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The American dream in 1775 was to be truly independent from GB. So the people could have freedom. So they people wouldn't be controlled by a tyrant. To have fair/just laws and taxation.

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the American dream in the late 1700s was to be free from the parliament in Britain. And grow defensive and independent nation "There is not retreat but in submission and slavery!  Our chains are forged!  Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!  The war is inevitable—and let it come!  I repeat it, sir, let it come!"
This part of the speech shows the motivation and how dedicated they were for their freedom. -Massimo Liberatore.

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The American Dream in this era was to gain independence from Britain, and live their lives freely. Some may have opposed, but this was what most Americans wanted. The Declaration of Independence is what really marked independence, but the struggle to get there was very important too. Leaders among them were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. The Dream can be summarized in the phrase, "Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness."

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The history of the American Dream can be traced back to 17th century, when the puritans came to the America and tried to gain their religious freedom. In 1630, a speech known as the "city upon a hill" sermon was delivered by John Winthrop to the other puritan settlers who traveled with him to Massachusetts (Kiger, The Origins). It is ture that he didn't describe his belief as a "dream", he still talked about an ideal nation that gives all the people with equal opportunities to become successful through using their greatest efforts (Kiger, The Origins).

As time moved forward, the American Dream slowly changed inside the minds of North American people. During the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers of America believed that the American Dream should be described as a natural right that everyone should have ( Kiger, The Origins). So in 1776, Thomas Jefferson and other authors of The Declaration of Independence defined the American Dream as "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" (Jefferson).

In the 20th century, the thriving economy in this new country strengthened the impacts of the American Dream on people's minds. Both Americans and other foreigners started to view the United States as "a land of unparalleled opportunity" (Kiger, The Origin). Since this country was so young and free, people were able to discover millions of business ideas and ways to bring them into a higher level. No matter what people did, it was highly possible for them to work hard and to achieve the success both financially and socially. Thus, after traveling in the United States in the early 1800s, Alexis De Tocqueville, a French writer, named this American spirit as "the charm of anticipated success" (Tocqueville). Those economic opportunities in this country significantly elevated the morale of the Americans and made them to believe that they can accomplish everything and be successful be working hard. Henry David Thoreau, a great American thinker and writer described the economic opportunities and the American belief in Walden: "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours" (Thoreau). From Thoreau's words, we can learn that the idea of American Dream became really well-supported and prevalent in this new nation, although the words "American Dream" was not invented yet.

During the mid- to late-1800s, the American news and literature began to use "the American Dream" extensively (Kiger, the Origin). These two words were usually related to the ambitious Americans who moved to the West and the Europeans who came to the United States to look for better living conditions (Kiger, The Origin). Before early 1900s, the American Dream also widely used to describe the promotion of people's social classes and the idea of becoming wealthy (Kiger, The Origin). In 1931, Adams published his Epic of America, and the American Dream continued to thrive in the early 1900s

However, the "Great Depression" crashed the American Dream during early 1930s by taking away Americans' wealth and making them homeless (Kiger, The Evolution). Many American people were thrown out off their homes and could only making living by begging (Kiger, The Evolution). With such a pessimistic economic situation, the American people couldn't regain their American Dream until Franklin D. Roosevelt became in charge and tried to save the country through the New Deal (Kiger, The Evolution). He believed that the American Dream could be saved with the support of the government and the increase of the job opportunities (Kiger, The Evolution). With the increase of working population, the American economy started to recover from the crisis, and the American Dream and did. Besides high employment rate, Franklin D. Roosevelt also tried to save the American economy and to improve people's lives by passing 1934 National Housing Act, which increased the building of houses (American RadioWorks ). As a result, owning a house later also became an essential part of the modern American Dream (American RadioWorks ).

After World War II, the American Dream fully recovered, because the United States became the strongest and the most flourishing nation in the world. According to a website of American Public Media, "By 1960, roughly 60 percent of Americans owned homes, double the percentage in the 1930s. Unemployment was low and the economy was booming. The United States had a lot to look forward to in its material future" (American RadioWorks). Although the American population was merely 6 percent of the total population of the world, they utilized one-third of the all the resources and products on the Earth (Kiger, The Evolution). People had no worries with their futures and were convinced that their diligence would bring them more wealth and happiness (Kiger, The Evolution). With the booming economy, the American Dream was also exuberant and undoubted in people's minds (Kiger,The Evolution). So, the typical American Dream in the 1960s was usually described as money, employment, a happy family, and a decent house with the stereotypical "white picket fences" (American Dream).

