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Noah Vasquez

Mrs. Schenk

English 11 / Period 4

15 February 2022

The Great Gatsby Essay

In the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the constant idea of the american

dream was being expressed throughout the novel. Daisy, Nick and Gatsby are just some of the

people in the novel that are guilty of falling for this dream, but soon find out that this “american

dream” is rather more like the “death of the american dream”. In the novel, Daisy, Nick and

Gatsby desperately try to achieve the American dream but with Gatsby's death, it showed how

the loss of love, losing ties with the elite and lack of true friends will lead to the “Death of the

American Dream”.

Starting off, Daisy, for example, is represented in the novel for trying to pursue the

American dream of finding true love. Towards the middle of the book, we find out that Gatsby

and Daisy were falling in love with one another, but their love could never be due to the fact that

Gatsby was a poor soldier and Daisy was a rich high class girl. Even though she loved Gatsby,

Daisy still ended up marrying Tom Buchanan so she can have a more materialistic life that she

has always wanted. This was brought up when Gatsby was arguing with Tom, “ she only married

you because you were poor and she was tired of waiting for me” (Gatsby, 137). By this quote, it

shows how even Gatsby knew the main reason why Daisy didn’t marry Gatsby when they were

younger, was because Gatsby himself was poor and couldn't provide for her materialistic dreams.

This furthermore shows how even with true love, it can’t satisfy the American dream if you are

poor. Also, Daisy's last hopes of finding true love with Gatsby at the end of the novel, were
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finished with Gatsby’s untimely death from Mr. Wilson. Nick was dumbfounded when Daisy had

gone away the afternoon Gatsby died, saying to the man on the telephone, “ left no address-say

when they get back”, (Nick, 172). This shows how once Daisy had found out about Gatsby’s

death, she must’ve gone away with Tom and completely forgot about Gatsby. Even though she

wasn’t in love with Tom, she will try to rekindle her love for him but he will never be Gatsby.

Her last hope for finding true love in this so-called “American Dream” died with Gatsby, overall

making her American dream die.

Like many others, Nick’s American dream was to get rich and live the high life in the

East so he moved from the west countryside to a house in the East so he can commute to New

York. Nick started off his American Dream by getting into the bond business East, “Everyone I

knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man” (Nick, 7).

Nick did this because he wanted to get out of his family business and make a name for himself.

He thought the best way to do this was to go Eastward into the city life of New York and

commute to work everyday from a house his family bought for him that cost $80 a month, which

happened to be right next to Gatsby’s house. Once he met Gatsby, Gatsby took Nick under his

wing and introduced him to high society and could have gone far but once Gatsby died, Nick

saw no real reason to pursue a life in New York and to pursue his “American Dream”. When

referring to Gatsby’s death, Nick went on to say, “the East haunted me for me- I decided to come

back home” (185). This quote that Nick states furthermore shows how Gatsby’s death just made

life in the East unbearable for Nick. He didn't find happiness anymore and the bond business

didn’t succeed enough for Nick to want to stay. His final decision was to go back home and

essentially give up his “American Dream” which proves the fact that there was a clear prompt

showing the death of the american dream.

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Finally, another way the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F Scotts FItzgerald, portrayed the

theme of the Death of the American Dream, was how Gatsby, in the end, had no true friendships

other than Nick. Towards the beginning of the book, Gatsby was right off the back known as the

party house. Gatsby often threw many huge party’s that he invited hundreds of people to, but he

was never seen at his own party. This then led to people questioning who he was and making up

stories about him. When Nick attended one of his parties, he met up with Jordan baker and found

a table of people gossiping about Gatsby. While Nick was overhearing the conversation that was

being had about Gatsby’s past, Nick heard outrageous things such as, “ Gatsby was a german spy

during the war” following with, “I heard he killed a man” (Fitzgerald, 48). By all these people

gossiping about Gatsby’s past, just shows how no one at his party really does not know him.

They are all basically strangers to him which makes people question him and think of Gatsby as

a very secretive mysterious man. This just makes Gatsby seem like a rich careless nobody

instead of a wealthy nobleman that is respected that Gatsby wants to be. Not only that, but at the

end of the book, in Gatsby’s untimely death, we (the reader) truly see how Gatsby failed his

American Dream, because he lacked true friendship, We see this that when Nick was trying to

get people to come to Gatsby’s funeral. Almost every person he called that he thought would

want to come, never showed up. A man that Nick met at one of Gatsby’s great parties, that's

referred to as an owl-eyed man, noticed that no one even showed up for Gatsby’s funeral saying,

“ they used to go there by the hundreds' ' (183). This just furthermore shows how even one of

Gatsby's close friends noticed that no one else respected Gatsby enough in his life to actually

show up to his funeral and pay him respects. This then shows how Gatsby never fulfilled his

American Dream because of the lack of friendship he had in his life. Which overall made his

so-called “american dream” turn into the “Death of the American Dream”.
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All in all, Daisy, Nick and Gatsby actions in the novel portray how many Americans in

the 1920’s failed to achieve the “American Dream” and fell into a depressive state that left them

with a feeling of self pity. The three quilty members of this so-called “American Dream”

desperately try to achieve their goals but with Gatsby's death, Daisy realized her only hope for

real, pure, true love was lost. While Nick loses his ties to the elite statice of high class New York,

leaving him hopeless and wanting to head back home by the death of his friend Gatsby. Ending

with Gatsby’s lack of friendship in his life made him not be able to be a truly happy and

respected man in New York, all furthermore show how the drastic chase for that “American

Dream” is nothing but a dream.