The Representation of The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Writings

“The American Dream” is something everyone who comes here or lives here strives to achieve, but what is the American dream exactly? Fitzgerald has defined the personification of that dream is Daisy, and even though according to today's definition of the American dream Gatsby has already reached all the wealth and popularity that everyone now wishes for. In “Winter Dreams” Dexter's American dream and primary objective in life is to profit and improve his social class. He longs for really playing golf with the rich men he caddies for at the Sherry Island Golf Club. All things considered, while Dexter may dream of popularity and fortune, this isn't a clothes to newfound wealth story. Both of these stories to Fitzgerald's life and his problems and dreams. Looking on the examples all through the novel, we see how Fitzgerald demonstrates individuals at different phases of seeking after their fantasy of something, be it riches or love or achievement or something to that effect. So the question of this essay is: Is it true that they are upbeat? Have they truly accomplished what they embarked to accomplish?

In The Great Gatsby when we first take a look at Jay Gatsby we see him coming to towards something distant, something in sight however certainly distant. This popular picture of the green light is regularly comprehended as a feature of The Incomparable Gatsby's contemplation on The American Dream – the possibility that individuals are continually coming to towards an option that is more noteworthy than themselves that is simply distant. Jay Gatsby had everything every man wished for fame, money, women, but that was not Gatsby's image for the American dream, “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” This minute expressly binds Daisy to the majority of Gatsby's bigger dreams for a superior life – to his American Dream. The end pages of the novel think about finally the American Dream, in a frame of mind that appears to be all the while distressed, thankful, and critical. “But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone – he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock,” it additionally binds back to our first look at Gatsby, connecting over the water towards the Buchanan's green light. Scratch takes note of that Gatsby's fantasy was 'at that point behind him' at that point, as such, it was difficult to achieve. Yet at the same time, he discovers something to respect in how Gatsby still sought after a superior life, and continually connected toward that more promising time to come.

Another story analyzed in this essay, 'Winter Dreams', has a comparative storyline yet not actually, in the story, the American Dream, or the 'winter dream,' is an unending — and finally unfulfilling — intrigue subject to outside checks of achievement and delight. Dexter watches the affluent and needs to resemble them when he grows up, and he accepts on the off chance that he buckles sufficiently down he can grow up one day and be much the same as them, he even imagines scenes where he drives up in lavish autos and the wealthy surround him just to hear him out talk. His fantasies do work out he strikes it rich yet his fantasy has turned out to be degenerate.

“The dream was gone. Something had been taken from him. In a sort of panic he pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes and tried to bring up a picture of the waters lapping on Sherry Island and the moonlit veranda, and gingham on the golf-links and the dry sun and the gold color of her neck's soft down. And her mouth damp to his kisses and her eyes plaintive with melancholy and her freshness like new fine linen in the morning. Why, these things were no longer in the world! They had existed and they existed no longer…” In 'Winter Dreams' Fitzgerald has demonstrated the topic of his time, as the issue of 'American dream' and its disappointment was inborn to numerous Americans in the mid twentieth century. The craving for riches and wonderful life, sparkle and allure pulled in a large number of youngsters. Fitzgerald in his saint demonstrated the quintessence of deceptive American long for riches and status. Dexter with his fantasies of progress is encapsulation of his age, who saw boundless open doors in the new century, however had false dreams and yearnings.

“For the first time in years the tears were streaming down his face. But they were for himself now. He did not care about mouth and eyes and moving hands. He wanted to care, and he could not care. For he had gone away and he could never go back any more. The gates were closed, the sun was gone down, and there was no beauty but the gray beauty of steel that withstands all time. Even the grief he could have borne was left behind in the country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where his winter dreams had flourished.” he saw no point in all his hard work because he didn't find the happiness he needed

As seen from the analysis in the essay, both of the stories have protagonists who work hard to achieve their American dream only to come to a realization that it's not what they were looking for and it just so happens that a girl enters their life which gives them the hope that their dreams are still in their reach and are attainable. Both the girls play Dexter and jay, and when they both get played they realize money isn't everything and cannot buy you true happiness. Dexter works hard to become wealthy and once he does reach the top he realizes that his dream has become corrupted, just as daisy is the corrupted version of Gatsby's dream that he can never live up to his expectations. Both of these works present Fitzgerald’s dissatisfaction with his very own life and endeavors to accomplish the American dream. Much the same as Dexter and Gatsby he ended up intrigued by an affluent socialite and was looked downward on by her social class and family. When he at last won Zelda and wed her, he persevered through a wild association with her where their riches was shaky and their reliability to each other faulty.

Not many know how to achieve the American dream, and the American dream is never satisfied because the dream is entails that we always have to strive for what we don't have or for more than we already have, and not everyone has the same representation of “the dream” for some its money, fame, power, and for others it's just to be able to live a fulfilling life with a family in the suburbs. Jay and Dexter have both worked extremely hard to get where they were and still not attain happiness, money can buy you a fast car, or a gorgeous house, but that's not the happiness everyone is looking for.