The Great Gatsby

The strong theme The American Dream, is shaped and created with these important components in mind, materialism, selfishness, and social standing.

Materialism plays one of the key components in the theme of The Great Gatsby. Nick gives a great opinion of how money corrupts, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” Each of the characters show his or hers devotion towards what they each cherish. Daisy cherishes money and Gatsby realizes it. The novel clearly implies that, rich girls do not marry poor boys. Since Gatsby thinks money can bring him happiness, he buys the fanciest cars, the largest house, and the nicest clothes.

He has the best of everything. He has everything except the one thing he actually wants, Daisy. Gatsby shows a need and greed for Daisy s love. Oh, you want too much! She cried to Gatsby. I love you now- isn’t that enough? I can’t help what s past That quote illustrates the selfishness Gatsby s character possesses, when confronted with the fact that Daisy could love someone besides himself. Tom Buchannen, Daisy s husband, shows his greed by taking advantage of his broken marriage by having an affair. Daisy s greed is far more shallow, she marries a man she pretends to love because of the content in his wallet, cheats on him, and hurts the one person that actually loves her.

Social standing is what helps define why some of the certain characters might act in the ways they did. Jay Gatsby past was discovered to be poor; hence the reason Daisy, a rich girl, did not marry him. But instead married into the highest position, old money. Which in that standing there is only one way to look, that’s down at people, new money, to be particular. The whole novel was broken up into the small theme of rich verses poor. Even the location of the where characters lived was divided by status. The West Egg represented the new money and less exclusive, where the East Egg represented the more elite.

Unfortunately, the American Dream is not achieved in this story because of the one missing component, happiness. Any sum of fortune can’t buy you pleasure unless your fortune is happiness.

In chapter six of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, flashback is used to complete the presentation of Gatsby by giving details from his past before Daisy came into his life to show what he was like before he was consumed by his love for Daisy. Flashbacks are typically used to give and fill in details about a character’s past to help tell more about them, which was done in this chapter with two different flashbacks. In the first flashback, it was revealed in the chapter that Jay Gatsby’s original name was James Gatz. This was shown when Nick says “James Gatz

That was really, or at least legally, his name”. Gatsby most likely changed his name because he was unhappy with his past and to help leave his past behind, he changed his name. Gatsby was born in North Dakota, and his family was not wealthy. This was evident when it was revealed by Nick that “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” Nick also says that “his imagination had never accepted them as parents at all” which means that Gatsby never wanted to accept the fact that he grew up he was poor because he has always wanted to be rich and “old money” which couldn’t happen since he was poor. He decided to change his name when he was seventeen years old when he met Dan Cody. When he met Dan Cody, he decided he would introduce himself as his new persona, Jay Gatsby.

It was clear that the name was going to stay  when Nick says “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”. What Gatsby wanted was the American Dream, but once Daisy comes along, his dream becomes something different. In the second flashback, Nick is talking about how Gatsby’s dream became limited once he kissed Daisy because he dreams of bettering himself, and if he ended up with Daisy, then it wouldn’t be about only him anymore. This was apparent when Nick says “Out of the corner of his eye, Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees-he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder.”

Nick is trying to say that Gatsby would only be able to achieve his dreams by doing it alone. The two flashbacks help to further define and shape Gatsby’s character because they reveal how Gatsby came to be the person he is at this point in the story, and how his life was before and when Daisy became a part of his life.

The Great GatsbyA NovelA FilmA Review 10/4/98 The 1974 version of The Great Gatsby was produced by David Merrick, directed by JackClayton with a script credited to Francis Ford Coppola turns it into a love story that is “comatose”and while it uses more cinematic effects, they are old film metaphors: white flower symbolizing Daisy s virginal beginnings, two birds nibbling bread while Daisy & Gatsby are in Nick s cottage, Nick s stubbing out a cigarette showing his impatience during the tea, and a shot of a poolreflecting the images of Daisy & Gatsby kissing.

