Characters as Symbols in 'The Great Gatsby'

The American dream is webbed throughout The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author, very expertly hid a pattern of what he thought of the American dream in his characters’ motives and the motif of the book. Even though he expresses his opinion on the American dream through his characters, he makes sure to make slight differences between each character’s dream. Some characters dream for wealth, some for love, and others dream for a family. Like most Americans, the characters in the book will do almost anything to achieve their dream. Every character in The Great Gatsby chases his or her own version of the American dream, but none achieve it because other characters pursuing their own dreams get the way of it.
First, Nick’s dream to move …show more content…
As stated in the text, “Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business” (Fitzgerald 3). Nick wanted to move from the boring Middle West to the more interesting east and to pursue a career in selling bonds. By moving from the Middle West, which was a pretty dull and slow place, to New York, which was booming at the time, he hoped to become wealthier and more successful. Selling bonds was not necessarily what he wanted to do but all the people he knew were in that business so he thought that was the best for him in order to achieve his dream. In the words of Nick after Gatsby’s death, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” (179) Nick at the end …show more content…
Myrtle, Wilson’s wife, was run over by Daisy and Gatsby in Gatsby’s yellow car. Myrtle was Tom’s, Daisy’s husband, mistress as well. Daisy was driving at the time but Gatsby decided to take the blame out of love. Wilson was nowhere to be found in this equation. He didn’t have any input. It wasn’t fair in his part because he did nothing to have his wife and dream of living happily with her taken away from him. Eventually this thought got to Wilson, “It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete” (162). Wilson snapped, realizing his dream had been taken and thinking Gatsby did it, he went to Gatsby’s mansion, shot Gatsby in his pool, then proceeded to shoot himself. Wilson dreamed of living a happy life and having a family with his wife Myrtle but she was killed which was unfair to him so he decided to take revenge into his own hands and he also decided life wasn’t worth living without his American