# data[].attributes.body
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rY_gSN9ACSimhZTGSMDiRI00wi9ZIF1Ui2Ty-IHahOs/edit?usp=sharing

# data[].attributes.body
The ideas in this text relate to the world in terms of how the United States was like during the 1920’s and the idea of the American Dream. The four main settings of The Great Gatsby, East Egg, West Egg, the Valley of Ashes and New York City, all take place in the United States. It showed how in East Egg, wealthy old money people lived there. West Egg, how wealthy new money people lived there. The Valley of Ashes, how poor lower class people lived there. And how in New York City, secret scandalous people live there. These settings and characteristics are very similar, almost the same, to how life in America was like during the 1920’s. In terms of the American Dream, the author of The Great Gatsby gave a really eye opening message; that not everyone will achieve their version of the American dream. The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success. A few main characters in the novel, Gatsby, the Wilsons, and Dan Cody, all had ambitions of pursuing their dream, however only two of these characters were somewhat actually able to achieve them, leaving the other two dream’s unfulfilled.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Flappers: The 'New Woman'

Perhaps the most familiar symbol of the "Roaring Twenties" is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said "unladylike" things, in addition to being more sexually "free" than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionable flapper wardrobe), but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented freedoms.

They could vote at last: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had guaranteed that right in 1920, though it would be decades before Black women in the South could fully exercise their right to vote without Jim Crow segregation laws.

Millions of women worked in blue-collar jobs, as well as white-collar jobs (as stenographers, for example) and could afford to participate in the burgeoning consumer economy. The increased availability of birth-control devices such as the diaphragm made it possible for women to have fewer children.

In 1912, an estimated 16 percent of American households had electricity; by the mid-1920s, more than 60 percent did. And with this electrification came new machines and technologies like the washing machine, the freezer and the vacuum cleaner eliminated some of the drudgeries of household work.

Did you know? Because the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act did not make it illegal to drink alcohol, only to manufacture and sell it, many people stockpiled liquor before the ban went into effect. Rumor had it that the Yale Club in New York City had a 14-year supply of booze in its basement.

Fashion, Fads and Film Stars

During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend-and spend it they did, on movies, fashion and consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothing and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios.

The first commercial radio station in the United States, Pittsburgh's KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. Two years later Warren G. Harding became the first president to address the nation by radio -and three years later there were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million households.

People also swarmed to see Hollywood movies: Historians estimate that, by the end of the decades, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week, and actors like Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino and Tallulah Bankhead became household names.

But the most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries at the beginning of the decade; by the end, they were practically necessities.

By 1929 there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Meanwhile, an economy of automobiles was born: Businesses like service stations and motels sprang up to meet drivers' needs-as did the burgeoning oil industry.

The Jazz Age

Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted. (Some pundits called them "bedrooms on wheels.") What many young people wanted to do was dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom and the flea hop were popular dances of the era.

Jazz bands played at venues like the Savoy and the Cotton Club in New York City and the Aragon in Chicago; radio stations and phonograph records (100 million of which were sold in 1927 alone) carried their tunes to listeners across the nation. Some older people objected to jazz music's "vulgarity" and "depravity" (and the "moral disasters" it supposedly inspired), but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dance floor.

The novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the hedonism and excitement of the Jazz Age-Fitzgerald once claimed that the 1920s were "the most expensive orgy in history"-while other writers, artists, musicians and designers ushered in a new era of experimental Art Deco and modernist creativity.

Prohibition Era

During the 1920s, some freedoms were expanded while others were curtailed. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of "intoxicating liquors," and at 12 a.m. on January 16, 1920, the federal Volstead Act closed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United States. From then on, it was illegal to sell any "intoxication beverages" with more than 0.5 percent alcohol.

This drove the liquor trade underground-now, instead of ordinary bars, people simply went to nominally illegal speakeasies, where liquor was controlled by bootleggers, racketeers and other organized crime figures such as Chicago gangster Al Capone. (Capone reportedly had 1,000 gunmen and half of Chicago's police force on his payroll.)