Unfortunately, the American Dream was harmed once again in the 1970s, when the United States was troubled by the prolonged Vietnam War and the massive debt generated by the war (American RadioWorks ). In 1971, the oil embargo passed by the OPEC hugely rose the cost of gas in the United States (American RadioWorks). Besides those two problems, the continuous inflation also caused panics in the society and eventually reached the greatest peacetime inflation ratio in 1979 (American RadioWorks). To appease the dejected American people, President Jimmy Carter asked the American people to choose a less lavish life style, but it was hard for his people to accept this (American RadioWorks). The American Dream suffered because people desired too much and were not able to live without overflowing goods.

The economic issues, such as debts and inflation, continued to bother American people and to destroy their trusts towards the American Dream (American RadioWorks ). People started to blame the government for all those troubles and called for solutions (American RadioWorks). In the 1981 Inaugural Address, President Reagan admitted that government really harmed the interests of people and the American Dream (American RadioWorks ). In the speech, he said, "We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed" (C-SPAN). To save the American Dream, President Reagan decided to lowering the taxes on people (Kiger, Will). However, the growth of people's wealth was still behind the inflation rate (Kiger, Will). Furthermore, the incomes of the upper class also became much higher than the normal middle class people (Kiger, Will). As a result, the confidence of the middle class people, the traditional believers of the American Dream, was constantly lowered.

In 1990s, the definition of the American Dream changed again, because the government tried to increase the purchase of real estate (American RadioWorks). People believed that buying houses was the best method to keep the value of their money, and the ownership of houses became the new element added to the original American Dream. It is pretty obvious that people were desperate when they faced the inflation, and investing money into buying houses was the one of the only solutions to maintain their indulgent life styles. However, the "Great Recession" in 2009 caused enormous troubles to banks and greatly dropped the stock prices (American Radioworks). Thus, the Americans who bet their money on both real estate and financial sectors lost terribly, and morale of the country was once again put at the bottom (American Radioworks). At the same time, the belief of the American Dream was also questioned and discussed by people. Does the American Dream still exist? How to revive the American Dream? Those questions has evoked so many discussions, and people are still looking for a way to this American spirit.

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The history of the American Dream can be traced back to 17th century, when the puritans came to the America and tried to gain their religious freedom. In 1630, a speech known as the "city upon a...

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During the civil war era people see the "american dream" as different. Slaves point of view of the "american dream" is to be free and considered equal as white people.

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Excerpt from Up from Slavery | Penguin Random House Canada

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Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time

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The American dream in the 1800s and early 1900s was to be given freedom and to being an educated person. Freedom meant being free and a sense of individualism. Booker T. Washington was born a slave so life for him wasn't easy. The Tuskegee Institute was planned, built, and directed by Washington. In the United States, it is a powerhouse of Afro-American education and political influence.

Tina Nguyen

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Excerpt from Up from Slavery | Penguin Random House Canada

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Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time

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The early 20th century was a time of expansion for both businesses and progressivism.  The gilded age, an era of rapid economic growth, ended right before the 20th century.  It resulted in the exploitation of the working class.  The 20th century was filled with reform of the gilded age.  For example, the Sherman Antitrust Act was utilized for the first time in 1901 under former President Theodore Roosevelt.  The American dream was still to work, become wealthy and join the upper class but it had aspects of progressivism in it.  Such as, better working conditions, a higher standard of living, and the conservation of resources.

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The early 20th century was an era of business expansion and progressive reform in the United States. The progressives, as they called themselves, worked to make American society a better and safer place in which to live. They tried to make big business more responsible through regulations of various kinds. They worked to clean up corrupt city governments, to improve working conditions in factories, and to better living conditions for those who lived in slum areas, a large number of whom were recent immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Many progressives were also concerned with the environment and conservation of resources.

Suffragettes - Mrs. Alice Burke and Nell Richardson in the suffrage automobile "Golden Flyer" in which they will drive from New York to San Francisco. April 7, 1916. Bain Collection

This generation of Americans also hoped to make the world a more democratic place. At home, this meant expanding the right to vote to women and a number of election reforms such as the recall, referendum, and direct election of Senators. Abroad, it meant trying to make the world safe for democracy. In 1917, the United States joined Great Britain and France--two democratic nations--in their war against autocratic Germany and Austria-Hungary. Soon after the Great War, the majority of Americans turned away from concern about foreign affairs, adopting an attitude of live and let live.

