Compare And Contrast Two American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby illustrate a division in social class based on the characters’ family backgrounds. Several characters have their own goals and dreams, the American Dream. The American Dream is to be born to a world of equality, to have the same equal opportunity, and to achieve goals through hard work. The Great Gatsby present characters who tries to get more than they already have. Jay Gatsby, the protagonist in The Great Gatsby, wants more than being a janitor and a rich man; he throws parties every Saturdays to attract Daisy’s attention, but lost everything in the end. Gatsby went from “new money” to “old money” to “no money”. Everyone do not have the same opportunity to strive for their American Dream because their opportunities depend …show more content…
He presented two different American Dreams in his work, Two American Dreams in Conflict. The Franklinian Dream is a dream of self-validating materialism, which acquires wealth while the Emersonian Dream also depends on wealth. The differences is wealth is not the definition for American Dream, but it is the struggle to achieve the true purpose of the dream. In The Great Gatsby, Tom is the representation of the Franklinian Dream because his life is about using money to buy happiness. Gatsby, in the other hand is the representation of Emersonian Dream because his wealth produces the opportunity he needs in his attempts to win back Daisy. Barbour compares two classes with different American Dreams, and the two classes are from different family background causes them to have different opportunities to achieve their dreams. In this case, Gatsby had a more difficult opportunity to achieve his dreams of becoming rich because he was from a working class family, and he became rich when agreed to do illegal businesses. Barbour proofed that social classes have different opportunities to achieve their American Dreams through struggles. I can apply his theory to emphasize the difficulties Jay Gatsby and the lower class had to live through to achieve the things they have. This article is from a book, Class Conflict in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby by Cladia Johnson which was printed in 2008 and it is especially for high school or college research …show more content…
He was educated at the University of Leeds. His home address was Toronto, Canada. Millgate is popular was a famous novelist and poet. He was an English professor and chair of the department at the University of Toronto. His work, A Corruption of Character (2008) considers Gatsby’s involvement in an illegal business to be criticism of the American Dream. He demonstrated Gatsby’s lack of opportunities, illegal business, to reach his American Dream. I can use his evidences to proof that some characters from The Great Gatsby do not have the same opportunities to succeed. This article is from a book, Class Conflict in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby by Cladia Johnson which was printed in 2008 and it is especially for high school or college research

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