To many middle-class white Americans, Prohibition was a way to assert some control over the unruly immigrant masses who crowded the nation's cities. For instance, to the so-called "Drys," beer was known as "Kaiser brew." Drinking was a symbol of all they disliked about the modern city, and eliminating alcohol would, they believed, turn back the clock to an earlier and more comfortable time

Immigration and Racism in the 1920s

Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. An anti- Communist "Red Scare" in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist and anti-immigrant hysteria. This led to the passage of an extremely restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas that excluded some people (Eastern Europeans and Asians) in favor of others (Northern Europeans and people from Great Britain, for example).

Immigrants were hardly the only targets in this decade. The Great Migration of Black Americans from the rural South to Northern cities and the increasing visibility of Black culture-jazz and blues music, for example, and the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance-discomfited some white Americans. Millions of people, not just in the South but across the country, joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

By the middle of the decade, the KKK had two million members, many of whom believed the Klan represented a return to all the "values" that the fast-paced, city-slicker Roaring Twenties were trampling. More specifically, the 1920s represented economic and political uplift for Black Americans that threatened the social hierarchy of Jim Crow oppression.

Early Civil Rights Activism

During this decade, Black Americans sought stable employment, better living conditions and political participation. Many who migrated to the North found jobs in the automobile, steel, shipbuilding and meatpacking industries. But with more work came more exploitation.

In 1925, civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph founded the first predominantly Black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, to draw attention to the discriminatory hiring practices and working conditions for Blacks. And as housing demands increased for Black people in the North, so did discriminatory housing practices that led to a rise of urban ghettos, where Black Americans-excluded from white neighborhoods-were relegated to inadequate, overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions.

Black Americans battled for political and civil rights throughout the Roaring Twenties and beyond. The NAACP launched investigations into Black disenfranchisement in the 1920 presidential election, as well as surges of white mob violence, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

The NAACP also pushed for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, a law to make lynching a federal crime, but it was defeated by a Senate filibuster in 1922. A political milestone for Black Americans finally occurred when Oscar De Priest, a Chicago Republican, became the first Black congressman since Reconstruction to be elected to the House of Representatives in 1928.

The Roaring Twenties ushered in several demographic shifts, or what one historian called a "cultural Civil War" between city-dwellers and small-town residents, Protestants and Catholics, Blacks and whites, "New Women" and advocates of old-fashioned family values.

But coming immediately after the hardships of World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic, the Roaring Twenties also gave many middle-class Americans an unprecedented taste of freedom, unbridled fun and upward economic mobility unsurpassed in U.S. history.

Sources

What Caused the Roaring Twenties? Not the End of a Pandemic (Probably). Smithsonian Magazine.
The Roaring Twenties. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
The Roaring 20s. PBS: American Experience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Roaring Twenties: Flappers, Prohibition & Jazz Age - HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Roaring Twenties were a Jazz Age burst of prosperity and freedom for flappers and others during the Prohibition era, until the economy crashed in 1929.

# data[].attributes.body
A main idea in this novel was about love, specifically about Jay Gatsby’s and Daisy Buchanan’s love. There was also another forming love between Nick Caraway and Jordan Baker, however they did not receive much attention and there was no actual progress of that relationship. Now going back to Gatsby and Daisy, their sort of love reminded me of another romance themed literature; the historical Shakespeare tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby are actually very different considering settings, characters, etc. But something that they both have in common is the theme of love. In Romeo and Juliet, they were “star crossed lovers” who could not be together due to their family rivalry, however they stayed committed to each other and tried their best to be together despite their family interference. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby and Daisy were former lovers with years between them that pulled them apart, but Gatsby was so committed to being with Daisy that he tried his ultimate best to be a man worthy of her. Both of these stories portray love as something undeniably special, something to chase after, and something to want/need more than anything in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Love makes you happy.
Love makes you hopeful.
Love makes you grateful.
Love makes you inspired.
Love changes your life.

The first time I fell in love, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Sure, I had heard about it in all the romantic comedies I've seen. Yes, I've read about it in the Jackie Collins novels I love oh so much. But I didn't know what it was really like until I experienced it.

Having such strong feelings about another person shook me to my core. It made me re-evaluate my beliefs. I learned what it was like to really care about someone. Everything I had believed, everything I stood for, suddenly disappeared. I found a whole new world opened up for me.

