The American Dream

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  • The American Dream
    • Who believed in it?
      • The meaning of the "American Dream" has changed over the course of history, and includes both personal components (such as home ownership and upward mobility) and a global vision. Historically the Dream originated in the mystique regarding frontier life.
        • "for ever imagine the Lands further off are still better than those upon which they are already settled"
        • "if they attained Paradise, they would move on if they heard of a better place farther west."
      • The discovery of gold in California in 1849  brought in a hundred thousand men looking for their fortune overnight—and a few did find it. Thus was born the California Dream of instant success.
      • The ethos today implies an opportunity for Americans to achieve prosperity through hard work.
    • How is it relevant to the novel and what is Fitzgerald's view of it?
      • One literary device he uses to depict the American Dream is motif; one motif is geography as represented by East and West Egg.
        • West Egg is where the "new rich" live, those who have made a lot of money by being entrepreneurial (or criminal) in the years after World War I ended. These people are portrayed as being rather gaudy (like Gatsby's pink suit and Rolls Royce), showy (like Gatsby's rather ostentatious white mansion), and gauche (socially awkward, as Gatsby seems always to be).
        • On the other hand, East Egg is filled with those who have always had money. While they do look like they have class, dignity, and manners (things lacking in West-Eggers), they are no better in their excesses than their newly rich neighbors.
      • The Valley of Ashes, is a place which depicts the consequences of the self-absorption of the rich
        • The rich have made their money on industry and carelessly tossed the waste, resulting in this gray, poverty-stricken stretch of land. The people and the place matter not at all to those who selfishly left their waste for others to live in and deal with, another consequence of the American Dream, according to Fitzgerald.
    • When did immigrants first settle in America, what inspired them to come?
      • In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States.
      • During the 1870s and 1880s, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England--the principal sources of immigration before the Civil War.
      • Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.
      • Others came seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution.
      • With hope for a brighter future, nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900.
    • Horatio Alger - The Myth of The American Dream
      • The "Horatio Alger myth" is the "classic" American success story and character arc, the trajectory from "rags to riches". It comes from the novels of Horatio Alger, Jr., which were wildly popular after the Civil War in the United States, early versions of what were later called "pulp fiction".
      • Horatio Alger, Jr. was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty.

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