The 1920s, also known as the "roaring twenties" and as "the new era," were similar to the Progressive Era in that America continued its economic growth and prosperity. The incomes of working people increased along with those of middle class and wealthier Americans. The major growth industry was automobile manufacturing. Americans fell in love with the automobile, which radically changed their way of life. On the other hand, the 1920s saw the decline of many reform activities that had been so widespread after 1900.

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Overview | Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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The early 20th century was an era of business expansion and progressive reform in the United States.

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The American dream of the 1900s was merely an ideology, it was not a dream of fast cars and big houses that it was envisioning of social order as race, birth or money does not affect human status.

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During the 1920s, the perception of the American Dream was that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if they only work hard enough. The Great Gatsby's meditation on The American Dream—the idea that people are always reaching towards something greater than themselves that is just out of reach.As Fitzgerald saw it, the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. Gatsby's dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object—money and pleasure.The 1920s in particular was a pretty tumultuous time due to increased immigration, changing women's roles, and extraordinary income inequality.

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The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface, but it's most commonly understood as a pessimistic critique of the American Dream. In the novel, Jay Gatsby overcomes his poor past to gain an incredible amount of money and a limited amount of social cache in 1920s NYC, only to be rejected by the "old money" crowd. He then gets killed after being tangled up with them.

Through Gatsby's life, as well as that of the Wilsons', Fitzgerald critiques the idea that America is a meritocracy where anyone can rise to the top with enough hard work. We will explore how this theme plays out in the plot, briefly analyze some key quotes about it, as well as do some character analysis and broader analysis of topics surrounding the American Dream in The Great Gatsby.

Roadmap

1. What is the American Dream?

2. The American Dream in the Great Gatsby plot

3. Key American Dream quotes

4. Analyzing characters via the American Dream

5. Common discussion and essay topics

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

What Exactly Is "The American Dream"?

The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of race, class, gender, or nationality, can be successful in America (read: rich) if they just work hard enough. The American Dream thus presents a pretty rosy view of American society that ignores problems like systemic racism and misogyny, xenophobia, tax evasion or state tax avoidance, and income inequality. It also presumes a myth of class equality, when the reality is America has a pretty well-developed class hierarchy.

The 1920s in particular was a pretty tumultuous time due to increased immigration (and the accompanying xenophobia), changing women's roles (spurred by the right to vote, which was won in 1919), and extraordinary income inequality. The country was also in the midst of an economic boom, which fueled the belief that anyone could "strike it rich" on Wall Street. However, this rapid economic growth was built on a bubble which popped in 1929. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, well before the crash, but through its wry descriptions of the ultra-wealthy, it seems to somehow predict that the fantastic wealth on display in 1920s New York was just as ephemeral as one of Gatsby's parties.

In any case, the novel, just by being set in the 1920s, is unlikely to present an optimistic view of the American Dream, or at least a version of the dream that's inclusive to all genders, ethnicities, and incomes. With that background in mind, let's jump into the plot!

The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Chapter 1 places us in a particular year - 1922 - and gives us some background about WWI. This is relevant, since the 1920s is presented as a time of hollow decadence among the wealthy, as evidenced especially by the parties in Chapters 2 and 3. And as we mentioned above, the 1920s were a particularly tense time in America.

We also meet George and Myrtle Wilson in Chapter 2, both working class people who are working to improve their lot in life, George through his work, and Myrtle through her affair with Tom Buchanan.

We learn about Gatsby's goal in Chapter 4: to win Daisy back. Despite everything he owns, including fantastic amounts of money and an over-the-top mansion, for Gatsby, Daisy is the ultimate status symbol. So in Chapter 5, when Daisy and Gatsby reunite and begin an affair, it seems like Gatsby could, in fact, achieve his goal.

In Chapter 6, we learn about Gatsby's less-than-wealthy past, which not only makes him look like the star of a rags-to-riches story, it makes Gatsby himself seem like someone in pursuit of the American Dream, and for him the personification of that dream is Daisy.

However, in Chapters 7 and 8, everything comes crashing down: Daisy refuses to leave Tom, Myrtle is killed, and George breaks down and kills Gatsby and then himself, leaving all of the "strivers" dead and the old money crowd safe. Furthermore, we learn in those last chapters that Gatsby didn't even achieve all his wealth through hard work, like the American Dream would stipulate - instead, he earned his money through crime. (He did work hard and honestly under Dan Cody, but lost Dan Cody's inheritance to his ex-wife.)

In short, things do not turn out well for our dreamers in the novel! Thus, the novel ends with Nick's sad meditation on the lost promise of the American Dream. You can read a detailed analysis of these last lines in our summary of the novel's ending.
This novel is just one very large burst bubble.
Key American Dream Quotes

In this section we analyze some of the most important quotes that relate to the American Dream in the book.