I was no longer closed-minded. I became a yes person. I learned the meaning of never say never. I had a new outlook on life. Here are 10 reasons why being in love is the best feeling in the world.

1. Love Makes You Feel Invincible
Love makes you feel as if you can do anything. Your approach on life is brighter and happier. You have courage to do things you didn't think you were able to do.

2. Love Gives You Incredible Inspiration
Being in love makes you feel inspired. It gives you a can-do attitude that you can approach anything, anywhere, anytime. Being in love gives you motivation. Your attitude is optimistic and always positive.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Reasons Why Love Is the Best Feeling In the World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Love makes you happy. Love makes you hopeful. Love makes you grateful. Love makes you inspired. Love changes your life. The first time I fell in love, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Sure, I had heard about it in all the romantic comedies I've seen.

# data[].attributes.body
A main idea in The Great Gatsby was the importance of money, the need of money. I can relate to this idea because I also believe that money is important. Money can get you places a lot easier and can give you a sort of privilege advantage. I have personally never experienced these sorts of things, however in today's society I have witnessed it happen many times. I have seen how those with money are able to afford better luxuries, households, accessories, and more. It is no secret that people who are wealthy live a more comfortable lifestyle than those who are less fortunate. However, this exact situation is the reason why there is such a big gap between rich and poor. In the novel, it shows just how different life is between those with “old money” or “new money” and those without money. It also shows characteristics of people who so desperately want money, hence the need for money. Myself and many others strive to be successful, to have money, basically. Money is something that I know I will thrive to get in order for myself to be happy and to be successful, for myself and for my family.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At some point, you may wonder why money is important and start to analyze the role it plays in your own life.

And our society has plenty of different viewpoints when it comes to money and happiness, how much money is truly enough, and how to better with money.

I'm sure you have heard many of the different sayings about money too, whether funny or to hit a particular point to make you think.

You know the ones, like:

"Money doesn't buy happiness." - Proverb

"Money is the root of all evil." - 1 Timothy 6:10

"Having money isn't everything, not having it is." - Kanye West

But you've probably heard many proverbs, famous quotes, or other sayings from people around you. And while there may be some truth to not let money dictate your entire life and choices, money IS important.

Why Is Money So Important?

The reason money is so important is that it provides options for you to live a better life that you choose and puts you in control. Having money and being comfortable with finances also gives you freedom and options to decide how you want to live and support the things you care most about in your life.

And yes, it's true that money cannot necessarily buy you complete happiness forever and greed can make people do terrible things. Look what the hunger for more wealth and money did to Bernie Madoff and how he ruined the many families who invested with him.

But while there is truth to some of the negative connotations to money, ultimately you have the strength to dictate how you use money and if you let it control you.

Money is not everything in this world, but it can be powerful in helping you achieve your goals and let you make the best of the short life we all have.

The Real Benefits of Money

While your whole life does not need to focus on money and accumulating wealth, it is still important to dedicate your time to understanding it and building a strategy.

Look, we all know that more money means you can generally afford a fancier lifestyle, bigger homes, better vacations, and flashier cars. But those material items are not the real benefits of having money and the temporary excitement from those items quickly wanes.

So why is money important?

Money Gives Your Freedom

Money is important because it gives you the freedom to do what you want, when you want, where you want. Sometimes we call this " FU Money," which means you reach a point where you can just walk away from a job you hate and are not reliant on anyone's financial support.

Do you have hobbies you want to pursue? A dream to start your own business? Money gives you the freedom to explore those areas and take a bit of risk.

Money Gives You Options

Being able to make choices and have options is one of the best feelings in the world. Knowing you are stuck in a particular situation because you need the money or financial help is frustrating, so removing that from your life is a great relief.

When you have money, you control what you want or don't want to do. Want to have a different career? Want to move to a different state or country? Want to travel somewhere new for vacation? Do it.

Money Creates Financial Security

One of the most powerful feelings you can have is knowing you do not need to worry about money. Financial stress is a common problem among people and families, which can lift a huge burden.

Whether you lose your job or some economical turmoil happens, you aren't worried about paying bills, paying to see a doctor for medical reasons, or wondering where your next meal will come from.

Having money and having a financial plan creates more security for you and your family.

Money Can Create More Life Experiences

Life is short and goes by fast, which means you should want to experience the best things life has to offer while you are here.