Furthermore, there are even more obvious filmicdevices to show the erotic relationship between Daisy and Gatsby: water fountain spurting as they dance, a candlestick burning as they dance again, and Daisy fondling copper molds & then herlover s hand. Joining Robert Redford, playing Jay Gatsby, in the film are Mia Farrow

• DaisyBuchanan, Bruce Dern
• Tom Buchanan, Karen Black
• Myrtle Wilson, Scott Wilson
• George Wilson, Sam Waterston
• Nick Carraway, Lois Chiles
• Jordan Baker, Howard Da Silva
• Meyer Wolfsheim, Roberts Blossom
• Mr. Gatz, Edward Herrmann
• Klipspringer, Elliott Sullivan
• Wilson’s Friend, Arthur Hughes
• Dog Vendor, Kathryn Leigh Scott
• Catherine, Beth Porter
• Mrs. Mckee, and Paul Tamarin as Mr. Mckee.

Howard de Silva as Wolfsheim and Bruce Dern as Tom received praise but Sam Watersonas Nick and Lois Chiles as Jordan were considered too bland and Karen Black too broad for Myrtle. Mia Farrow s poorly disguised pregnancy bothered many as much as her uneven acting and Robert Redford s matinee-idol All-American look didn t fit FSF s description of “an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over 30,whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.” As for dialogue, even though it is from book, it is broken up like the climactic comment by Nick on “the fresh new world” or new and trite like “Gatsby: “I ll love you forever.” AndDaisy:; “Be my lover; stay my lover.” Gatsby: “Your husband.” The Great Gatsby repeatedly investigates how photography expresses and affects the ways its characters think.

More importantly, it suggests in Nick Carraway’s narration. While in its largest perspective, the novel is philosophic about social, political, and psychological concerns, it deals with the disparity between the aspiration and achievement of Gatsby(the hero) and the stunning observations of the contemporary life of Nick (the narrator). He seesGatsby as great because of his innocence. In regard to how photography expresses the ways its characters think we have: –the character of the photographer Mckee who tries to capture the ideal essence of his wife on film &bungles it –Gatsby s photographs to prove his past (Oxford, Dan Cody) –Gatsby s father photograph of the house in support of Nick s photographic sensibility, turn to almost any page of the novel:–When Nick first meets Gatsby on p. 52 and describes his characteristic smile, “He smiled understandingly much more than understandingly.

It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. –When Nick sees at the end on p. 152 “Daisy and Tom sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table, with aplate of cold fried chicken between them, and two bottles of ale . They weren t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale and yet they weren t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.” The most part of the novel-to-film change included the film has retained most of the 15 novel s peculiar glamour it had clumsiness in the ordering of material and frequent shifts of mood such as antifemale comments emphasis on Gatsby s evil qualities, and Daisy s desire to sleep with Gatsby for revenge against Tom and Myrtle but refusal to divorce Tom in keeping with contemporary attitudes When this adaptation came out it was negatively received and became a fiasco. Opinion sought to be revised upwards. The film is quite faithful to the book but it has a number of irritating qualities.

Its 144 minutes are too protracted; the tempo is slow; the pregnant silences are overdone; many shots are drawn-out and much dialogue, or rather speeches, as mostly people speak solo even when two are involved. Hardly any of this speech has a natural rhythm. Thesound is dubbed, too much so. It has an echoey quality which is excellent when it stresses the vastness of Gatsby’s house, but then this spreads to other sounds and speeches. There’s an overdone moody solemnity about the picture. At the same time, the film has fine moments and a great deal of touching melancholy and Fitzgeraldian disenchantment.

Flaws notwithstanding, the actors are affected. Nelson Riddlecontributes a wonderful 20’s score with mood-enhancing songs. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write “something new–something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned.” That extraordinary, beautiful intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald’sfinest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all ofits decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author’s generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald’s–and his country’s–most abiding obsessions: money, ambition,greed, and the promise of new beginnings.

Gatsby’s rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream. It’s also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby’s quixotic passion for DaisyBuchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means–and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. “Her voice is full of money,” Gatsby says admiringly, inone of the novel’s more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across long Island Sound from Daisy’s patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear.

