For a while, people have believed that America is a unique country where anyone and everyone can make it and be successful if only they try. This idea is so strongly believed in that we have even created a term which encapsulates it: the American Dream. However, the American Dream is just an illusion which fools people into believing they can achieve everything they desire. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby agrees with and supports the simple truth that the American Dream is a fantasy. I believe that social issues, especially income inequality, inhibit people from achieving the Dream and this alarming issue needs to be monitored closely. Many people have been deceived by the illusion that is the American Dream - the idea
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Unfortunately, this is not the case. The issue of income inequality is one which has been troubling American society for a while. According the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Beginning in the 1970s, economic growth slowed and the income gap widened: Income growth for household in the middle and lower parts of the distribution slowed sharply, while incomes at the top continued to grow strongly” (Stone). For the past 50 years, this widening gap has caused the lower classes to suffer while those at the top of the social ladder thrive and are able to chase their dreams at no expense without worry. Mortimer Zuckerman of the US News acknowledges that “Today, income inequality in the US exceeds any other democracy in the developed world...In 1944 the top 1% earned 11% of all income. By 2012, it was 23% of the nation’s income” showing that “the mismatch between reward and effort makes a mockery of the American dream” (Zuckerman). The idea has been placed into the minds of many that no matter what, if you work hard enough, you can and will become wealthy, which is indubitably a lie. Oxfam’s An Economy for the 1% also explains the crisis that is income inequality: “In 2015, just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.6 billion and the wealth of the richest …show more content…
The drastic comparison between Tom Buchanan and George Wilson is one which highlights income inequality. Tom Buchanan, an extremely wealthy man, didn’t have to work a day in his life, and yet he continues to live a luxurious life where he takes advantage of the fact that he is privileged and dominant in society. On the contrary, George Wilson works hard every day to get out of the Valley of Ashes, a place plagued with poverty, and despite how hard he works, Wilson cannot manage to move up into a higher social class. Wilson’s wife wants to leave him because he is poor. Jay Gatsby is also proof of the lie of the American Dream. Gatsby, though he has money, earned his money illegally, and he did it for the woman he loved. Even after he achieves success financially, his real dream, Daisy Buchanan, is still out of reach. After they are united, Fitzgerald writes that, “Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy [the light] had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one” (Fitzgerald 93). This green dot – this “enchanted object” –is forever out of Gatsby’s reach and it not only represents his relationship with Daisy, but the American Dream as well. Gatsby thought that once he gained
Unfortunately, this is not the case. The issue of income inequality is one which has been troubling American society for a while. According the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Beginning in the 1970s, economic growth slowed and the income gap widened: Income growth for household in the middle and lower parts of the distribution slowed sharply, while incomes at the top continued to grow strongly” (Stone). For the past 50 years, this widening gap has caused the lower classes to suffer while those at the top of the social ladder thrive and are able to chase their dreams at no expense without worry. Mortimer Zuckerman of the US News acknowledges that “Today, income inequality in the US exceeds any other democracy in the developed world...In 1944 the top 1% earned 11% of all income. By 2012, it was 23% of the nation’s income” showing that “the mismatch between reward and effort makes a mockery of the American dream” (Zuckerman). The idea has been placed into the minds of many that no matter what, if you work hard enough, you can and will become wealthy, which is indubitably a lie. Oxfam’s An Economy for the 1% also explains the crisis that is income inequality: “In 2015, just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.6 billion and the wealth of the richest …show more content…
The drastic comparison between Tom Buchanan and George Wilson is one which highlights income inequality. Tom Buchanan, an extremely wealthy man, didn’t have to work a day in his life, and yet he continues to live a luxurious life where he takes advantage of the fact that he is privileged and dominant in society. On the contrary, George Wilson works hard every day to get out of the Valley of Ashes, a place plagued with poverty, and despite how hard he works, Wilson cannot manage to move up into a higher social class. Wilson’s wife wants to leave him because he is poor. Jay Gatsby is also proof of the lie of the American Dream. Gatsby, though he has money, earned his money illegally, and he did it for the woman he loved. Even after he achieves success financially, his real dream, Daisy Buchanan, is still out of reach. After they are united, Fitzgerald writes that, “Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy [the light] had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one” (Fitzgerald 93). This green dot – this “enchanted object” –is forever out of Gatsby’s reach and it not only represents his relationship with Daisy, but the American Dream as well. Gatsby thought that once he gained