Hoarding money and never experiencing anything is a waste, afterall you can't take the money with you to the grave! While that might not paint a pretty picture, it's completely true.

When you have money, it creates opportunities for you to get more out of life, travel the world, try new things, and get out of your own bubble of where you live. This can also help drive more happiness overall as you are experiencing more that life has to offer.

Money Helps You Give Your Family More

While generational wealth can be a good thing, there is a fine line of instilling in your children good values and work ethic beyond just handing money over to them.

But money matters because you can provide your family with better education opportunities, better healthcare, and a better start in life overall.

There are plenty of children that become spoiled and it creates unrealistic expectations of money while growing up. But that's where teaching them about money and not giving them every little luxury without hard work will be key.

Money Lets You Give Back

At some point, you may reach a level of income or financial freedom where you can afford to give back. Helping out charities, your local community, or other causes is a great feeling and it can create happiness when you are helping others.

Yes, there are also some tax incentives when you donate to charities, but hopefully, that would not be your main driver to give back.
Those are some of the main reasons money is important and should be things you think about in your own pursuit of financial independence. But I'm sure there are other reasons money might be important to you as well.
The Negative Side of Money

While there are plenty of benefits to having money, there are negatives to it as well. Focusing your energy on making money, saving, and investing is important but it's a careful balance to not let it consume every little decision you make.

Obsessing Over Money Causes Problems

While we may all strive for money or financial peace, obsessing over money and making money can really cause problems in your life.

When you focus all your time on money and trying to acquire more of it, you can end up destroying your relationships with family and friends. It can also lead you down a path of unethical behavior (see once again, Bernie Madoff) or criminal activities just to get more money.

Having an obsession with money is a destructive disorder that can ruin your life and others. Sure, you may have all the money in the world, but if you trampled over everyone, who is going to be next to you enjoying life? No one or not anyone that you would trust to genuinely care about you and not your wealth.

Making Money Can Cause More Stress

Not only can money help reduce financial stress, but it can also cause more unwanted stress too. Funny how that works, ain't it?

For those where money is never enough, no matter how much they have - it actually can create more stress.

You find yourself working crazy hours every week, spending every waking moment thinking about money, and even getting anxious over your efforts for more. That stress not only takes a toll on your mental and physical health but affects those around your like family and co-workers.

Can Create More Family Disagreements

In a MarketWatch article, they mentioned that TD Ameritrade found that 41% of divorced Gen Xers and 29% of Boomers say they ended their marriage due to disagreements about money.

While these numbers are just a few years old, money continues to be a common cause for disagreements and arguments among spouses and families.

If you are not on the same page with your spouse or family, money will certainly be a common friction point. And you certainly won't be in agreement ALL the time, but having similar values and thoughts about money can limit the disagreements.

How Much Money Is Enough?

As you can see from above, there is nothing wrong with the pursuit of financial independence and money. But there can be downsides as well.

The issue begins when you let greed consume you and find yourself doing whatever it takes to make more money. This is when you start to hurt people, alienate friends and family, and end up in a self-destructive path.

The question you have to truly ask yourself is how much money is enough?

For many looking to pursue financial freedom, that number of how much is enough comes to 25x of yearly expenses. So say your expenses are $30,000 per year, you'd ideally want to have $750,000 saved and invested.

This is the best baseline when evaluating why money is important to you and how much should be enough. It's a good goal and amount where you can live happily and be comfortable in life.

For some people, that 25x goal seems like more than enough, not everyone needs to be like Warren Buffett or the next Jeff Bezos. And for others, they would never be satisfied with that amount.

Happiness fades after a certain amount

It's a great idea to have a budget, financial goals, and maybe a net worth number you are striving to achieve. That's never a bad thing!

But often it's easy to get into a whirlwind of bad spending habits or needing more and more, never being satisfied with what you have.

In a fascinating research topic, High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, the authors explore the impact of money on your overall well-being.

Essentially, the key findings from their research were that money can keep increasing satisfaction up to any amount, but money only has an affect on your overall happiness up to an annual income of $75,000.

While the research goes much more in-depth and is from 2010, something to keep in mind as you pursue money and think about your finances.