When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. At the beginning, I found this book difficult and boring, however, when I continued to read, I was attracted by it. The thing that most attracts me is the description of the characters, the words are beautiful. Besides, the author successfully creates the mysterious background of Gatsby, which attracts me to read in order to find out the truth. I by thorough investigation think that the book is much more interesting than the movie.

A great story, set in a great time Fitzgerald shocks us with his portrayal of the roaring twenties. He lures us with his simple but misunderstood characters. He finishes it off with his incredible ability to paint a picture of a decade so out of control. Through the narrator, Fitzgerald gives us insight into Gatsby’s true character that others in the novel either don’t pick up on, orignore. The only thing I didn’t like about this novel is Fitzgerald’s occasional use of the cheesy metaphor that other’s find so eloquent. However, I’d have to say that this was one of the more enjoyable books I read this past year and the movie only added to it.

The 1920s was known as “The Jazz Age” and it was the time were women became “flappers” and where alcohol was illegal and was full with bootlegers.In this book, Fitzgerald, F. Scott warns about how the desire for wealth corrupts the American Dream.The Selfish thoughts and actions of Daisy Buchanan, Jay Gatz, and Myrtle Wilson–and the consequences of those actions–convey Fitzgerald’s warning against the blind pursuit of wealth. Daisy’s “American Dream” is corrupted by the desire of wealth because she chooses money over happiness.Evidence that shows this would be is when Nick says, “There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said they were conspiring together”(Fitzgerald 145).

This shows how Daisy is willing to leave with Tom and not to be happy with Gatsby but stay wealthy with wealth. Daisy’s American Dream would be staying with Gatsby and leave everything and start new but chooses to go with Tom, representing staying wealthy.Gatsby even pointed it out when he says, “She only married you because i was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!”(130).Gatsby points out how Daisy married Tom because she was tired of waiting and because Gatsby was poor but Tom was wealthy. Daisy then is drawn to Gatsby’s newly-acquired wealth.Another thing is that Nick starts to see that when Gatsby, Myrtle, and George have all died, Daisy and Tom are the ones who caused their deaths.He says how they aren’t punished for their recklessness.Nick begins to see how Daisy and Tom destroy everything when he says “i couldn’t forgive him or like him but i saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified,It was all very careless and confused.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made”.Nick talks about how Daisy and Tom destroy things and it does not affect them because they just go back to their money. Gatsby’s American Dream was to get Daisy back but was also corrupted by wealth by Daisy choosing Tom.Gatsby even treats Daisy as a prize to be won. Evidence that shows how Gatsby’s American Dream is winning Daisy back is when Nick says,“I thought of Gatsby wondering when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.He did not know that it was already behind him, someone back in that vast obscurity byond the city,where the dark fields of the republic rolld on under the night”(180).

Nick talks about how he wonders why Gatsby picked Daisy and why he could not move on from her and understand that you can not repeat the past.He also wondered why he tried so hard to get Daisy back.Gatsby also treats Daisy as a prize to be won.Evidence that shows this is when Gatsby says, “Her voice is full of money”(12).Gatsby says that because she is connected with money here.It allows the reader to see Gatsby’s desire for her,wealth,money,and status.Another quote that shows us about this is when Nick talks about how he then realized that Daisy’s voice was full of money when Nick says, “That was it. I’d never understood before.It was full of money-that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it,the cymbal’s song of it…High in a white palace the king’s daughter,the golden girl”(120).Daisy is materialistic and is drawn to Gatsby again due to his newly-acquired wealth, we see Gatsby is drawn to her as well due to the money and status she represents.

Myrtle chases after wealth and status through an affair with Tom because she feels like she deserves more,while George is doing his best to get business.Myrtle begins to say, “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. She looked around to see who was listening: “’Oh, is that your suit?’ I said. ‘This is the first I ever heard about it.’ But I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon'(35).This shows that Myrtle loved her husband when they got married,but then gets disappointed by his lack of cash and status.Myrtle then begins to talk about how she met Tom on the train.

She begins by saying “He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn’t keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me and his white shirt-front pressed against my arm–and so I told him I’d have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied.”(36)She sees how Tom is dressed and immediately knows that he is wealthy and is interested in him and his money.Catherine also talks about how she thinks that she should go away from george and be with Tom.Catherine tells Nick, “She really ought to get away from him,They’ve been living over that garage for eleven years.And Tom’s the first sweetie she ever had.”(35).

