The American Dream

The American Dream is a seemingly worldwide belief and hope that the US is a place to gain equality and, through hard work, have one's own property and a happy family.  Happiness. That is what the American Dream revolves around, no matter what.  It is the wish for better, for better rights, social mobility, property, jobs.  In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby succeeded in the monetary part of the American Dream, but did not succeed in the love and familial part of it. Did he gain happiness, or was it solely superficial, as his parties and persona were?  Maybe the only way to truly achieve the American Dream is to have both of those parts if both of those parts are desired. Today, the American Dream still focuses on hope and equality; work correlating to a fair, stable life. This could tie in family goals and often the ones reaching for the dream are families going through various stages of hardship.  The American Dream doesn't solely apply to foreigners coming into the US. As seen through Gatsby--who started his life in a poor farming family and gained his wealth through not so much hard work but some work and good circumstance with Dan Cody--his American identity was prominent throughout his life yet he still reached for the idyllic American goal of wealth.


Wealth is almost always thought of as monetary wealth--not only monetary stability, but an excess and flourishing of one's monetary status. According to Merriam Webster, wealth is defined as "a large amount of money and possessions."  Part of the American Dream is this idea of gaining wealth, but I believe that there is a more implicit meaning in this belief, and that is gaining the wealth of equality, opportunity, and personal freedom that America is seen to offer.  Monetary wealth does not equal happiness that is always created with the implicit version of wealth, and this is something that plagues Gatsby throughout the entire novel.  He cannot attain happiness by becoming rich even though he thinks that Daisy will fall in love with him again since he's not poor.  If Daisy had not become too intent on the money part of the American Dream, then Gatsby and her could have been truly happy.  People see wealth as an aspiration and a symbol of happiness and poverty as a symbol or failure and unhappiness.  I see wealth as something to be wary of, because I feel that very rich people almost always succumb to greed and a feeling of superiority.  Poverty is scary and is honestly unimaginable.  But I believe that either one allows for happiness because of a love and family aspect.  Also gratitude for what one has can definitely lead to a happiness of life unparalleled to any shallow happiness created by materialistic need and wealth.  And there it is again; happiness as the key that doesn't necessarily correlate to one monetary status or another, rather it is associated with love, family, and opportunity to be treated better or do better.