Final Thoughts

Health and family are some of the most important things in life. If you have those two things, then you are living a pretty rich life. But there is no denying the importance of money and that it can create better life opportunities.

Naturally, money won't solve all your problems and if you were an unhappy person prior to money, then gaining some wealth may only be a temporary solution.

The real opportunity is to find the right balance where you see money as important, but a tool that can help you create better life experiences and opportunities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Money Is Important And The Role It Plays in Our Lives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At some point, you may wonder why money is important and start to analyze the role it plays in your own life. And our society has plenty of different viewpoints when it comes to money and happiness, how much money is truly enough, and how to better with money.

# data[].attributes.body
Now that the novel is over, I will personally say that I liked it. The ending is a bit sad and heartbreaking, and I personally feel that it could have gone a different way. However, the ending was very well written and I liked the symbolism it gave relating to the American Dream. I also really liked the symbolism about colors, I feel that the color representations added something special and creative to the storyline. I have never read a story like this one, and so it goes to show how unique the story is. I liked how it expressed emotions such as love. I think that love had a big part in this novel. Especially circling the complicated love of Gatsby and Daisy, and rounded the almost love of Nick and Jordan. Truthfully at first, I didn’t understand why the point of view in this story was Nick Caraway's. I thought that the story itself titled “The Great Gatsby” would be in the point of view of Gatsby himself. But then I realized that Nick actually had a very important part in the story, and that’s what I like in his character. One of my favorite quotes that Nick says is, “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”

# data[].attributes.body
This novel actually says a lot about the American Dream. One main idea is that, even though more than one person may have the same dream, only a few can actually achieve it. This idea perfectly describes the situation of a few of the main characters in The Great Gatsby. The characters I’m talking about are Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson, and Dan Cody. Jay Gatsby’s American dream was to become wealthy and gain Daisy Buchanan's heart. Myrtle Wilson’s American dream was also to become wealthy. And I assumed that her husband George Wilson also had the same idea. And finally, Dan Cody’s American dream was also mainly to become wealthy. These four characters presumably all had the exact same dream; to be rich. Yet, only two of these characters actually achieved their dream, Jay Gatsby and Dan Cody. While the other two characters, Myrtle and George Wilson, remained lower-class. Throughout this novel, it shows exactly how Gatsby and Cody were able to achieve their American Dream; by working hard for it. While also showing how Myrtle and George Wilson did not achieve their dream; by not trying hard enough. I believe it gives a message how no matter what one’s American Dream is, it will not come true just because you want it to. It can only be achieved through means of dedication and hard work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Best Analysis: The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.body
Honestly I personally feel that this chapter was the most sad/depressing chapter of the novel so far. This chapter started off with basically just Gatsby and Nick hanging out and just spending time together while Gatsby grieved about his unfulfilled dream and Nick staying with him as to kind of be there for him, to comfort him. To me, it was sad to read as Gatsby talked about how he loved Daisy so much and how he badly wished that he could be with her. I’ve never been in a position like him before, but I felt like I could feel his emotions, like I understood what he was going through, without having actually experienced what he was going through. And then the chapter switches to George Wilson and his grieving of losing his wife Myrtle Wilson. A friend of George was trying to talk with him and basically trying to comfort him, but to no avail because George was so sick and depressed about finding out that his wife was cheating on him and then suddenly passed away. But ultimately the most sad part about this chapter was near the end when George, overcome by his anger and grief, shot Gatsby and then shot himself. I was not expecting this type of ending at all because to me I didn’t think that George was the type of person to do such a thing, and also I didn’t think that Gatsby who was a main character would be killed off like this.

# data[].attributes.body
The images on the front of the novel actually have a lot of key aspects about the story. Obviously the most eye-catching image is the big eyes and red lips floating on the middle of the cover. Honestly at first I thought that this was representing Jay Gatsby, but then I realized that it actually makes more sense that it would represent Daisy Buchanan. Even a quote that Nick said, “Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs,” can be interpreted as a small description of the cover. I also noticed that the colors on the cover represent the colors mentioned throughout the story. On the cover I can see colors of yellow, green, red, white, blue, and grey. And in the story, green represents the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. Red and white represent the colors of Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s house in East Egg. Yellow/gold represent wealth and money such as Gatsby’s car and tie. Blue represents emotions like the hope that Gatsby has for getting back together with Daisy, but also the sadness of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. And finally, grey represents a main setting in the novel, The Valley of Ashes.