This shows that Catherine thinks that Myrtle deserves more than George and should be with Tom since he gives her everything she wants. The selfish thoughts and actions of Daisy Buchanan, Jay Gatsby, and Myrtle Wilson–and the consequences of those actions–convey Fitzgerald’s warning against the blind pursuit of wealth.Fitzgerald’s warns us the dangers of money and the desire to be wealthy.He shows us what happened to the people who wanted to be wealthy and how it affects other people around them.

The portrayals of Barrett Browning and Fitzgerald explore the preferences of idealized love and time throughout both texts with the use of symbolism, imagery, irony and characterization to emphasis these differences. The Great Gatsby set during the Jazz age is an exemplification of the failure and tragedy of the American Dream as well as the fragmented world where love struggles to survive.

This contrasted to Elizabeth Barrett Borrowing’s love sonnets set in the wake of the Romantics, making the sonnets in many ways typically Victorian with their tone of gloom and sorrow as well as their feeling of the force and Intensity of their passion as the love grows and develops. Time wealth The Great Gatsby exposes how Gatsby Is trying to reincarnate the past by showing to Daisy that he has created an affluent life for himself, thus hoping she will be with him in the future.

This illusion creates a sense of irony in the story because Gatsby who has the money to possess and attract anything or anyone, cannot have or buy the thing he most wants and desires; his past love for Daisy. Gatsby nostalgia for his old self and the love that is symbolized is like Fitzgerald portrait of America’s nostalgia for its lost values. Like Gatsby, America seems to have everything in the midst of the blooming ass’s, but has lost something along the process. Even in the midst of Gatsby corrupt world there Lies a hope in his love for Daisy.

This hope Is symbolized by the green light situated at the end of the wharf In front of Delays house at East Egg. This light reminds Gatsby that he Is close to having his dream come true, the dream he so desperately longs for “… He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… L could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green eight, minute and far away”, even though he doesn’t have Daisy yet, this green light provides reassurance and hope that he is close to having her in the future.

This continuous hope of the past being reincarnated for Gatsby started to seem like it was finally underway with the melancholic tone that the novel resurfaces during Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion at Nick’s house. We are shown through Gatsby melancholic longing his expression painted on his face “as pale as death” which symbolizes not only the sense of nervousness but also the relief of finally reaching the longed for moment of being with Daisy. The tragedy of Gatsby is that he Is being illusion because Daisy who was “the first nice girl he had ever met” changed Into a “materialistic, vacuous Individual who cannot see past herself.

This change In characterization triggers the reality that Gatsby dream will never come true no matter now much en nope It wall It Is snow tongue ten novel ten D dream which is never fulfilled and instead he dies for it with the instant bullet which ends it all. Whilst a bullet ends a dream in The Great Gatsby, in the sonnet sequence Elizabeth focuses on the internal, everlasting love between herself and her over which goes beyond the temporal and beyond death. The dynamic nature of her context through her allusions tells us about her world.

The nature and power of her love allows her to transcend her society; she can leave the patriarchal oppression of her past behind as well as escape the curtailment of her world because the love is complete. Elizabeth has had a depressing past life and her lover is seen as her rescuer. When they fell in love a sense of restoration is felt by the love they share which brings forth religious beliefs and acts. Elizabeth wants to eliminate the why ND the how and leave the love they share as something that simply is. But love me for love’s sake, that evermore Thou mast love on, through love’s eternity’, symbolizes in sonnet XIV, the hope that the love they have is going to be everlasting “through love’s eternity’ – going beyond mortality Juxtaposed to The Great Gatsby where the dream of being loved again ends all to suddenly with a bullet. We can see from this sonnet Elizabeth already knows that the love they share is so strong that it will beat all odds and last forever.

Throughout all of Elizabethan sonnets we come to realization hat the love she is experiencing has the power of an earthbound love which is everlasting, this is specifically shown in sonnet XII “face to face, silent drawing nigh and Niger, until the lengthening wings break into fire, At either curved point… What bitter wrong, can the earth do to us, that we should not be there contented”, which symbolizes that their love is so strong that even after death they will meet again in heaven.