But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. (1.152)

In our first glimpse of Jay Gatsby, we see him reaching towards something far off, something in sight but definitely out of reach. This famous image of the green light is often understood as part of The Great Gatsby's meditation on The American Dream - the idea that people are always reaching towards something greater than themselves that is just out of reach. You can read more about this in our post all about the green light. The fact that this yearning image is our introduction to Gatsby foreshadows his unhappy end and also marks him as a dreamer, rather than people like Tom or Daisy who were born with money and don't need to strive for anything so far off.

Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.

A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms, followed by two carriages with drawn blinds and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of south-eastern Europe, and I was glad that the sight of Gatsby's splendid car was included in their somber holiday. As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish Negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.

"Anything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge," I thought; "anything at all. . . ."

Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder. (4.55-8)

Early in the novel, we get this mostly optimistic illustration of the American Dream - we see people of different races and nationalities racing towards NYC, a city of unfathomable possibility. This moment has all the classic elements of the American Dream - economic possibility, racial and religious diversity, a carefree attitude. At this moment, it does feel like "anything can happen," even a happy ending.

However, this rosy view eventually gets undermined by the tragic events later in the novel. And even at this point, Nick's condescension towards the people in the other cars reinforces America's racial hierarchy that disrupts the idea of the American Dream. There is even a little competition at play, a "haughty rivalry" at play between Gatsby's car and the one bearing the "modish Negroes." Nick "laughs aloud" at this moment, suggesting he thinks it's amusing that the passengers in this other car see them as equals, or even rivals to be bested. In other words, he seems to firmly believe in the racial hierarchy Tom defends in Chapter 1, even if it doesn't admit it honestly.

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. (6.134)

This moment explicitly ties Daisy to all of Gatsby's larger dreams for a better life - to his American Dream. This sets the stage for the novel's tragic ending, since Daisy cannot hold up under the weight of the dream Gatsby projects onto her. Instead, she stays with Tom Buchanan, despite her feelings for Gatsby. Thus when Gatsby fails to win over Daisy, he also fails to achieve his version of the American Dream. This is why so many people read the novel as a somber or pessimistic take on the American Dream, rather than an optimistic one.

...as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes--a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and 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, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." (9.151-152)

The closing pages of the novel reflect at length on the American Dream, in an attitude that seems simultaneously mournful, appreciative, and pessimistic. It also ties back to our first glimpse of Gatsby, reaching out over the water towards the Buchanan's green light. Nick notes that Gatsby's dream was "already behind him" then, in other words, it was impossible to attain. But still, he finds something to admire in how Gatsby still hoped for a better life, and constantly reached out toward that brighter future.

For a full consideration of these last lines and what they could mean, see our analysis of the novel's ending.

Analyzing Characters Through the American Dream

An analysis of the characters in terms of the American Dream usually leads to a pretty cynical take on the American Dream.

Most character analysis centered on the American Dream will necessarily focus on Gatsby, George, or Myrtle (the true strivers in the novel), though as we'll discuss below, the Buchanans can also provide some interesting layers of discussion. For character analysis that incorporates the American Dream, carefully consider your chosen character's motivations and desires, and how the novel does (or doesn't!) provide glimpses of the dream's fulfillment for them.

Gatsby

Gatsby himself is obviously the best candidate for writing about the American Dream - he comes from humble roots (he's the son of poor farmers from North Dakota) and rises to be notoriously wealthy, only for everything to slip away from him in the end. Many people also incorporate Daisy into their analyses as the physical representation of Gatsby's dream.

However, definitely consider the fact that in the traditional American Dream, people achieve their goals through honest hard work, but in Gatsby's case, he very quickly acquires a large amount of money through crime. Gatsby does attempt the hard work approach, through his years of service to Dan Cody, but that doesn't work out since Cody's ex-wife ends up with the entire inheritance. So instead he turns to crime, and only then does he manage to achieve his desired wealth.

So while Gatsby's story arc resembles a traditional rags-to-riches tale, the fact that he gained his money immorally complicates the idea that he is a perfect avatar for the American Dream. Furthermore, his success obviously doesn't last - he still pines for Daisy and loses everything in his attempt to get her back. In other words, Gatsby's huge dreams, all precariously wedded to Daisy ("He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God" (6.134)) are as flimsy and flight as Daisy herself.

