The American Dream, once perceived as a positive promise, is actually an implication of natural selection identified in the concept of Social Darwinism. F. Scott Fitzgerald examines this survival-of-the-richest disarray in his novel The Great Gatsby through exposing the extremist nature of the wealthy. He presents the morality behind the monetary-driven American Dream as the unchanging and everlasting struggle to survive in the human condition. In the context of the novel, however, the primary objective of survival is to attain a superficial happiness which is ultimately contingent upon an individual's accumulated wealth. For Jay Gatsby, the doomed protagonist, his superficial happiness is found in the rekindling of his relationship with Daisy
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In his theory, only the fittest will survive the natural elements through a process of 'weeding out the meek'. However, in the American Dream, only the richest will survive as "nothing is fixed in terms of status, fortune, and self-fashioning" (Gillespie). The American Dream, surrounded by an "atmosphere of vulgar American fortunes" (Gillespie), is represented by two factors: survival and promoting an individual's career. Gatsby embodies this goal of "immaculate wealth" (Batchelor) but because he was from a family of "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 98), he believes he is unworthy of Daisy's companionship. Despite reinventing himself with the help of bootleggers, Gatsby of West Egg represents the epitome of the strife in sustaining the American Dream as his wealth is essentially just for show. The West Egg portion of New York City's elite symbolizes all things tawdry and showy, but, yet, "despite the while of excitement and mystery about him, [Gatsby, like his dream,] is an empty suit" (Gillespie). His empty dream of "[repeating] the past" (Fitzgerald 110) awards him the title of the meekest of New York's elite, subjecting him to the process of natural selection in Social …show more content…
This promotes the unaltered characteristic of the American Dream since Gatsby’s time. Considering the condemned and immortal nature of the American Dream, to understand today's cultural and mindset, one must simply assess the Gatsby's superficial object of survival since "Gatsby fits into today's cultural climate" (Batchelor) and "speaks directly to large-scale, ongoing shifts in American society" (Gillespie). Because the old money individuals are deemed the fittest for human society, these individuals surmount the hardships of survival by inheriting their immaculate wealth and leaving “a valley of ashes [where] ash-gray men” (Fitzgerald 23) bear the onus of the unpleasantness in life. This concept of lower-class citizens enduring the privations of survival and the upper-class’ debasement of the “American Dream to serve their needs" (Batchelor) remains unchanged today. Those rising to the top with ‘new money’ are unable to reach the full potential that individuals who were born into wealth achieve. Like Tom Buchanan, 'old money' individuals are "never wise enough to see the truth" (Batchelor) in surviving, so until then, dream chasers must continue to “beat on, boats against the current" (Fitzgerald 180) in the ultimate fight to sustain themselves from the wrath of the
In his theory, only the fittest will survive the natural elements through a process of 'weeding out the meek'. However, in the American Dream, only the richest will survive as "nothing is fixed in terms of status, fortune, and self-fashioning" (Gillespie). The American Dream, surrounded by an "atmosphere of vulgar American fortunes" (Gillespie), is represented by two factors: survival and promoting an individual's career. Gatsby embodies this goal of "immaculate wealth" (Batchelor) but because he was from a family of "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 98), he believes he is unworthy of Daisy's companionship. Despite reinventing himself with the help of bootleggers, Gatsby of West Egg represents the epitome of the strife in sustaining the American Dream as his wealth is essentially just for show. The West Egg portion of New York City's elite symbolizes all things tawdry and showy, but, yet, "despite the while of excitement and mystery about him, [Gatsby, like his dream,] is an empty suit" (Gillespie). His empty dream of "[repeating] the past" (Fitzgerald 110) awards him the title of the meekest of New York's elite, subjecting him to the process of natural selection in Social …show more content…
This promotes the unaltered characteristic of the American Dream since Gatsby’s time. Considering the condemned and immortal nature of the American Dream, to understand today's cultural and mindset, one must simply assess the Gatsby's superficial object of survival since "Gatsby fits into today's cultural climate" (Batchelor) and "speaks directly to large-scale, ongoing shifts in American society" (Gillespie). Because the old money individuals are deemed the fittest for human society, these individuals surmount the hardships of survival by inheriting their immaculate wealth and leaving “a valley of ashes [where] ash-gray men” (Fitzgerald 23) bear the onus of the unpleasantness in life. This concept of lower-class citizens enduring the privations of survival and the upper-class’ debasement of the “American Dream to serve their needs" (Batchelor) remains unchanged today. Those rising to the top with ‘new money’ are unable to reach the full potential that individuals who were born into wealth achieve. Like Tom Buchanan, 'old money' individuals are "never wise enough to see the truth" (Batchelor) in surviving, so until then, dream chasers must continue to “beat on, boats against the current" (Fitzgerald 180) in the ultimate fight to sustain themselves from the wrath of the