The Great Gatsby and the American Dream

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The first time we see Jay Gatsby he is standing on the shore of a bay reaching out to a green light in the distance. At this moment, without having any knowledge of his past, Fitzgerald allows us to analyze so much about his character. The description of the light as green is not merely coincidental, but it is rather symbolic. The green light sets a tone for the rest of the book. Fitzgerald is mostly interested in all the consequences associated with wealth, symbolically represented by the color green. In Gatsby's case it is blindly pursuing the lovely and wealthy Daisy, whom he dreams of having. His ideal life would be to have her for himself. Gatsby's dream is his sole reason for living. The green light happens to be at the end of Daisy's dock, which he is reaching out to, showing how he is motioning the dream to come towards him. Gatsby is fishing in his ideal vision of a rich life along with his longtime illusion, Daisy. Fitzgerald sets the tone for the book focusing on the consequences Gatsby attains for pursuing wealth.

The green light is placed accordingly at the end of Daisy's dock, and represents the dream Gatsby wishes to come true. He is depicted as reaching out toward the green light. "...-he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and as 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."(P.5) This image shows Gatsby's desire of obtaining his dream, in the way that he is almost dragging it in with his hands, which move in a curious way. The dark water represents, in one's opinion, a sea of dreary doom. This doom is awaiting him on the path to 'reaching' his dream. Gatsby doesn't realize the tragedy that awaits him on account of his foolishness. Gatsby is like many other Americans who want to strike gold, but in the end the treasure ends up being a trap. Lives end in destruction when wealth is used for selfish and unpurposeful reasons, such as Gatsby 'buying' over Daisy to reach what he thinks is a dream, but is in fact an illusion.

Gatsby's whole life has been a journey focusing on tempting Daisy with his wealth to come to him. Gatsby confuses eternal wealth with love, which is why he believes he is in love with Daisy. Gatsby loves what she represents, money, not who she is. This promise of eternal wealth is what draws Gatsby in closer every day. Their so-called love for each other is an illusion, which is why Fitzgerald only focuses on the downfall of their 'relationship' rather than the details of their affair. Gatsby can't see past

the materialistic aspect of their affair, and Daisy is one in the same. Gatsby once remarks, "Her voice is full of money."(P.17) Money is shown once again to be the only purpose for him to achieve his dream. Money blinds his eyes, and forces him to not take notice of anything else. All of the qualities that make up Daisy are directly connected to money. "It was full of money that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbal's song of it...High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl...."(P.17) Daisy is compared only enchanted qualities. Gatsby sees 'a voice full of money" and a rich man's little girl. Daisy is the beautiful rich girl, the golden girl, which is at the center of a poor boy's dream. She lives in an enchanted palace and waits for her prince charming to come sweep her up off her feet; at least this is what Gatsby imagines.

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In order to have her he too must be wealthy, and the revelation of his wealth is all due to wanting Daisy. Not only is Gatsby disillusioned by Daisy's wealth, but Daisy herself is disillusioned by Gatsby's wealth as well.

Daisy is only attracted to the immense wealth, which blinds her eyes, that Jay Gatsby has accumulated, and nothing more personal. Daisy refers to Gatsby as an advertisement man; "You resemble the advertisement of the man,". (P.15) Today advertising only promotes the purchase of materialistic items. This shows Daisy's love as an illusion as well as Gatsby's, because she believes that he is just yet another possession in the world she wants to buy. She doesn't need it, but wants it. She wants to have Gatsby, because of all the material possessions that come along with him. Daisy's fascination with his possessions reveals her obsession with wealth. "With enchanting murmurs Daisy admired this aspect or that of feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plum blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate."(P.6) Daisy is thrilled over the enchanted and rich possessions. Fitzgerald uses elaborate detail to display the rich atmosphere Daisy admires so much. Little objects are described with rich detail, in order to show that every object has a value in Daisy's eyes. Each and every possession pulls a curtain in front of her eyes, that allows her to nothing else except the money set before her. She cannot see who Gatsby really is, so she isn't able to love him on the more personal aspect. Daisy even cries over how many beautiful shirts Gatsby owns. " They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful shirts before."(P.8) Daisy is obsessed with money and what it can buy a person. This is why Daisy pursues Gatsby finally, because he practically has become his money. Gatsby's tour through his mansion is what really draws Daisy close to him.

The tour of the mansion completes Gatsby's dream or ideal vision. After the tour is finished Gatsby has no goal to conquer or work for. Gatsby's whole life has been based around a single dream. He has finally made his dream come true, and now he has no where to go from there. Gatsby's character is seen as going downhill from the second that he reaches his dream. "He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock."(P.7) This shows Gatsby isn't relying on the past times anymore, because he is living his dream in the present. From the second he knows he has Daisy his life declines. Nick describing him as an overwound clock only shows the countdown towards his self-destruction. Gatsby's life goes downhill because he does not use his wealth for anything other than the destruction of his own life.

Gatsby's car is an extension of the symbolic reference to his wealth. This car is yet another symbolic reference to wealth of the typical American. A car is an expensive item most people buy in America. This car Gatsby has leads to his death. Daisy, a careless driver, drives this car at one time, and drives over Myrtle. Tom tells Wilson that the car that killed Myrtle belongs to Gatsby. This is what provokes Wilson to kill Gatsby. Fitzgerald strikes at the point that there are consequences of one's actions. He doesn't realize that money won't completely win over Daisy. Although money is one of the qualities that make Daisy who she is, there are still other 'personal' aspects about her character, which is why she keeps her relationship with Tom. Gatsby describes Tom and Daisy's relationship as personal; "In any case, it was just personal."(P.160) This reflects that Jay Gatsby bases love solely on money. In this case Gatsby is punished for using his wealth for materialistic reasons. This use of his wealth to make his dream come true is the reason for his death. Fitzgerald reveals Gatsby's consequences to pursuing money. Gatsby reaches his dream, but his life went downhill from that time on.

The last time we see Jay Gatsby he is floating on a mattress in his pool with ripples of blood and dead leaves around him. The autumn leaves symbolically apply to the death of Gatsby along with his dream. In the beginning of the book Gatsby is reaching out to the green light, which gives him hope and promise for a dream come true. The end of the book shows how his dream based, strictly on the foundation of wealth, is destroyed by reality.

And as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at he end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.(P.18)

Gatsby is disillusioned by the fact that his dream has already been shattered by reality ages ago, and all he is doing is chasing after a dream that is already gone and lost forever. He could see, almost smell, his dream at hand, which is what provoked him to keep on trying to achieve his life long goal of having Daisy. The green light gave him the hope and promise that he may once obtain his dream. Gatsby kept the hope and promise of the green light close to his heart just as, "the old island that flowered once for Dutch sailor's eyes-a fresh green breast of the New World."(P.18) The green light is compared to the green breast of the New World. Both are in reference to the hope and promise of a woman, which is why the green light is at the end of a woman's dock, and the New World, is described as a green breast. Both uses of green unite hope and promise with a typical American's dream. Gatsby's life is based on a single dream; once this dream is reached there is nothing left to conquer. Gatsby's pursues wealth to make a dream come true, which is the cause for the destruction that takes place in his life. The color green parallels the wealth Gatsby strives for and the consequences of pursuing wealth in his case death.

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