George and Myrtle Wilson

This couple also represents people aiming at the dream - George owns his own shop and is doing his best to get business, though is increasingly worn down by the harsh demands of his life, while Myrtle chases after wealth and status through an affair with Tom.
In the end, everything goes horribly wrong for both George and Myrtle, suggesting that in this world, it's dangerous to strive for more than you're given.
Both are disempowered due to the lack of money at their own disposal - Myrtle certainly has access to some of the "finer things" through Tom but has to deal with his abuse, while George is unable to leave his current life and move West since he doesn't have the funds available. He even has to make himself servile to Tom in an attempt to get Tom to sell his car, a fact that could even cause him to overlook the evidence of his wife's affair. So neither character is on the upward trajectory that the American Dream promises, at least during the novel.

George and Myrtle's deadly fates, along with Gatsby's, help illustrate the novel's pessimistic attitude toward the American Dream. After all, how unfair is it that the couple working to improve their position in society (George and Myrtle) both end up dead, while Tom, who dragged Myrtle into an increasingly dangerous situation, and Daisy, who killed her, don't face any consequences? And on top of that they are fabulously wealthy? The American Dream certainly is not alive and well for the poor Wilsons.

Tom and Daisy as Antagonists to the American Dream

We've talked quite a bit already about Gatsby, George, and Myrtle - the three characters who come from humble roots and try to climb the ranks in 1920s New York. But what about the other major characters, especially the ones born with money? What is their relationship to the American Dream?

Specifically, Tom and Daisy have old money, and thus they don't need the American Dream, since they were born with America already at their feet.

Perhaps because of this, they seem to directly antagonize the dream - Daisy by refusing Gatsby, and Tom by helping to drag the Wilsons into tragedy.

This is especially interesting because unlike Gatsby, Myrtle, and George, who actively hope and dream of a better life, Daisy and Tom are described as bored and "careless," and end up instigating a large amount of tragedy through their own recklessness.

In other words, income inequality and the vastly different starts in life the characters have strongly affected their outcomes. The way they choose to live their lives, their morality (or lack thereof), and how much they dream doesn't seem to matter. This, of course, is tragic and antithetical to the idea of the American Dream, which claims that class should be irrelevant and anyone can rise to the top.

Daisy as a Personification of the American Dream

As we discuss in our post on money and materialism in The Great Gatsby, Daisy's voice is explicitly tied to money by Gatsby:

"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly.

That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money--that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. . . . High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. . . . (7.105-6)

If Daisy's voice promises money, and the American Dream is explicitly linked to wealth, it's not hard to argue that Daisy herself - along with the green light at the end of her dock - stands in for the American Dream. In fact, as Nick goes on to describe Daisy as "High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl," he also seems to literally describe Daisy as a prize, much like the princess at the end of a fairy tale (or even Princess Peach at the end of a Mario game!).

But Daisy, of course, is only human - flawed, flighty, and ultimately unable to embody the huge fantasy Gatsby projects onto her. So this, in turn, means that the American Dream itself is just a fantasy, a concept too flimsy to actually hold weight, especially in the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world of 1920s America.

Furthermore, you should definitely consider the tension between the fact that Daisy represents Gatsby's ultimate goal, but at the same time (as we discussed above), her actual life is the opposite of the American Dream: she is born with money and privilege, likely dies with it all intact, and there are no consequences to how she chooses to live her life in between.

Can Female Characters Achieve the American Dream?

Finally, it's interesting to compare and contrast some of the female characters using the lens of the American Dream.

Let's start with Daisy, who is unhappy in her marriage and, despite a brief attempt to leave it, remains with Tom, unwilling to give up the status and security their marriage provides. At first, it may seem like Daisy doesn't dream at all, so of course she ends up unhappy. But consider the fact that Daisy was already born into the highest level of American society. The expectation placed on her, as a wealthy woman, was never to pursue something greater, but simply to maintain her status. She did that by marrying Tom, and it's understandable why she wouldn't risk the uncertainty and loss of status that would come through divorce and marriage to a bootlegger. Again, Daisy seems to typify the "anti-American" dream, in that she was born into a kind of aristocracy and simply has to maintain her position, not fight for something better.

In contrast, Myrtle, aside from Gatsby, seems to be the most ambitiously in pursuit of getting more than she was given in life. She parlays her affair with Tom into an apartment, nice clothes, and parties, and seems to revel in her newfound status. But of course, she is knocked down the hardest, killed for her involvement with the Buchanans, and specifically for wrongfully assuming she had value to them. Considering that Gatsby did have a chance to leave New York and distance himself from the unfolding tragedy, but Myrtle was the first to be killed, you could argue the novel presents an even bleaker view of the American Dream where women are concerned.

