How F. Scott Fitzgerald Represents Gatsby’s American Dream

This essay is going to answer the question ‘How does Gatsby represent the American Dream?’. Dividing fantasy from reality has always been a complication for humans throughout history. By yearning for the impossible, one prepares for failure and disappointment in the future. This plight is the case for Gatsby, whose fixed fantasy is not enough to overcome the grim truth of the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, American ideals and American reality are represented by Gatsby’s failed efforts to regain Daisy’s love. Objects such as Gatsby’s colossal mansion, Nick’s mantlepiece clock, and the green dock light on Daisy’s property represents Gatsby’s misconception of the American dream. As well as his failure to achieve the fantasy he created with Daisy.

First, the grand size of Gatsby’s mansion is symbolic of the illusion he creates to impress the love of his life Daisy. When Gatsby invites Nick and Daisy over for a house tour, she compliments the size of his mansion but questions why he lives alone. Gatsby replies dishonestly to impress Daisy while concealing the truth: “I always keep it full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things”. From an outer perspective, Gatsby is the ideal of a man his best life in America. His glamorous house is constantly occupied with lavish parties open to the public. His unique possessions such as his golden Rolls-Royce, elegant clothes, and library of uncut books represents Jay’s plethora of money and high-class status. He is notorious around New York for his wealth and success in business. Not to mention his elite Oxford education and his favorite saying, ‘old sport’, establishes Gatsby’s true “East-Egg” values. To many, this may seem to be living the American Dream. Unfortunately, it is not the case for Jay Gatsby. Nick’s description of Gatsby’s mansion in chapter eight reveals his true character and personality:

“His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night… We pushed aside curtains that were like pavilions, and felt over innumerable feet of dark wall for electric switches… There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere, and the rooms were musty and, as though they hadn’t been aired out for many days”.

Nick’s comments reveal the truth Gatsby is hiding under his grand act. Gatsby is lonely and isolated from everyone. Especially after he fails to win back Daisy’s love from Tom in the hotel room. When Daisy professes her love for both Tom and Gatsby, Jay’s allusion to taking Daisy away to live his dream is lost. Gatsby stops hosting parties, where he truly knew none of his guests and isolates himself. He no longer feels the need to impress Daisy, so he closes the curtains and turns off the bright lights used to display his marvelous mansion. The now dark and empty house is reflective of Gatsby’s feelings. After working for five years to create this fool’s paradise, reality sets in when Daisy does not react the way Gatsby envisioned.

Second, Nick’s mantelpiece clock represents Gatsby’s faith in rearranging time and returning to the past he had with Daisy. After discussing with Nick about Daisy’s relationship with Tom. Nick tells Gatsby that he cannot repeat the past. Gatsby responds astonished, almost offended: “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”. Gatsby’s response shows his self-assurance to turn back time with Daisy. He believes their relationship will be identical to when they first met five years ago. Gatsby’s tunnel vision leads him to inaccurately assess Daisy and her present feelings towards him. He is stuck up on achieving the fantasy he created with Daisy, that he misses the truth shown directly in front of him. Reality stings Gatsby when he, Nick and the Buchanans are in the Plaza Hotel. After high tensions between Nick and Gatsby about his secret affairs with Daisy. Gatsby induces Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him. Her crying response crushes Gatsby’s dreams: “There, Jay. Oh, you want too much! I love you now- isn’t that enough. I can’t help what’s past. I did love him once…”. Even after Daisy’s blatant statement Gatsby continues trying to push Tom completely out of Daisy’s life. He cannot perceive the realism of the situation that Tom and Daisy are married. Also, Daisy’s perception and feelings towards Gatsby have changed during their five years apart. She has moved on in life, the opposite to Gatsby who continues to clench onto the past. Even if Daisy and Gatsby reignite their relationship in the future. Daisy’s child will always represent the past, and the five lost years between the couple where their love faded. In all, Gatsby fails to realize the concept of life. That life resembles a clock and time continues to move forward no matter the circumstance. Whether intact, broken or old, time waits for no soul. An essential lesson Gatsby cannot accept.

Finally, the green light is perhaps the most symbolic object throughout the novel. It is first described when Nick looks out onto Gatsby’s dock, and recognizes a figure standing there: “… he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way… I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock”. The figure on the dock is Gatsby reaching out to seize his fantasy of a future with Daisy. The green light represents one’s hopes and dreams. In Gatsby’s case that is to reunite with Daisy, and ‘start over’ the relationship they began all those years ago on that night in Louisville. Gatsby’s fantasy of being with Daisy only developed the longer they were apart. So, during this time, Gatsby creates an illusion of the perfect life he will live with Daisy in the West-Egg. Gatsby’s ambition to achieve his fantasy drives him to create an illusion of the American dream for Daisy. Sadly, when he finally meets Daisy, her intentions and attitude towards Gatsby are unlike he could imagine. When Gatsby attempts to rearrange time in order to regain Daisy’s love, he is murdered with a shot in the back, symbolizing how the American Dream double-crosses its believers. Readers learn Jay Gatsby’s faith in a picture-perfect future, through Nick Carraway’s final words in the novel: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eludes us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther….”. For Gatsby, the green light represented a utopian future with Daisy. He depended on the American Dream to achieve this fantasy by alluring Daisy with his possessions and status. Unfortunately, when Gatsby’s dreams are crushed, reality sets in and he has nothing left to live for; and he is murdered. Relating Gatsby’s ambition of love to the real world. Every person has something they aspire for in life, that is off in the distance and may seem impossible to acquire. That entity symbolizes the green light.

In conclusion, Gatsby’s fantasy of living a paradisiacal life with Daisy leads him to fall victim of the American Dream’s false hopes and promises. Gatsby’s mansion, Nick’s defunct mantelpiece clock, and the green dock light are all symbols representing Gatsby’s misconception of living the great America Dream. Through his failed attempts to regain Daisy’s love, Gatsby depicts false American ideals to the cold American reality. The Great Gatsby proves how people often strive for unattainable goals and are disappointed when they are not achieved. By carrying high expectations and fantasizing of perfection. One will find it difficult to distinguish fantasy from the reality of the inhumane world he or she lives in.