgang, 76). This indicates the failure of Jay Gatsby’s American Dream. Works Cited Allen, William Rodney. "Allusions to the Great Gatsby." Studies in Short Fiction 26.3 (1989): 240-289. Print. Bevilacqua, Winifred Farrant. "…In Ecstatic Cahoots": Nick's Authoring Of Gatsby." Atlantis (0210-6124) 32.1 (2010): 45-56. Callahan, John F. "F. Scott Fitzgerald's Evolving American Dream: The `Pursuit Of Happiness' In Gatsby, Tender Is...” Twentieth Century Literature 42.3 (1996): 368-374. Print. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. London: Urban Romantics, 2012. Print. Giannetti, Louis. "The Gatsby Flap." Literature Film Quarterly 3.1 (1975): 13. Print. Marsh, Joss Lutz. "Fitzgerald, Gatsby, And The Last Tycoon: The `American Dream' And The Hollywood Dream Factory." Literature Film Quarterly 20.1 (1992): 3-10. Print. Mitgang, Herbert. "Jay Gatsby Meets The Russians." Nation 243.3 (1986): 75-76. Print. Read More