This shows that through time their love will only grow and develop and she is hoping that even after death there love will become stronger than ever. Within this Monet she also uses imagery when imagining their relationship after morality because she feels that it will continue. Elizabethan final sonnet, COLI, expresses her final declaration of the everlasting, unconditional love she is experiencing “… L shall but love thee better after my death”.

Even after death she is going to love her lover more profoundly, consequently from this it is shown that through time the love her and her lover share will go beyond the temporal and against all odds. In contrast with The Great Gatsby where Gatsby dream to re-incarnate the past so that he can e with the one he loves is essentially Just an illusion which ends with a bullet, the sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning articulates the unconditional transcendent nature of love which is everlasting and goes beyond mortality; where the love between Elizabeth and her lover will continue to grow.

Idealized love in The Great Gatsby is oppressive and destructive. Through the narration of Nick Caraway we are exposed to a post WWW new world which is faithless, loveless and careless, thus making idealized love difficult to survive. Gatsby infatuation of Daisy as the ultimate commodity is seen as his goal from which he tries to draw closer to. The type of love that is shown from Gatsby towards Daisy is the obsessive but pure love which becomes something too special to survive in a world that lacks moral purpose.

Gatsby bases his love on the relationship he had with Daisy years before. It was Gatsby who was “breathless” and saw her gleaming Like silver, sate Ana proud above ten not struggles AT ten poor” I Nils Imagery Tanat Gatsby uses to describe Daisy shows how deeply in love he was with her even though he knew that he wasn’t rich and that it was obvious that she came from an affluent background.

In order to be closer to Daisy, Gatsby buys a mansion across Daisy symbolizing the need for him to be close to her as well as the parties he arranges at his house which are illuminated with lights. These lights attract the “moths” who are Gatsby party guests but are created initially to attract Daisy to his house, thus hopefully emerging her closer to him so that their love can grow and Gatsby dream become fulfilled. However the barriers separating them from being together can also be symbolized by the love and the classification of the two villages.

While Daisy lives in the East which was associated with the extravagance living which offered opportunities, Gatsby lived in the West which stood for traditional values such as solidity. These barriers added to the factors of why Gatsby could only “dream” of having Daisy because life interfered with their love. This pure love that once blossomed can’t be recaptured again in the present and though Gatsby pursues his grail the moment is gone.

Gatsby hope of being with Daisy the one who he truly loves and infatuates over dies with him. In The Great Gatsby , idealized love becomes an essence of destruction and delusion, this is partly due to it attempting to arrive in the fragmented post war America Juxtaposed with the sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning where idealized love flourishes through its power to be transcendent and restorative. Idealized love is represented in a deep meaningful way in Elizabeth Barrett Borrowings sonnets.

Through the persona of Elizabeth it is shown how love is powerful, it transformed her life, giving her new hope. The “silver ring” symbolizes that things are getting better; this is shown by the sense of restoration that their love has brought to her life. The love shown between Elizabeth and her lover is not terrestrials; it is idealistic love. Elizabeth states in sonnet XIV that she wants her lover to love her for the sake of love,” If thou must love me, let it be for enough Except for love’s sake only’.

Juxtaposition to The Great Gatsby where Gatsby had to modify his life in order to try and get Daisy to love him again, Elizabeth spiritually believes their love is pure and of transcendence; she doesn’t want anything other than their pure love. Through this we see that the characteristics of the Victorian era in terms of qualities is something Elizabeth disregards. She believes that idealized love should e on the basis of feelings instead of traits as they can change.

The last sonnet shows that their love must be enjoyed within all the dimensions of physical passion and the strength of that physical passion adds a spiritual dimension. Earthly love is aligned with spiritual fulfillment “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… ” Explores all the dimensions of their love due to it being measured by the breadth, width and depth – they must be vast. If love is sublime in the sonnet sequence, we can conclude that it is tawdry in The Great Gatsby. In conclusion time and idealized love is shown to be analyses differently between Borrowings and Fitzgerald portrayals.

