Keoni Taum
12/13/12 Pd. 1
Great Gatsby: American Dream Essay
The great and dreamy American dream, it is quite a fascinating thing in this country and means a lot to the citizens of our wonderful nation, especially the immigrants who come to this country looking and hoping for opportunity of some sort such as work, wealth, freedom, safety, and even a second chance at things, and that’s where and when America pops into their minds and dreams; The American dream, starting from the bottom or from nothing and being a nobody, but from there you can rise to the top and become a somebody in society, become wealthy and powerful, and be apart or have a say in the government. F. Scott Fitzgerald did a great job showing the American dream in Gatsby’s life.
After reading and while reading The Great Gatsby, I could see that it heavily portrayed or showed what the American dream is, by telling us, the readers, Gatsby’s life story; how Gatsby was born into a poor family out in the country, worked hard as a child and teenager, became an apprentice of some sort, ran away from home at a young age in his teenage years, joined the military, fought in the war and became a war hero, came back to the states and got some education at Oxford University, got into bootlegging or selling alcohol illegally because during that time of the 1920’s alcohol was illegal to sell and have alcohol unless an establishment had purchased alcohol before the Prohibition act was put into action but the people still very much wanted and in a sense needed alcohol so he made a lot of money being a bootlegger, he went from being a nobody and poor, to a popular celebrity in society and probably had millions of dollars and a huge mansion. This whole story or experience of Gatsby’s life was a perfect example of the American dream because again he started out at the bottom, worked hard, and with a bit of time he rose to the top and was now a rich, powerful, somebody who just about had it all.
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