The Great Gatsby and the Dangers of the American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby has struck me emotionally as well as physically. It contains both physical and emotional pain. All of Fitzgerald’s characters had a Dream, however, one of the character’s dream stood out , the main character, Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby was the only character throughout the whole novel that I found to be an emotional and yet at the same time a physical pain. Continuing with the emotional pain, Jay Gatsby exaggerates it. His American Dream is to go after a lost love, a love that he thought would love him and stay with him until death will break them apart, but it didn’t end like that. This dream, his love, left him, and ran off with another, her husband. This left Jay Gatsby alone, tormented, miserable, and devastated. His American Dream left him, destroyed him and ruined his life, his whole entire life As a nurse, I also found in Jay Gatsby an injury, a physical pain that tormented him day and night. The pain that a nurse can look at and try to cure and heal, but yet is somewhat impossible. It is the pain of Denial. However, Jay Gatsby was not the only one that had an American Dream and got hurt, there were others, others that died because they thought that their American Dream was real. Take for instance, a young lady named Myrtle. She was a wife and at the same time a lover of another. She was the lover of Tom, who was Daisy’s husband, and Daisy was Jay Gatsby’s love. A good connection there, right? Myrtle loved Tom, with all her heart. He was her American Dream, and yet she didn’t find love near him, but death among his wife, who killed her accidentally. A tragic for a young lady like Myrtle. Among other things, I find Gatsby to be rather vague. My eyes could never quite focus upon him, his outlines are dim. Everything about Gatsby was more or less like a mystery, something that you had to figure out yourself. Fitzgerald writes “Gatsby had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night”. At first Gatsby did not know that his dream, his American Dream was away, past him, far away from everything he ever owned in life. This American Dream cost him his life. He died with honor and with pride. But yet, Daisy and Tom lived on with remorse, regrets and guilts and hallucinations, because of the death that Daisy caused Myrtle, and Tom for lying to Myrtle husband about the car that killed Myrtle. These lies and guilt were Tom and Daisy’s American dreams after what they caused. They played with fire, they get burned. That’s the way it will always be. The American Dream is dangerous. Gatsby took a risk, and lost his dream. Daisy took a risk and lost half her strength and Tom his pride of being a strong man. They put all of their heart and might to follow their dreams, and yet at the end, it all went to loss. Everything they ever hoped for, everything they ever wished for, went down the drain, down to loss and shame. As a nurse, I consider the American Dream to be a dangerous dream, a dangerous dream, because you never know what can happen, what can occur to you on the end. My American Dream is to heal and cure patients, who are in need and make a good job out of it, but somehow sometimes it backfires on me, and what I’m left with is guilt, like Daisy herself. I cannot cure Gatsby of his American Dream, but I did found an injury, the injury of Denial, like I mentioned before. Daisy denied him, and he denied himself. He didn’t want to give up; he went from poor to rich to get his dream. He even changed his name, for his dream. I wouldnt deny myself that far. I would be proud of who I am, but Gatsby wasn’t. He went all the way for her, and the one who ended up losing was him. The only cure that I find in Gatsby is his death. He died with honor and pride, he died for Daisy. He protected her, he knew that his time was over, he sensed it. And it happened. He was murdered, from Myrtle’s husband because he thought it was him who killed Myrtle. And yet, Gatsby lay peacefully in his grave, while Daisy lived on with pain and guilt. This is the cure of Gatsby’s injury, the cure that I found, as a nurse of injured patients. This is the emotional cure. The physical cure, will be his slow death, in his pool, the one that hurt, after you are stabbed or shot. The one that last memories come to your mind, memories that make your eyes close and rest peacefully forever. Gatsby’s last memories were Daisy’s, I’m sure of it. Overall, I found in Jay Gatsby an emotion that I never thought in my 26 years of living, I will ever find. The truth of The Danger of the American Dream. This is reality. The American Dream is dangerous, because it can cause you guilt, shame, regrets, remorse and death. Don’t end up like Gatsby did, but instead do things with pride and honor. But always be careful, of the dreams you follow. You might never know what can happen to you or to the ones you love.
Free Great Gatsby Essays: The Ideal Self – Made Man
The Great Gatsby and the Ideal Self – Made Man
In the same way that the all-embracing concept of the American Dream suffered certain degradation during the course of its historical development, so, too, the noble 19th century ideal of the self-made man was conveniently adapted to suit the moral climate of the 1920s. Referring to Fitzgerald’s main character in his novel “The Great Gatsby”, the young James Gatz is obviously modeled in this aspect of personality upon Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), who is often quoted as the earliest example of this particular type of “homo americanus”. As the youngster of a big family he soon went to work for his father, at the age of only ten after only two years of schooling. After his apprenticeship as a printer he concentrated on educating himself trough reading. In 1818 Franklin’s “Autobiography” was published, which contains various enumerations of moral virtues he met with in his reading to arrive at moral perfection.
His intention was to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, so he found it better not to distract his attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix on one of them at a time, and if he should be master of that, he would proceed to another, and so on, till he should have gone trough them.
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:
Temperance
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Silence
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
Order
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality
Make no expense but do good to others or yourself; i.e. waste nothing.
Industry
Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice
Wrong none by doing injuries, or committing the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation
Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
Tranquility
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
Chastity
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
