The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1541 Words

The American Dream is a dream about possibilities, and a desire for success. Sometimes you can interpret the dream for money, sometimes for love regardless of what the you think it is, the dreamer works hard to reach this goal. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is driven by his desire to achieve the American Dream. Unfortunately, Gatsby’s drive to achieve the dream also results in him falling victim to it. Essentially, Gatsby falls victim to the American Dream because he is forced to face the reality that his dream is just that, a dream that is out of reach and unrealistic. The novel also shows what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s, which is a time period when the dreams became corrupted for many reasons.†¦show more content†¦Gatsby grew up in North Dakota and did have no connections, money or education. He spent his youth training for his â€Å"Big Break†. Highly motivated, he had a plan to escape his life as a poor man. Gatsby was r esentful of his parents and their poverty. â€Å"His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.†(Fitzgerald 9.) Gatsby’s desire to escape the poverty and limits of his upbringing was so powerful that he created a new person he wanted to be in order to achieve what he desired rejecting his original name, parents, and goals for personal improvement as he invented a new person and attitude that would better support him in his quest. â€Å"So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.† (Fitzgerald 9). Gatsby’s opportunity to get away from his family and into wealth occurs when he encounters a man by the name of Dan Cody. Dan Cody teaches Gatsby the skills and everything he needs to know about the bootlegging business. With this new job, Gatsby is suddenly given the opportunity t o meet his goal in the quickest and easiest way (even though it was illegal). Gatsby’s decision not only to participate in this illegal trade but shows how strong of a desire he has to reach his dream. In terms of wealth and status, Gatsby proves that he has attained a