Even Jordan Baker, who seems to be living out a kind of dream by playing golf and being relatively independent, is tied to her family's money and insulated from consequences by it, making her a pretty poor representation of the dream. And of course, since her end game also seems to be marriage, she doesn't push the boundaries of women's roles as far as she might wish.
Focusing the lens on the women is predictably depressing.
So while the women all push the boundaries of society's expectations of them in certain ways, they either fall in line or are killed, which definitely undermines the rosy of idea that anyone, regardless of gender, can make it in America. The American Dream as shown in Gatsby becomes even more pessimistic through the lens of the female characters.
#1: Was Gatsby's dream worth it? Was all the work, time, and patience worth it for him?
Common Essay Questions/Discussion Topics

Now let's work through some of the more frequently brought up subjects for discussion.

Like me, you might immediately think "of course it wasn't worth it! Gatsby lost everything, not to mention the Wilsons got caught up in the tragedy and ended up dead!" So if you want to make the more obvious "the dream wasn't worth it" argument, you could point to the unraveling that happens at the end of the novel (including the deaths of Myrtle, Gatsby and George) and how all Gatsby's achievements are for nothing, as evidenced by the sparse attendance of his funeral.
#2: In the Langston Hughes poem "A Dream Deferred," Hughes asks questions about what happens to postponed dreams. How does Fitzgerald examine this issue of deferred dreams? What do you think are the effects of postponing our dreams? How can you apply this lesson to your own life?
However, you could definitely take the less obvious route and argue that Gatsby's dream was worth it, despite the tragic end. First of all, consider Jay's unique characterization in the story: "He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty" (6.7). In other words, Gatsby has a larger-than-life persona and he never would have been content to remain in North Dakota to be poor farmers like his parents.

Even if he ends up living a shorter life, he certainly lived a full one full of adventure. His dreams of wealth and status took him all over the world on Dan Cody's yacht, to Louisville where he met and fell in love with Daisy, to the battlefields of WWI, to the halls of Oxford University, and then to the fast-paced world of Manhattan in the early 1920s, when he earned a fortune as a bootlegger. In fact, it seems Jay lived several lives in the space of just half a normal lifespan. In short, to argue that Gatsby's dream was worth it, you should point to his larger-than-life conception of himself and the fact that he could have only sought happiness through striving for something greater than himself, even if that ended up being deadly in the end.

If you're thinking about "deferred dreams" in The Great Gatsby, the big one is obviously Gatsby's deferred dream for Daisy - nearly five years pass between his initial infatuation and his attempt in the novel to win her back, an attempt that obviously backfires. You can examine various aspects of Gatsby's dream - the flashbacks to his first memories of Daisy in Chapter 8, the moment when they reunite in Chapter 5, or the disastrous consequences of the confrontation of Chapter 7 - to illustrate Gatsby's deferred dream.

You could also look at George Wilson's postponed dream of going West, or Myrtle's dream of marrying a wealthy man of "breeding" - George never gets the funds to go West, and is instead mired in the Valley of Ashes, while Myrtle's attempt to achieve her dream after 12 years of marriage through an affair ends in tragedy. Apparently, dreams deferred are dreams doomed to fail.
#3: Explain how the novel does or does not demonstrate the death of the American Dream. Is the main theme of Gatsby indeed "the withering American Dream"? What does the novel offer about American identity?
As Nick Carraway says, "you can't repeat the past" - the novel seems to imply there is a small window for certain dreams, and when the window closes, they can no longer be attained. This is pretty pessimistic, and for the prompt's personal reflection aspect, I wouldn't say you should necessarily "apply this lesson to your own life" straightforwardly. But it is worth noting that certain opportunities are fleeting, and perhaps it's wiser to seek out newer and/or more attainable ones, rather than pining over a lost chance.

Any prompt like this one which has a section of more personal reflection gives you freedom to tie in your own experiences and point of view, so be thoughtful and think of good examples from your own life!

In this prompt, another one that zeroes in on the dead or dying American Dream, you could discuss how the destruction of three lives (Gatsby, George, Myrtle) and the cynical portrayal of the old money crowd illustrates a dead, or dying American Dream. After all, if the characters who dream end up dead, and the ones who were born into life with money and privilege get to keep it without consequence, is there any room at all for the idea that less-privileged people can work their way up?

