The Great Gatsby - the American Dream
Kayla Smith
Per. 7
True or False? The “American Dream”, defined as a perfect job, family life, social status, house, and many other things; is it all true, or is it an impossible lie? Through two unique uses of character and plot, Fitzgerald in “The Great Gatsby and Dunning in Want To Fly, these two authors show two different yews points of the “American Dream”. Even though The Great Gatsby lacks character development, the enriched plot makes up for it. N the book its shows that the pursuit of the “American Dream” is better than the actual dream because there is so much room for error. The enriched plot shows this by the events that happen to Gatsby out of his control. Fitzgerald writes, “’Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood it before. It was full of money – …“(Fitzgerald 120). This shows that Daisy, the core to Gatsby’s “American Dream”, didn’t actually love him back; she was more attracted to the money he had. And, when Gatsby catches the clock and saves it from falling, it is a symbol for Gatsby trying to go back in time to when he and Daisy were in love, which was the pursuit stage of his “American Dream”. Sadly the great room for error was used up when Daisy married Tom and left Gatsby in the shadows. In Wanting to Fly, Dunning uses a different approach. Doing the opposite of Fitzgerald, Dunning has a richer character development than plot development to get his view across. Once the son gets his dream, the bumpy road of pursuit is finally over, and his dream saved him from the demon from his pursuit, also known as his father. “…I get pretty famous…Then of course father and me get along.” When he was young, his father beat him every time he messed up. Through fame from succeeding in the circus, his father finally accepts him, and then eventually dies. This is different from Gatsby because what happened to Gatsby was totally out of his control; it was all in the hands of Daisy. The son, on the other hand, made
Per. 7
True or False? The “American Dream”, defined as a perfect job, family life, social status, house, and many other things; is it all true, or is it an impossible lie? Through two unique uses of character and plot, Fitzgerald in “The Great Gatsby and Dunning in Want To Fly, these two authors show two different yews points of the “American Dream”. Even though The Great Gatsby lacks character development, the enriched plot makes up for it. N the book its shows that the pursuit of the “American Dream” is better than the actual dream because there is so much room for error. The enriched plot shows this by the events that happen to Gatsby out of his control. Fitzgerald writes, “’Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood it before. It was full of money – …“(Fitzgerald 120). This shows that Daisy, the core to Gatsby’s “American Dream”, didn’t actually love him back; she was more attracted to the money he had. And, when Gatsby catches the clock and saves it from falling, it is a symbol for Gatsby trying to go back in time to when he and Daisy were in love, which was the pursuit stage of his “American Dream”. Sadly the great room for error was used up when Daisy married Tom and left Gatsby in the shadows. In Wanting to Fly, Dunning uses a different approach. Doing the opposite of Fitzgerald, Dunning has a richer character development than plot development to get his view across. Once the son gets his dream, the bumpy road of pursuit is finally over, and his dream saved him from the demon from his pursuit, also known as his father. “…I get pretty famous…Then of course father and me get along.” When he was young, his father beat him every time he messed up. Through fame from succeeding in the circus, his father finally accepts him, and then eventually dies. This is different from Gatsby because what happened to Gatsby was totally out of his control; it was all in the hands of Daisy. The son, on the other hand, made