Great gatsby and dream motif PDF

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How does Fitzgerald uses the motif of dreams to explore the relationship between individual and society. The motif of dreams is featured in several instances of the novel. In the beginning, Gatsby’s outstretched arms towards the ‘single green light’ symbolically represents his dream for Daisy. Thereafter, he emphasises his dreams to ‘repeat the past’ to what it was once before with Daisy, an extremity that is impossible to achieve. Gatsby’s dream tragically parallels the unattainable American Dream, where it promises everyone success to those that diligently pursue it. Yet, the American Dream has transgressed into a crass materialistic ideal, losing its meaning. With this meaning lost, the motif of dreams explores the poignant search of fulfilment in a society that has lost its meaning Gatsby’s dream reveals the impossibility of the American Dream, that albeit much desirable, is merely an empty and fragile shell. The fragility of his dream which has taken the form of his lover, Daisy Buchanan whose ‘voice full of money’ and ‘safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor’ reveals the materialistic desire for affluence. Yet this delicate dream is one ‘founded securely on a fairy’s wings’ revealing how easily destructible it is, being literally ‘above the hot struggles of the poor’.

Gatsby’s unachievable dream reveals the disillusionment that paints the American Dream as attainable. His dream which had taken the form of Daisy Buchanan, whose ‘voice full of money’ and ‘safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor’ revealed his actual desire for affluence. This conflation of his dream for wealth with his dream for Daisy exposes the materialism in the American Dream, a rag-to-riches wonder. Yet, his realisation of the dream proved no better as it also revealed the deception embedded within the American Dream. As a self-made man shedding his past as ‘James Gatz’ and adopting the name ‘Jay Gatsby’, a name that would be as prestige as his ambition to reinvent himself to be ‘a man of fine-breeding’, Gatsby still lacks appropriate linage and is reduced to a ‘common swindler’ by Tom. Thus, despite his rise to extravagance and wealth, his fortune could only be derived illegitimately as his past and lack of ‘comfortable family standing’ precludes his acceptance by society. His romantic ideals of Daisy also fall short and are ‘presumptuous’ little flirtations’ in the end. Thus, the American Dream of Jay Gatsby is ‘broken up like glass’ against the Buchanans ‘hard malice’ and overwhelming carelessness who have only experienced the fruits of the dream to reveal the unbridgeable entrenched gap of class division that society places, preventing individuals like Gatsby from reaching their dreams.

Gatsby’s misguided idealism reveals the transgression of the once pure American Dream, into a corrupted and materialistic ideal. Gatsby’s outstretched arms towards the ‘single green light’ that to him symbolises Daisy, also parallels the hopes of the Dutch sailors who thought of America as the ‘green breast of the new world’. Both green objects represent ‘the last and greatest of all human dreams’ and also suggests that Gatsby’s future was beyond his control his dream was ‘already behind him’ and the ‘foul dust’ that Nick accused of ‘[preying] on Gatsby’ was in fact remains of a long lost dream and ‘hit their eyes’.

Yet despite Gatsby’s failure, Nick strives to protect Gatsby’s dream in the novel in an effort to preserve his ‘extraordinary gift for hope’. After Gatsby’s death, Nick observably works as Gatsby’s defence, sympathising with his yearning that led to his demise. He found himself ‘on Gatsby’s side,

and alone’, visiting the ‘huge incoherent failure of a house’ where the metaphor represented Gatsby’s unsuccessful pursuit of his dreams through wealth and garishness. Nick ‘[erase]’ an ‘obscene word, scrawled by some boy’ and continues being Gatsby’s guardian, erasing the slanders about him while recreating and resurrecting Gatsby’s ‘incorruptible dream’ to reveal the essence of Gatsby. Despite facing despising what Gatsby stood for, Nick’s account greatly sympathises with Gatsby, even with ‘appalling sentimentality’ and optimism, to convince others and even himself, that it was never Gatsby’s fault and he ‘turned out all right at the end’. Just as how Nick had crafted Gatsby’s story, society has crafted the American Dream that remains as a tale of the past.

Fitzgerald uses the motif of dreams to tragically reveal the disillusionment shrouded within society. It also exposes how the American Dream where it promises that with hard work, every would have equal opportunities to succeed, has transgressed into a crass materialistic ideal. With this meaning lost, the motif of dreams explores the poignant search in a society that no longer has its meaning. Gatsby’s unachievable dream reveals the disillusionment that paints the American Dream as attainable. His dream which had taken the form of Daisy Buchanan, whose ‘voice full of money’ and ‘safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor’ revealed his actual desire for affluence. This conflation of his dream for wealth with his dream for Daisy exposes the materialism in the American Dream, a rag-to-riches wonder. Yet, his realisation of the dream proved no better as it also revealed the deception embedded within the American Dream. As a self-made man shedding his past as ‘James Gatz’ and adopting the name ‘Jay Gatsby’, a name that would be as prestige as his ambition to reinvent himself to be ‘a man of fine-breeding’, Gatsby still lacks appropriate linage and is reduced to a ‘common swindler’ by Tom. Thus, despite his rise to extravagance and wealth, his fortune could only be derived illegitimately as his past and lack of ‘comfortable family standing’ precludes his acceptance by society. His romantic ideals of Daisy also fall short and are ‘presumptuous’ little flirtations’ in the end. Thus, the American Dream of Jay Gatsby is ‘broken up like glass’ against the Buchanans ‘hard malice’ and overwhelming carelessness who have only experienced the fruits of the dream to reveal the unbridgeable entrenched gap of class division that society places, preventing individuals like Gatsby from reaching their dreams.

Gatsby’s misguided idealism reveals the transgression of the once pure American Dream, into a corrupted and materialistic ideal. Gatsby’s outstretched arms towards the ‘single green light’ that to him symbolises Daisy, also parallels the hopes of the Dutch sailors who thought of America as the ‘green breast of the new world’. Both green objects represent ‘the last and greatest of all human dreams’ and also suggests that Gatsby’s future was beyond his control his dream was ‘already behind him’ and the ‘foul dust’ that Nick accused of ‘[preying] on Gatsby’ was in fact remains of a long lost dream and ‘hit their eyes’.

Yet despite Gatsby’s failure, Nick strives to protect Gatsby’s dream in the novel in an effort to preserve his ‘extraordinary gift for hope’. After Gatsby’s death, Nick observably works as Gatsby’s defence, sympathising with his yearning that led to his demise. He found himself ‘on Gatsby’s side, and alone’, visiting the ‘huge incoherent failure of a house’ where the metaphor represented Gatsby’s unsuccessful pursuit of his dreams through wealth and garishness. Nick ‘[erase]’ an ‘obscene word, scrawled by some boy’ and continues being Gatsby’s guardian, erasing the slanders about him while recreating and resurrecting Gatsby’s ‘incorruptible dream’ to reveal the essence of Gatsby. Despite facing despising what Gatsby stood for, Nick’s account greatly sympathises with Gatsby, even with ‘appalling sentimentality’ and optimism, to convince others and even himself, that it was never Gatsby’s fault and he ‘turned out all right at the end’. Just as how Nick had crafted Gatsby’s story, society has crafted the American Dream that remains as a tale of the past....