The American Dream...

I would describe the American Dream as an idea composed of four things; freedom, equality, opportunity, and struggle.



For starters, freedom can be seen through the abilities that people have to what they want around the time of the 1920s. While prohibition was a prominent thing at this time, the people of America had the freedom to object to these laws and divulge in alcohol as they so chose. They also had the freedom to party and live lavishly as seen through Gatsby and Jordan Baker. These two characters partake in grandiose parties and harp on the idea of wealth buying happiness. Due to this book being written after the time of WWI, great change swept America and this can be seen through the style of women's outfits and again the alcohol that seems to become a prominent reoccurring object. However, freedom is limited ultimately through social constructions such as African Americans not receiving the same education and opportunities as white people due to the standards of society at this time this is highlighted in the magazine "Crisis."



Next came equality and obviously demonstrated in this book, people are not equal. The most obvious is the characters of Nick and Gatsby who act as foils for each other. Gatsby represents new money, and high class, as well as change, whereas Nick represents the working class and someone who is a guest in the life of wealth and power. Generally, the most obvious dichotomy is old vs new demonstrated through old and new money as well as East and West Egg demonstrated in the novel.

Next, comes opportunities, and this is again seen through Nick and Gatsby. Nick moved across the country away from his entire life in order to start anew and begin his new life in New York, West Egg next to Mr. Jay Gatsby. Now, Gatsby, on the other hand, was an Oxford man who built a new life for himself consisting of house parties, guests, and money.

Finally came privilege, and this is similar to the above-mentioned aspect of opportunity but this highlights more on the privilege that one has to choose their struggle and to choose to struggle for what they want to achieve. Myrtle Wilson is an example of this because she is not actually a member of high society but acts more as a visitor to this. Therefore, she demonstrates this privilege to choose one's struggle because she wants to maintain the high-class lifestyle that she visits from time to time.

To me, the definition of wealth is an ample amount of knowledge, power, riches or status. What one chooses to do with said wealth determines how rich they become in love and friendship. In the Great Gatsby, the most obvious sign of wealth is demonstrated through the character of Gatsby due to his obvious and obscure demonstrations of wealth.

The ideas of wealth and poverty are demonstrated in two ways. One is in the novel and the other being the present day. In the novel wealth is meant to be used in grandiose ways to impress others and celebrate all aspects of life. The idea of poverty is presented in the novel through the highlight given to the fact that it is a natural part of social structure. It implies that those in poverty should have to work to gain things that people in wealthy positions already have. The present-day observes the idea of wealth as something that should be used to help others be that wealth of money or wealth of knowledge. Also, the now observes poverty as a part of society that ultimately needs to be eliminated.

For myself, I feel that wealth is something that everyone has the opportunity to achieve and those who have it should share it with those who do not. Poverty to me is something everyone could experience and those in it should work to get out of it and ask those who are not in it for help.