Time shows how Gatsby tries to re-incarnate the past by showing to Daisy that he has changed himself so that hopefully their “love” can Dollops once again UT D tens Illusion ones when Gatsby ales Wendell In ten sonnets the love that is shared between Elizabeth and her lover is restorative and transcendent and goes beyond death where it will continue to grow. Love is shown by both texts to be powerful and necessary for fulfillment. Elizabeth Barrett Browning suggests that love is not only possible but necessary whereas Fitzgerald sees that love may be necessary but is not possible.

Startled, Tom awoke to the ringing of his alarm, the day he had been waiting for had finally arrived. Sitting up, Tom tugged at his curly black hair and wiped the sleep out of his eyes. A feeling of excitement rushed through his body as he remembered that today was the day he was going to do the most exhilarating but equally terrifying thing he had ever dreamt of.

Tom had turned eighteen the previous day and receiving a gift of skydiving had been something he had longed for. Growing up, Tom had always loved sports. His athletic frame had made him excel in all activities, however, he craved the trilling experience of extreme sports. Although anxious his parents had agreed this would be the perfect gift.

After saying goodbye to his apprehensive parents, Tom headed off to the skydiving centre. He felt numb and uneasy as he drove the forty five minute drive to the skydiving centre anticipating the trill that lay ahead. Feeling the adrenaline kicking in, he saw the sign that read “Skydiving Centre”. Tom was led down a long winding road and finally arrived at the centre. Walking towards the vast white building, Tom could feel his heart pounding like the beating of a base drum. A tall stern looking man introduced himself as Allan, my instructor for the day.

They proceeded to the training centre and initially went through a series of safety instructions. Through a haze of nerves and excitement, Tom listened as Allan enthusiastically explained and demonstrated every aspect of the jump. Several hours later Tom was deemed competent to take to the skies.

Once fitted with his clothing and parachute, Tom followed Allan out to the vast runway where the small plane was awaiting him. His eyes lit up, and a serene smile spread across his face. Sitting in the back of the plane, a calm and composed Tom became anxious as he awaited take off. The roaring engines echoed in his ears and the plane shuddered uncontrollably as the plane left the security of the tarmac. Butterflies danced menacingly in Tom’s stomach as he tried to listen vigilantly to Allan’s instructions. Cautiously Tom peered out of the small window as cars and people turned into tiny pin heads and fields looked like a patch work quilt.

“We have reached the required height” explained Allan, “are you ready to look before you leap”? As Allan opened the sliding door on the side of the plane the angry wind roared in with incredible force. Allan’s voice became muffled as fear took over. Tom had told himself not to look before he leapt but he became fixated on the terrifying open space beneath him. He felt rooted to the spot as if bolts had been driven through his feet and unable to take that final step towards the edge of the plane. With Allan’s support and words of encouragement Tom somehow found the courage to make that electrifying leap into the unknown.

Adrenaline rushed through his body as free fall reached terminal velocity with the skin on his face pulling back so tight it felt as though it was going to tear. A feeling of euphoria gripped Tom as he was free falling through the sky at 125mph. Then at 5,000 feet, with the ground rapidly coming to meet him, he pulled his parachute cord hard and fast. Silence filled the sky as Tom’s parachute opened and he experienced the breathtaking descent, free as a bird.

The ground was fast approaching and Tom began to remember how he had been taught to land. Quicker than expected, Tom felt his feet running along the ground, all the fear and apprehension had disappeared. Tom had experienced a stimulating sensation that was difficult to explain to anyone who hadn’t skydived. This had been a once in a lifetime experience where Tom’s dreams had certainly become a reality. This unique and lasting experience was one he would never forget.

The Failed Dream “The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch It yourself. ” These are the words of the American forefather, Benjamin Franklin. His thoughts reflect the theme that runs through each word, idea and aspect of The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby highlights the flaws of the coveted American dream and how it can never be achieved. Fitzgerald illustrated the different areas of this principle in various characters, such as the Buchanan, George Wilson and, of course, the Infamous Jay Gatsby.

