Millions of Americans follow the trail of the American Dream, yet just as the name suggests, this singular goal merely remains within the unattainable dreams of Americans. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, particularly rings true with this sentiment. In this excerpt, Fitzgerald creates an image where Nick Carraway reflects on Jay Gatsby as a hopeful romantic, plagued by troubles from the past, a symbol to embody the American Dream. The author expresses the meaningless hope all people maintain for this unachievable fantasy with Gatsby’s character, yet perhaps it is good to pursue ends even if the end goal is futile. The passage begins with a metaphor comparing Gatsby’s personality to “an unbroken series of successful gestures” (6).
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When looking at the passage, Nick describes Gatsby’s hopes as “what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams” (6). Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the American dreams are plagued by his problem of being stuck in the past. This is contradictory in itself because the nature of water is to always be flowing forward, moving ahead, however Gatsby still gets stuck on past struggles, focusing on recreating the past instead of moving forward. Furthermore, at the end of the book Nick says “So we beat on boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (189). This is another use of water imagery to describe the American Dream. Gatsby, Nick and all Americans unusually “beat on… against the current” instead of flowing with the current and moving forward to achieve the American Dream. When we physically attempt to grab a handful of water, it just slips through our fingers and we are back where we started. This shows the unattainable nature of the American Dream. Every time Americans reach for this fantasy, they only get to feel it for a brief second before it slips away, never to be achieved. Moreover, in the book water has a duality of good and bad for Gatsby’s hope for the American Dream. Water, specifically the river between the East and West Egg, serves as a physical obstacle to Gatsby’s aspirations of winning Daisy. Yet at the
When looking at the passage, Nick describes Gatsby’s hopes as “what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams” (6). Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the American dreams are plagued by his problem of being stuck in the past. This is contradictory in itself because the nature of water is to always be flowing forward, moving ahead, however Gatsby still gets stuck on past struggles, focusing on recreating the past instead of moving forward. Furthermore, at the end of the book Nick says “So we beat on boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (189). This is another use of water imagery to describe the American Dream. Gatsby, Nick and all Americans unusually “beat on… against the current” instead of flowing with the current and moving forward to achieve the American Dream. When we physically attempt to grab a handful of water, it just slips through our fingers and we are back where we started. This shows the unattainable nature of the American Dream. Every time Americans reach for this fantasy, they only get to feel it for a brief second before it slips away, never to be achieved. Moreover, in the book water has a duality of good and bad for Gatsby’s hope for the American Dream. Water, specifically the river between the East and West Egg, serves as a physical obstacle to Gatsby’s aspirations of winning Daisy. Yet at the