Is The American Dream Real?

Both Gatsby and Nick represent very popular versions of the American Dream seen in today’s society. Gatsby’s “up from the bootstraps” self-made idea is something looked highly upon in today’s society. For example, many people online who have made a name for themselves are people who came from small town, middle class families, and have been able to be very successful in their lives. These public figures are looked up to by millions of people who aspire to be like them. Many of these individuals speak to people all across America about how they were able to gain all of their success through hard work and determination; thus, inspiring the youth to try to follow in their footsteps. On the other hand, Nick’s idea of the American Dream has been a very popular goal for many Americans for a long period of time. His goals of having a family, having many close friends, and creating many family memories from holidays is something so many people have implanted in their brains about what you should strive for living in America. The Great Gatsby speaks to the American Dream because Gatsby is chasing a romanticized idea of wealth in order to succeed, whereas Nick is chasing a polar opposite idea of small world success.

Gatsby’s idea of the American Dream entails working your way up from nothing to someone who has accomplished a great deal of success. Gatsby’s family was in the middle class as he was growing up, and he decided at a very young age that he wanted to make more of himself than what he was given in life. This feeling is something so many people can relate to, which makes sense because it is human nature to want to be the best version of yourself, especially in the eyes of other people around you. Gatsby enveloped this idea completely, and readers are shown this in the very last paragraph of the book, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster… And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180). Readers can infer that what Gatsby believed in the American Dream, but that when he got what he had been working towards his whole life, he realized that he never got the one thing he truly wanted, the green light, Daisy. He was never really happy with his life but he put up this facade of his idea of the American Dream for so long that it became his normal. This is somewhat ironic because he was striving for this image in the first place so that he could be happier with his life. Gatsby’s entire vision of his life revolved around trying to reach the green light, which he came so close to, yet remained so far from reaching. This idea of the American Dream is popular, yet most people that actually achieve it find themselves lost and unhappy.

The other idea we see in displayed in The Great Gatsby is Nick’s very opposite version of the American Dream. This idea is more popular with the majority of the population because it is more attainable. Nick’s idea is based around wanting a family, having many close friends and making endless memories that will last his lifetime. This version is seems quite simple, yet so many people can not actually accomplish it. As time goes on this idea is becoming less and less popular, but it is still a widely accepted version of the American Dream. Nick grew up in the Midwest and his idea of the American Dream was influenced by how he grew up and what he was exposed to as a child. “That’s my Middle West – not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family’s name” (Fitzgerald 187-188). Nick upbringing is very similar to his ideas about how life should be. He grew up in a small midwestern town and was very close to his family and had a tight knit community to lean on. This is very much opposite to Gatsby’s ideas of how one should strive to live their lives.

Nick’s version of the American dream is something much more attainable for the average American in today’s society, whereas for the majority of the population, Gatsby’s idea is more of a dream of what they want their lives to be like, but either do not want to put in the work to get there, or have not been given the resources to get there.