Those who try their hardest to achieve the American Dream, are the ones who end up failing. In the 1920s, the American Dream is what most people wanted to achieve. Their goal was to be very high up in the social class and become very wealthy. In The Great Gatsby, as a character reaches out for their dream something bad and unexpected happens. This in turn ruins their entire dream. This symbolizes the characters when the unexpected happens and ruins their American Dream. One of the main characters, Gatsby, seems to live a wonderful life by having a vast amount of money, but he cannot fully achieve his dream of winning over his love, Daisy. Myrtle gets herself killed by running away from her abusive husband to follow her dream. George’s American Dream is to gain wealth and move out to the west with his wife, Myrtle. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main characters fail when trying to reach out and achieve their American Dream, which suggests the American Dream is unattainable.
Myrtle’s American Dream is to live a better life by leaving her abusive husband, George to be with Tom. She is tired of living in a dump and being poor, so she feels like she wants to move on from George since he can’t provide that life for them. She never tells George about her having an affair with another man. Tom can provide a better life for her since he is wealthy. George finds a pearl necklace on Myrtle, becomes real ticked off, and begins to hit her. “Beat me!’ he heard her cry. ‘Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!” This is what caused the downfall of her American Dream. She then runs out of the house and sees what looks to be Tom’s car coming towards her, so she runs into the road and calls for him. The car, however, did not slow. Daisy was hit and immediately killed. This symbolizes her reaching out and going for her dream, which is to be with Tom, and being killed shows her trying to achieve it, but coming close and failing.
Gatsby appears to everyone that he has achieved the American Dream since he is very wealthy and has a nice mansion, but in all reality he never does accomplish his dream. His dream was to win over his love, Daisy, and he fails at that goal. Gatsby has always worked hard as a kid and he had always wanted to accomplish the American Dream. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”. This symbolizes that he was so close to that green light which represents his dream but fell just short and failed at winning over Daisy. That’s all he ever wanted to do. To try to win her over, he try’s to improve himself and others to help the world. When he first meets Daisy, he’s in the military and doesn’t have much money and time for Daisy. This makes him determined to win over Daisy after the military. Unfortunately for him, Daisy still believes that she can’t be with him now even after how successful he has become. She feels Gatsby has become to attached to her and thinks it would be best for her to stay with her douchebag and rich husband, Tom. “Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom”. This hurts Gatsby and which ultimately helps him end up getting killed. He knew that he had failed his main goal and this lead to his murder by George.
George appears to be living the complete opposite of the American Dream since he lives in the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes is described as being a very dark and gloomy place a where the poor and unsuccessful people live. George lives there with his wife, Myrtle, in which he is abusive to her. George suspects Myrtle is having an affair with someone behind his back. He makes his money through a gas station that he owns. George’s American Dream is to leave this dump and go somewhere nice and be more successful. He wants his wife to live a better life, and he wants to make that happen for her and himself. “I’ve been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go west”. Unfortunately for him, George doesn’t accomplish his dream. When he discovers a pearl necklace on Myrtle, he begins to hit her and she runs away. She sees a car thinking it’s Tom and calls for help but instead she is ran over and killed. This is what really spiked George’s dream from becoming reality. He then becomes devastated and feels his life is over so he wants to take it out on Gatsby. He believes Gatsby is the cause of Myrtle’s death. George goes to Gatsby’s house, shoots, and kills him in his pool. Knowing everything is over for George, he kills himself. This was the downfall of ever accomplishing his American Dream once Myrtle died.
In The Great Gatsby, the characters fail at reaching their goal which suggests the American Dream is unattainable. Gatsby seems to have the perfect life to everyone, but in all reality, he doesn’t have what he’s always wanted. George lives a very dull and gloomy life in the Valley of Ashes, but he still had plans of one day being successful: however, his decisions do not help him achieve his American Dream. Myrtle wants to live a better life with a wealthier man so she goes out for her dream, but that just ends up getting her killed. All three of these characters are alike. Each character was killed as they were close to obtaining their dream. No matter who you are or what life you live, it is impossible to obtain the American Dream no matter how hard you try or work at that goal.
