The American Dream is a promise that no matter how wealthy you were growing up you can still be successful and achieve your dreams if you work hard enough. However the author of ”The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the different settings – East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes to show the false promise that the American Dream holds. He uses it as a reality check to all of the characters in the book and to portray the failure of it in the American society. Although it is believed that anyone who puts their mind to it can achieve the American Dream, Fitzgerald proves that this is in fact, not true and that very few of the characters in the book will ever achieve it.
The people living in “East Egg condescending to West Egg…” have all achieved and are living the American Dream that many of the other characters in the book are so desperately trying to achieve. They are seen as the elite upper class and look down on everyone else including the people of West Egg. “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water.” Not only are the people of East Egg seen as perfect and to have it all but East Egg itself is also very glamorous and impressive to look at compared to many of the other places in the book. East Egg is the place that everyone would be overjoyed to live in and will spend most of their lives trying to reach the status of the people who are already lucky enough to be living here. Daisy and Tom Buchanan were both born and raised with ‘Old Money’ and therefore have never known what struggling to earn money is like. Daisy spends most of her time relaxing in her home with her friend Jordan and has never worried about having a day’s work in her life. She and the other people of East Egg are oblivious to the people who are struggling just to earn enough money to survive. She looks down upon the people of West Egg and when she attended Gatsby’s party “She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented ‘place’” The way the people act and flaunt their money in West Egg shocks Daisy as she is not used to being around people who act like this. This quote proves that although the people of West Egg may be just as rich as her and Tom, they are still not of her status, and never will be, in the American Society.
“All men are created equal” is one of the things the American Dream represents, however, this statement is untrue as proven in the book. The people who live in West Egg have worked hard most of their life to achieve the so-called “American Dream”. They have earned all of the money that got them to where they are now themselves. However, in the book, East Eggers still look down on the people living in West Egg “…the least fashionable of the two…” no matter how rich they maybe they will never be able to reach the status of the people living in East Egg. This goes against the whole idea of the American Dream about everyone being able to achieve it and having an equal opportunity. Another example is when Tom makes a comment about Gatsby saying “A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know.”. This tells us that Tom and most like many other East Eggers believe that anyone who comes from new money and not old money like him and Daisy must have earned their money in an illegal way. Gatsby may be extremely rich and appear to have everything but in reality he will never be seen as equal to the people of East Egg or to have earned his money in a legal way in Tom’s eyes. This proves that the people who are from old money will always have it better and be more entitled than the people who worked hard to create their fortune themselves.
The Valley of Ashes, located between West Egg and Manhattan, is used by Fitzgerald to portray the complete failure of the American Dream. “This is a valley of ashes… where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash grey men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” The people who live here who try to achieve the American Dream through hard and legal work always end up with nothing. The description tells us that compared to East and West Egg, the Valley of Ashes is an inescapable trap and a life of poverty. While the people living here are working hard every day just to be able to supply their families with food, the people of East and West Egg are throwing enormous parties and not even considering the suffering of the people in the Valley of Ashes. “…the valley of ashes opened out on both sides of us, and I had a glimpse of Mrs. Wilson straining at the garage pump with panting vitality as we went by.” As Nick and Gatsby drive past The Valley of Ashes on their way to New York for lunch, Nick sees Myrtle Wilson working at her husband’s garage. When compared to people such as Daisy and Jordan (both East Eggers from old money) who would normally spend their time relaxing and never doing any work it becomes clear that Myrtle does not have the opportunities or chances of achieving the American Dream like them. It seems as though no matter how hard she and the other people living here work they get nowhere and are instead stuck in a cycle of poverty.
In conclusion, I think Fitzgerald portrayed the falseness of the American Dream well. Each of the three settings represents the lack of equality in America’s society and how many of the people will never reach the status of people such as Tom and Daisy no matter what they do. Very few characters in the book managed to achieve the American Dream and the ones who did were usually lucky enough to have been born into ‘Old Money’ and had lived a life of luxury from a very young age. They never had to worry about being in poverty and therefore will always be superior to the other characters in the book who have worked or are still trying to work their way from the bottom up.
Recent Comments