The elusive American Dream has been about longer than the state. Settlers from Europe came to America in hopes for a better life. Now people from all over the universe semen to the United States to populate a life that is fulfilled. flight to freedom. and to do money. They dream of America where anything and everything is possible. However. it has been corrupted over the old ages. Fictional characters like Tom and Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are perfect illustrations of persons who have taken what was one time a beautiful aim and turned it into something that is ugly and unrewarding.

So what is the American Dream? It has changed over the old ages. but the rule has endured. The dream consists of the thought that if one works difficult plenty. anything is possible. It is a topographic point where wealth and celebrity is at everyone’s finger tips. Or if one desires a quiet simple life. it is besides there for the pickings. Many people have the thought that it is the comfy house with the white lookout fencing. two autos in the private road and two point five kids.

Some see it as wealth. celebrity. and a name that will populate on in history. There are besides those whose thought of the American Dream as the right to ain land. The American Dream is non merely about wealth and philistinism. but besides on of satisfaction. the improvement of ego and society. In the modern universe. the dream can besides include a stock portfolio and a 401K. No affair what a person’s thought of the American Dream is. it is still alive and good.

The 19 mid-twentiess. the scene for The Great Gatsby. ushered in a new set of values which altered the American Dream everlastingly. There were legion new innovations. and thanks to Henry Ford. many of the innovations that had been merely for the rich could now be afforded by the in-between category. The latest Wind music. vesture manners. and the sense of foolhardiness of the younger coevals who had merely fought in a war where they had seen more decease and devastation than they thought possible.

They wanted to travel to munificent parties and dance until they could non. Tom and Daisy Buchanan have what most people would see the American Dream. They are vastly affluent. have retainers. a beautiful but neglected kid. and everything that money could purchase at that clip. However. they were accidents waiting to go on because they lived the dream. but had corrupted it.

One of the rule constructs of the American Dream is to work hard to accomplish what you want in life. Tom and Daisy had both been born into affluent households where their money and ownerships had been handed to them.

When one lost that sense of life or promise – which Fitzgerald characteristically predicted on young person – so life lost its sense of admiration. its luster. its romantic promise. To desire was. ironically. more of import than to hold. The adult male who had great wealth ( Tom Buchanan ) of the adult male who was beaten by life ( George Wilson ) lacked the strength of experience of a Gatsby who was a “son of God” and who “sprang from his Platonic construct of ego. ” as the novel tells us. ( Leham 30 )

Many affluent people have made their kids work in their companies so that they would cognize the value of money every bit good as learn the workings of what they will inherit. These kids of wealth seem to go on to make good in life. Tom had ne’er worked for anything so he is a 30 twelvemonth old adolescent. Work is good even for the wealthy if one wants to remain affluent.

When one is affluent they have a duty to give back to the society that afforded them the dream. Tom did non fight in World War I because he was go toing Yale. The storyteller. Nick. went to Yale and fought in the war. Tom chose non to contend for the state that had given him all of the privileges he possessed. There is nil incorrect with Tom taking to go to college alternatively of battle in the war if he were traveling to utilize his instruction for his future calling or for the improvement of others. However. Tom has perfectly no purpose of utilizing his instruction for good. He merely goes because that is what affluent immature work forces do. to party. and to conceal from the war. Most people would love to hold the opportunity to go to Yale so that they could accomplish great things. Tom has the instruction and does perfectly nil with it.

Charity has no topographic point in the life of Tom Buchanan. While merely a coevals before. work forces like Andrew Carnegie. John D. Rockefeller. and Henry Ford believed that it was their responsibility to give back to the people of America. Tom Buchanan does non. He is concerned merely of self satisfaction and maintaining the hapless destitute. He is excessively concerned that the African American race is accomplishing wealth in the music industry and alternatively of concentrating on what he has. he is annoyed by the fact that these African Americans are eventually acquiring a opportunity to recognize the American Dream.

Tom is spoiled because he is a adult adult male who ignores the duties of being a hubby and male parent. He has a kept woman. Myrtle. and he leaves the upbringing of his girl to a nursemaid. Fathers are supposed to be a beginning of counsel and nurturing in the lives of his kids. but we see no grounds that Tom takes an active function in rearing.

Daisy plays an inactive function in rearing every bit good as Tom. She ignores her girl. Pammy. and provides no nurturing and counsel. Daisy does nil with her money accept to satisfy herself and environ herself in luxury. She even chooses to get married Tom merely because he is affluent and forsakes the adult male who truly loves her because he is hapless.

Daisy does nil but waste her clip. Many adult females of wealth did so much for the hapless and the remainder of society in their charity work. Edith Vanderbilt spent many old ages helping the hapless in Appalachian North Carolina. Jane Adams founded and dedicated herself to functioning at Hull House. a topographic point to aide deprived adult females and kids. Alternatively of doing a difference in the universe. which is another facet of the American Dream. Daisy seems to pass her clip rip offing on her hubby and lounging on the immense white couch that seems to envelope her.

Daisy makes the statement “What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon? Cried Daisy. and the twenty-four hours after that. and the following 30 old ages? ” ( Fitzgerald 113 ) . This statement demonstrates that Tom and Daisy have fallen short of the American Dream because the American Dream is supposed to carry through the lives of those who have achieved it. but the Buchanans have become world-weary and worthless. Fitzgerald used the character of Daisy as a manner to unwrap the corruptness of the American Dream.

Fitzgerald knew that at its most perverse degrees the American Dream merges with the American debutante’s dream – a thing of deathlike hollowness. Fitzgerald faces up forthrightly to the job of stating us what Daisy has to offer in a human relationship. ( Eble 18 )

F. Scott Fitzgerald is known as the interpreter for the Jazz Age of the Roaring Twenties. He mastered the rubric because he clearly showed America what it was making and how far off class it was taking the American Dream. The characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan are two of the best illustrations of the corruptness of this celebrated dream in literature. Working. self worth. and giving back to one’s society can non be ignored in the accomplishment of the American Dream. Without these elements. it is merely a myth and a individual will ne’er genuinely be satisfied. He/she will pass life trying to happen ways to recognize his/her topographic point in the universe. Tom and Daisy ne’er fulfilled the American Dream because in the terminal they were still running off from their duties.

Plants Cited

Eble. Kenneth. The Structure of The Great Gatsby. Bloom. Harold. Modern Critical

Interpretations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. New York: Chelsea

House Publishers. 1986.

Fitzgerald. F. Scott.The Great Gatsby.New York: Scribner. 1999.

Leham. Richard.The Great Gatsby: The Limits of Wonder. Boston: Twayne

Publishers. 1990.

Long. Robert.The Achieving of The Great Gatsby. London. Bucknell University Press.

1979.