In terms of what the novel says about American identity, there are a few threads you could pick up - one is Nick's comment in Chapter 9 about the novel really being a story about (mid)westerners trying (and failing) to go East: "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" (9.125). This observation suggests an American identity that is determined by birthplace, and that within the American identity there are smaller, inescapable points of identification.
#4: Most would consider dreams to be positive motivators to achieve success, but the characters in the novel often take their dreams of ideal lives too far. Explain how characters' American Dreams cause them to have pain when they could have been content with more modest ambitions.
Furthermore, for those in the novel not born into money, the American identity seems to be about striving to end up with more wealth and status. But in terms of the portrayal of the old money set, particularly Daisy, Tom, and Jordan, the novel presents a segment of American society that is essentially aristocratic - you have to be born into it. In that regard, too, the novel presents a fractured American identity, with different lives possible based on how much money you are born with.

In short, I think the novel disrupts the idea of a unified American identity or American dream, by instead presenting a tragic, fractured, and rigid American society, one that is divided based on both geographic location and social class.

Gatsby is an obvious choice here - his pursuit of money and status, particularly through Daisy, leads him to ruin. There were many points when perhaps Gatsby could have been happy with what he achieved (especially after his apparently successful endeavors in the war, if he had remained at Oxford, or even after amassing a great amount of wealth as a bootlegger) but instead he kept striving upward, which ultimately lead to his downfall. You can flesh this argument out with the quotations in Chapters 6 and 8 about Gatsby's past, along with his tragic death.

Myrtle would be another good choice for this type of prompt. In a sense, she seems to be living her ideal life in her affair with Tom - she has a fancy NYC apartment, hosts parties, and gets to act sophisticated - but these pleasures end up gravely hurting George, and of course her association with Tom Buchanan gets her killed.
#5: The Great Gatsby is, among other things, a sobering and even ominous commentary on the dark side of the American dream. Discuss this theme, incorporating the conflicts of East Egg vs. West Egg and old money vs. new money. What does the American dream mean to Gatsby? What did the American Dream mean to Fitzgerald? How does morality fit into achieving the American dream?
Nick, too, if he had been happy with his family's respectable fortune and his girlfriend out west, might have avoided the pain of knowing Gatsby and the general sense of despair he was left with.

You might be wondering about George - after all, isn't he someone also dreaming of a better life? However, there aren't many instances of George taking his dreams of an ideal life "too far." In fact, he struggles just to make one car sale so that he can finally move out West with Myrtle. Also, given that his current situation in the Valley of Ashes is quite bleak, it's hard to say that striving upward gave him pain.

This prompt allows you to consider pretty broadly the novel's attitude toward the American Dream, with emphasis on "sobering and even ominous" commentary. Note that Fitzgerald seems to be specifically mocking the stereotypical rags to riches story here - especially since he draws the Dan Cody narrative almost note for note from the work of someone like Horatio Alger, whose books were almost universally about rich men schooling young, entrepreneurial boys in the ways of the world. In other words, you should discuss how the Great Gatsby seems to turn the idea of the American Dream as described in the quote on its head: Gatsby does achieve a rags-to-riches rise, but it doesn't last.
#6: What is the current state of the American Dream?
All of Gatsby's hard work for Dan Cody, after all, didn't pay off since he lost the inheritance. So instead, Gatsby turned to crime after the war to quickly gain a ton of money. Especially since Gatsby finally achieves his great wealth through dubious means, the novel further undermines the classic image of someone working hard and honestly to go from rags to riches.

If you're addressing this prompt or a similar one, make sure to focus on the darker aspects of the American Dream, including the dark conclusion to the novel and Daisy and Tom's protection from any real consequences. (This would also allow you to considering morality, and how morally bankrupt the characters are.)

This is a more outward-looking prompt, that allows you to consider current events today to either be generally optimistic (the American dream is alive and well) or pessimistic (it's as dead as it is in The Great Gatsby).

You have dozens of potential current events to use as evidence for either argument, but consider especially immigration and immigration reform, mass incarceration, income inequality, education, and health care in America as good potential examples to use as you argue about the current state of the American Dream. Your writing will be especially powerful if you can point to some specific current events to support your argument.

What's Next?

In this post, we discussed how important money is to the novel's version of the American Dream. You can read even more about money and materialism in The Great Gatsby right here.

Get complete guides to Jay Gatsby, George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson to get even more background on the "dreamers" in the novel.

Like we discussed above, the green light is often seen as a stand-in for the idea of the American Dream. Read more about this crucial symbol here.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

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Best Analysis: The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface, but it's most commonly understood as a pessimistic critique of the American Dream. In the novel, Jay Gatsby overcomes his poor past to gain an incredible amount of money and a limited amount of social cache in 1920s NYC, only to be rejected by the "old money" crowd.