# data[].attributes.body
Now that the novel is almost to the end, I have to say that this chapter was honestly the best out of all the previous chapters. I just think that in this chapter, a lot of things climaxed. And I believe that in this chapter, it was the most story-moving and the most emotional chapter. Having to witness Daisy go through an emotional roller coaster in dealing with her husband and with Gatsby was hard to read. Especially when she started to cry, I felt really bad for her. To me it seemed that Daisy was trying to keep both Tom and Gatsby happy, but in the end she had to make a decision between the two, but she couldn’t make up her mind at all. Also, witnessing the conflict between Tom and Gatsby almost felt like a fight was about to break out, I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if someone threw a punch. But it actually finally showed the real character of those two, with Tom and Gatsby both expressing their feelings about Daisy. Something that I wasn’t expecting at all was the sudden death of Myrtle Wilson. It was just so sudden and then seeing how Tom felt and how Daisy felt after the incident was heartbreaking because to Tom, he lost someone that he seemed to really care about, and to Daisy, it was a traumatizing event to experience.

# data[].attributes.body
I personally do believe that Gatsby loves Daisy. I feel like his reaction toward her when they finally got to see each other, like when he was being all flustered and shy, showed that he really wanted to see her even though he was nervous to show her the kind of man he turned out to be. In Daisy’s case, I also think that she loves Gatsby. I mean in this chapter she did say to Gatsby as she gave him a kiss, “You know I love you.” As for her feelings toward Tom, I think that when they first started dating and then got married and then during the first few years of their marriage, she did love Tom. But when he started cheating on her, she felt less and less valuable to him. As for Tom’s feelings about Daisy, he did say that he loved her but he justified it by basically saying that even though he goes and fools around with other women, he still comes back home to Daisy. Throughout this novel the only romance involving Nick was when he was taking an interest in Jordan. However there wasn’t any actual progress of that relationship evolving, so I don’t think he loves anyone. I think that Fitzgerald is saying that love can be very complicated in many different ways.

# data[].attributes.body
Something that I noticed in this chapter was Gatsby’s great ambition of creating and starting a whole new life with Daisy. Because in this chapter, Daisy went to one of Gatsby’s parties and they talked and danced and were just basically together the whole night. But Gatsby noticed that Daisy wasn’t really comfortable at the party, she didn’t really know anyone beside Gatsby or her cousin Nick. After seeing how Daisy didn’t much enjoy the party, Gatsby was upset and frustrated. To me it seemed like Gatsby was trying to impress her, to show her that this is who he is now, but it just wasn’t catching Daisy’s eye as much as he wanted it to. In the novel, as Nick talks about Gatsby, he says “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he 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...” This honestly made me feel a bit sympathetic towards Gatsby, it’s just sad to see how even after all of his hard work, it still isn’t enough.

# data[].attributes.body
I honestly wasn’t expecting a full on backstory about the real Jay Gatsby, but he was a kind of mysterious man, so sooner or later the truth would have come out. His real backstory was completely different from what he originally told Nick. Gatsby told Nick that he inherited all his money from his wealthy family, he studied at Oxford University, he’s from San Francisco, he traveled the world like a prince, and his business involved investing in oil and drug stores. The actual truth is that Gatsby’s real name is James Gatz, his family were working class farmers, he actually had to earn all his money, he’s from a farm in North Dakota, he studied at a community college while working as a janitor, he sailed around the world as an assistance, and his business involved investing in mysterious unknown illegal matters. His actions/choices as a young man actually really contribute to the kind of person that he is. It shows that he can be really committed, he’s good at pretending to be someone that he’s not until he actually becomes that someone, he works hard to achieve what he wants, and overall he’s just someone who came from nothing and made something of himself.