These characters exemplify the empty promises of the “white picket fence” fantasy and the lies that we have been told all through our lives that If we work hard and honest enough, we will receive our reward. The Buchanan, Tom and Daisy, were created by Fitzgerald to show how the rich have their wealth not due to any merit of theirs, as so the American dream claims. Instead, throughout the plot, it is revealed how immoral, selfish, and irresponsible the rich are, all the things that one is told not to do to achieve true happiness, yet they have reaped the benefits of the dream. The

Immorality of the wealthy Is best personified through Tom Buchanan, who not only Is a chronic cheater, but also treats everyone else as Inferior to him. Early In the book, one of the first interactions a reader has with Tom is him talking to his mistress while hosting a dinner party with his wife. What is worse is the next chapter consists of him taking Nick, his wife’s cousin, to meet this mistress. This shows not only his selfishness, but his lack of any conscience. Even when he discovered the infidelity of his own wife, he failed to see his own fault for the exact crime. Daisy Is no better.

She was eager to have an affair from the first mention of It, when Nick called her to come alone. She didn’t even consider the repercussions until push came to shove and she was forced to choose. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy?they smashed up things… Then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness”(pig 70). This could not better explain this couple. Their only concern was themselves. They gave no regard to anyone but themselves. Daisy, who claimed to love Gatsby, through him under the bus to take the fall for Myrtle’s murder and ran into the arms of Tom.

Both f them conspired to contently their superfluous life at the expense of theirs. They lived a life which breaks every code of morality and do not deserve their wealth, yet they are the ones who are enjoying the wonders of the fulfillment of the American dream. If the Buchanan are Fitzgerald example of people who have unjustifiably benefited from the American economic system, the opposite is George Wilson who has been cheated out of his inheritance. Wilson is the person the dream claims you should be to achieve It, hardworking, kind and moral.

In every scene, except after the death of Myrtle, that George appears In, he Is working. He works his heart out yet all he has to show of it is a failed marriage and an empty bank account. As one edges toward the end of the book and the American dream unravels, George becomes the biggest indicator of this, “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick…. So sick that he looked guilty, unforgivably guilty. Yet even when he discovers the Infidelity of his George’s morality is the end when he finally seeks revenge. Granted, he murdered Gatsby, but he did this out of great mental torment and depression and even when e did it, he was filled with such regret that he could not live with himself afterwards. All the other characters, save for Nick, live in their sin without any sense of a conscience. If the American Dream is accurate, then George should be the most successful character in this tale, however, he is instead the penniless corpse.

Gatsby is an example of someone who earned his American dream; however, he did not do it in the method that is advertised. Instead, Gatsby not only got his money through illegal means but he was also immoral and selfish. His actions, by definition, go against all that is upheld by the American dream so it should not be possible for Gatsby gain all he has. It is believed that if one works hard and is honest they will get their reward, yet we saw this is not true in George.

On the flip side, Gatsby was able to obtain a fortune, but through illegal means. Not only is this but he not a hugely moral person though a reader might want to believe that. Instead, he is trying to take a married woman as his own, disregarding her husband, no matter how bad, and her daughter. These are not the actions of a ‘good man’. He was never content with what he had, always looking for more, even as a young man. He did not even care for his family as they were not wealthy and therefore not up to his standards.

Gatsby instead did anything achieve success in the exact opposite way in the way one is told they can achieve it. The Great Gatsby seems like the tragic of failed love on the surface, however, it is really the poetic analysis of the tragedy of the American economic structure. One is told to work hard and be good and they will achieve success. Yet Fitzgerald magnified how this is a gross miscarriage of the truth. Instead, the people who have achieved success were handed it on a silver platter, like the Buchanan, or got it through immoral means, like Gatsby.

He also shows how people who truly do believe in the dream try and try again but are cheated and never receive their reward, like George. The American dream is the universal aspiration of everyone on the planet. It is the almost religious belief instilled into the hearts of each person, influenced western society, from a young age. Yet only the select few who are already at the top stay there, looking down at the rest of us as the gap widens; and leaving us to run the pursuit of happiness only to receive the only thing that is guaranteed, death and taxes.