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https://americandrearm.weebly.com/american-dream-in-history.html During this time the american dream was more about working hard for your family rather than being wealthy, race, gender.

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The idea of the "American Dream" was popularized during the 1930s by James Truslow Adams when he wrote the book "The Epic of America" His idea of what the American Dream was, is very different then what some people might equate it to. To him the American Dream was, in his own words, "not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and recognized by others for what they are." His idea of what the American Dream was defined in equality and equity. This idea was also defined by other people with the decades to come.

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The American Dream during the WW2/Great Depression era, a successful life was having money or food to live in the new harsh land. I'm not sure who was a leader in this but I do know that the people themselves strived for that.

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The American Dream during this era was to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights. A leader during the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr, he was a major part of the civil rights movement by organizing a number of peaceful protests as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including the March on Washington in 1963. Martin Luther King Jr was also known for giving the "I Have A Dream" speech which brought a lot of attention to the civil rights movement.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
Selected bibliography
Adams, Russell, Great Negroes Past and Present, pp. 106-107. Chicago, Afro-Am Publishing Co., 1963.

Bennett, Lerone, Jr., What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chicago, Johnson, 1964.

I Have a Dream: The Story of Martin Luther King in Text and Pictures. New York, Time Life Books, 1968.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Measure of a Man. Philadelphia. The Christian Education Press, 1959. Two devotional addresses.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Strength to Love. New York, Harper & Row, 1963. Sixteen sermons and one essay entitled "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence."

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York, Harper, 1958.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience. New York, Harper & Row, 1968.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? New York, Harper & Row, 1967.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Why We Can't Wait. New York, Harper & Row, 1963.

"Man of the Year", Time, 83 (January 3, 1964) 13-16; 25-27.

"Martin Luther King, Jr.", in Current Biography Yearbook 1965, ed. by Charles Moritz, pp. 220-223. New York, H.W. Wilson.

Reddick, Lawrence D., Crusader without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, Harper, 1959.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished inNobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

* Note from Nobelprize.org: This biography uses the word "Negro". Even though this word today is considered inappropriate, the biography is published in its original version in view of keeping it as a historical document.

To cite this section
MLA style: Martin Luther King Jr. - Biography. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Sun. 3 Dec 2023. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/>

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The Nobel Peace Prize 1964 was awarded to Martin Luther King Jr. "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population"

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The American Dream in post-WWII America would have been the nuclear family, where the husband worked, the wife stayed home, and the children went to school. This era was also defined by the introduction of suburbia, as well as redlining, the start of the Civil Rights movement, and the rise of black activists like MLK and Malcom X, who fought for equality for poeple of color through the 1970s.

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The baby boom after WWll created a demand for housing especially in the southwest. Large builders began mass production of ¨cookie cutter¨ houses that were affordable. This shifted

the American Dream to live in a safe community with a modest home with a white picket fence. Men would go to work and women would stay home and take care of the children and the house.

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In modern times, the American dream have shifted from home ownership towards retirement. American now a days dream of a free life in their 60's when their sources of living is retirement money along with investment, in other words no one dreams of working a 9 to 5 job forever.

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The american dream for Bob Dylan or for this Era was too live your life to the fullest meaning you only have one chance to do the thing you want, the past is the past and the future is coming up if you want to accomplish your goal then dont give up on it. This era was known for the hippies as well, they would get discriminated because of their lifestyle. Bob made this song to spread his word to stop discriminating to the hippies and to others.
The american dream was to live your life to the fullest and accomplish what you want to do  and stop discriminating others.
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/bob-dylan/the-times-they-are-a-changin
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KNpf2AlTpdeprFQCmuIDBJsPilcuXyjgggVkiYkNoQw/edit

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In the 1900s to be considered rich you had to own a lot of land or own a business .  They also had slaves to make money for them by doing hard labor . They had butlers and servants and many rooms in their homes .
Link : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/185981/up-from-slavery-by-booker-t-washington/9780679640141/excerpt

Kennedi Chambers

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The present American dream ideology has been to get rich, to have nice things and know famous people, but according to the articles; that American dream is not tangible, it is not realistic, and the amount of debt has skyrocketed, the chances to get rich have "taken a hit". There is now, less money for people, and also, less opportunity.

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The American dream of present time is to be rich. Meaning having a job that pays six figures and being able to afford luxury living. Being wealthy is considered the only way of being happy in life and it means that "you made it". This is influenced by famous people who show off all the luxurious things they have encouraging people that that's the way they should live.

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