# data[].attributes.body
So throughout this chapter I’m really starting to like Gatsby’s character. As I find out more things about him, my respect for him gets higher. I really like his commitment to Daisy, and as I said before I’m a sucker for romance so I’m really getting invested in this blooming relationship between Gatsby and Daisy. I honestly do think that Gatsby is a much better match for Daisy than Tom is. I mean cause after all this time, Gatsby has worked so hard to basically be everything that Daisy would want and need. I can tell Gatsby genuinely cares for Daisy, and that fondness is so much better and healthier than Tom basically breaking Daisy's heart when he constantly cheats on her. I know that being in Daisy’s position must be so hard on her, she basically broke down crying when Gatsby was showing her his luxury clothing saying that, “They’re such beautiful shirts. It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.” To me, I kind of felt for Daisy because she’s obviously somewhat regretting her life choices and it’s kind of sad to witness her showing her feelings like this. But I’m hopeful that Daisy can see how much Gatsby likes her, and that maybe she’ll give him a chance.

# data[].attributes.body
The mentioning of a green light has been first noticed in Chapter 1, and now we see it again in Chapter 5. In this chapter Gatsby mentions the green light when talking to Daisy as they look outside his window as it starts to rain, “‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay. You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.” Gatsby mentions this green light basically saying that he always knows that Daisy is right across from him, in his line of sight but out of arm's reach. I believe this green light represents Gatsby’s dream of longing to be with Daisy, and after having waited so long, he finally has the confidence and courage to try and woo her. The color green represents Gatsby in a way of wealth, money. He is an extremely wealthy man who has a huge house with a beautiful garden and luxury house decors along with expensive clothing. However, green also represents him in terms of envy or jealousy, though not greatly but somewhat. Throughout the years Gatsby would have obviously been a bit envious of not being Daisy's significant other, or just not being able to be with her when they had a chance to.

# data[].attributes.body
Near the end of this chapter, the point of view kind of changes because the novel describes a scene that was witnessed by Jordan when she was with Daisy. And a main part of that scene was when it was the day before Daisy was getting married to Tom Buchanan. Jordan said that on that day she found Daisy “lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress--and as drunk as a monkey.” And in her drunken state, Daisy was basically demanding for Jordan to send a message to cancel the wedding all together. Jordan figures that Daisy got herself in that state because of an anonymous letter that was given to her. Daisy actually ends up soaking the letter and crumbling it up in a ball, permanently destroying it. This incident made me wonder, what exactly was in that letter? Who sent her that letter? Why did Daisy get so worked up because of that letter? Did Jordan ever get to ask Daisy why that letter seemed so important to her? To me, I think the letter was from Gatsby himself, however I really can’t figure out what words would Gatsby say to her, that could only be put in words on paper instead of in real life face to face.

# data[].attributes.body
So a new character has been introduced in this chapter, Meyer Wolfsheim, who is an old friend of Gatsby. When asked who Mr. Wolfsheim actually is, Gatsby states that he is “a gambler” and that he “fixed the World's Series back in 1919.” When Nick was talking to Mr. Wolfsheim, he shared some light about Gatsby and his past with him. For example, Mr. Wolfsheim knew that Gatsby went to Oxford College in England, he stated that they met after the war, and he said that Gatsby is very careful about women and would never so much look at a friend's wife. With this information, the previous suspicions that Nick had about Gatsby can be proven false. For one, it’s true that Gatsby went to Oxford College. And it’s also true that Gatsby served in the war. As for the last piece of information, it serves a purpose as a fact in proving that Gatsby has an admiration for Daisy, but has never made any direct move onto her because she is already a married woman. This gives more insight about Gatsby and his personality, and it also gives more meaningfulness into his character.

# data[].attributes.body
Something that caught my interest in this chapter was the possible romance blooming between Jordan and Nick. I have always personally liked novels that include a bit of romance, so this particular altercation caught my attention. Now Jordan was actually introduced to Nick in an earlier chapter when Nick was visiting the Buchanan, however he didn’t take any interest in her then. But in this chapter they met again at one of Gatsby’s famous parties, and because Jordan was the only person that Nick somewhat knew, he basically spent the whole night with her. They talked and wandered and mingled throughout the night together. Apparently Jordan came with another man as her extort but she ditched him to be with Nick, it was fine though because that man actually found someone else to spend time with. Nick and Jordan got to know each other a lot better at this event, and even after this event, Nick narrates that he and Jordan send letters to each other from time to time. But I don’t really think that Nick is going to start something serious, since he said “...for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires,”.

