Both the rich and poor romanticize and strive for the American Dream. Whether it be to increase their own prosperity, or to rise to prosperity from the ashes of poverty, both remain certain. The Great Gatsby is a tale of such determination for what cannot be gained. The characters strive toward their dream, even if that road quickens the steps towards death. Fitzgerald demonstrates a striving for and inevitable loss of the unobtainable in the American Dream through several characters in The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a man of embellishment and deluded grandeur. All of his actions step towards his, in his mind, inevitable reunion with his long lost Daisy. “It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you
