"People are so busy dreaming the American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they 're asleep at the switch. Consequently, we are living in the Age of Human Error" (American). Jay Gatsby and the Buchanans come to realize that having all the money in the world does not fix everything, and isn 't necessarily all it 's cracked up to be. By having such singular, money based goals, they might be losing more than they are gaining. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses setting, character, and symbolism to demonstrate both the good and evil that comes with Achieving the American Dream. One exampe of symbolism is Gatsby 's home, which represents those who have just recently achieved the American
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Not only is he the prime example of someone who has just recently achieved the American Dream, but also demonstrates how these people tend to appear to the outside world. Gatsby lets people see the parts of him that he wants them to see, and allows himself to keep a mysterious aura about him, all while remaining intrigueing and kind. He made each person that he met feel special, as NIck explained, "He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurace in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irrisistible prejudice in your favor" (Fitzgerald 48). Furthermore, Gatsby and people in his social class generally give the appearance of class. Because they have accumulated this money so quickly, they are not sure how to handle it properly. When Nick is in Gatsby 's library, he comes to realize that Gatsby 's books have never been opened, and yet he has hundreds. "It fooled me. This fella 's a regular Belacso. It 's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn 't cut the pages" (Fitzgerald 46). He does not have the personality that many people would except him to have, and wants to give off the false pretense that along with being excessively rich, he is intelligent beyond that of his counterparts. Lastly, Gatsby creates the image that he has a great amount of friends or family that share his wealth, when in fact, it 's just the opposite. Because he is so new to this lifestyle, he doesn 't know many people, and resorts to celebrating with people he hardly knows in order to create relationships. At the end of the day, these people only wanted him for his money and the parties he threw, nobody really showed up to make a real connection. "the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and causal inuendo and introductions forgotten
Not only is he the prime example of someone who has just recently achieved the American Dream, but also demonstrates how these people tend to appear to the outside world. Gatsby lets people see the parts of him that he wants them to see, and allows himself to keep a mysterious aura about him, all while remaining intrigueing and kind. He made each person that he met feel special, as NIck explained, "He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurace in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irrisistible prejudice in your favor" (Fitzgerald 48). Furthermore, Gatsby and people in his social class generally give the appearance of class. Because they have accumulated this money so quickly, they are not sure how to handle it properly. When Nick is in Gatsby 's library, he comes to realize that Gatsby 's books have never been opened, and yet he has hundreds. "It fooled me. This fella 's a regular Belacso. It 's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn 't cut the pages" (Fitzgerald 46). He does not have the personality that many people would except him to have, and wants to give off the false pretense that along with being excessively rich, he is intelligent beyond that of his counterparts. Lastly, Gatsby creates the image that he has a great amount of friends or family that share his wealth, when in fact, it 's just the opposite. Because he is so new to this lifestyle, he doesn 't know many people, and resorts to celebrating with people he hardly knows in order to create relationships. At the end of the day, these people only wanted him for his money and the parties he threw, nobody really showed up to make a real connection. "the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and causal inuendo and introductions forgotten