# data[].attributes.body
So in this chapter I feel like Jordan is the kind of person to never take responsibility. When she was talking to Nick about her driving, she implied that it shouldn’t matter if she was careless on the road, because other people should be more aware and keep out of her way. So she’s basically saying that if her and another car were to get into an accident, it would not have been her fault, even though she was careless, because the other car did not move itself out of her path. This makes me think that Jordan’s social class is one that can easily avoid any aftermath consequences or play the victim card to avoid any trouble. When it comes to setting, I believe social classes are represented by the overall environment of a setting/place. For example, when a neighborhood is full of huge mansions and exquisite buildings, then most likely higher social class families present there. But other places like stacked poorly-kept buildings and landscape, is most likely where lower class families present. I see characters like Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson being able to “pass” in more than one social class because Tom fits in both East Egg and New York City, while Myrtle also fits in both the Valley of Ashes and New York City.

# data[].attributes.body
Something that caught my attention in this chapter was how detailed the narrator, Nick, explained the settings/places that were introduced throughout the chapter. The two new places being set in this chapter were the Valley of Ashes and New York City. I have personally never been to either of these places, but I can create a clear visualization with my imagination and with the help of Nick’s strongly detailed description of the settings. Nick has described the Valley of Ashes as a place, “where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” Then Nick describes going the way of Tom and Myrtle’s place in New York City,  “We went on, cutting back again over the Park toward the West Hundreds. At 158th Street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment-houses.” Based on his descriptions I can definitely tell how they differ from each other. The Valley of Ashes is a sort of lower-class neighborhood that does not experience much color with all the pollution in the air. While New York City has many buildings layered together as to almost seem like a part of a cake.

# data[].attributes.body
The four main settings of the novel so far are; East Egg, West Egg, Valley of Ashes, and New York City. East Egg is the place where very wealthy people live, it has huge houses and mansions that could only be affordable to the wealthy upper class. It’s also the place where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live. West Egg is the place where “old money” people live, they are people who have money only because their family has passed down that money for their younger generations. West Egg is also the place where Nick, the narrator, and Gatsby, Nick’s neighbor, currently live. The Valley of Ashes is a place where the poor, or lower-class people live. It's very dull and gloomy, dark clouds and smoke cover the sun, so the place doesn’t experience much color. George and Myrtle Wilson also currently live in the Valley of Ashes. New York City is a place very crowded with tall buildings everywhere, and it is also the place where Tom Buchanan and his mistress Myrtle Wilson have a shared apartment. A comparison that all of these 4 settings have is that they all contribute to having huge/large building units/living spaces either close together or fairly distanced.

# data[].attributes.body
So far I believe this chapter has provided a good starting point for the narrative. This chapter gave a small but good biography about the narrator's life before present time. And I believe this chapter has properly introduced a few main characters in the story and has visually described the setting and place of where the story is right now. This chapter also provided short biographies about the characters introduced, such as Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker. Also, the narrator uses descriptive literary techniques to visually represent certain places. An example of this is when the narrator describes his home, “My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires--all for eighty dollars a month.” Another example is when the narrator describes the Buchanan family home, “The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens--finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run.”

# data[].attributes.headline
Chapter 1: Tom Buchanan Characterization 

# data[].attributes.subject
Chapter 1: Tom Buchanan Characterization 

# data[].attributes.body
So Nick, the narrator, went to college with Tom Buchanan and Tom is also the husband of Nick’s cousin, Daisy. And at a very young age Tom was already considered kind of like a star since he started off as a football player, and now he is wealthy enough to support himself and his family. Tom is confident enough to speak his mind and it seems as if he expects those around him to also agree with him. In a conversation between him, his wife, Nick, and Miss Baker, Tom states “It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.” Physically, Tom is well-built, he is older but with his previous career of football he has maintained a good physique. Colors that I’ve noticed throughout this section are lots of reds, whites, and yellows. I personally don’t really like Tom, he doesn't seem like a family man and he doesn't seem loyal enough or interested enough to be one anyways. I also think he’s a bit too out-spoken, like I don’t think he would ever follow a “keep your thoughts to yourself” kind of mindset because he would want his opinion to be spoken and is willing to defend his opinion even if others disagree with him.