Daisy's America Dream example essay topic

The Great Gatsby. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby is a symbolic novel of the disintegration of the American dream in an era of extraordinary prosperity and material excess. On the surface, we see that it is a story about the love between a man and a woman but the overall theme is the collapse of the American dream in society. We find that every character in their own way is searching for their American dream but as a result, their desire for wealth and pleasure, caused them to find themselves lost in the corruption of the aristocrat society.

Daisy is one of the characters that is trying to search for her American dream but the readers don't really notice this because it seems that Daisy has everything already - wealth, a husband, love and family. It is everything she could possibly want but as we get to know Daisy, the reader sees that there is something else Daisy desires besides wealth and luxurious material. "I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she " ll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool". - Pg 21. Daisy's America dream is to be this "beautiful little fool" she envisions.

Daisy is beautiful and it is told through the characters that she is charming and beautiful but they could see right through her. They knew what she wanted in life and the fact that she was void of any loyalty or care. Daisy sought after this image of being this "beautiful little fool" so that she could hide her selfish ways and put on this fake facade so the other characters would see she is innocent. Throughout the novel, Daisy acts snooty and stuck-up around the other characters as if she is better then them. She also acts very child-like when she cries over "beautiful shirts."They " re such beautiful shirts", she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such - such beautiful shirts before".

- Pg 98. From this it shows that she only cares about luxurious material. Through her actions, we see that Daisy is not this girl that we should sympathize or look up to as "great" compared to Gatsby. "Even if we are cousins. You didn't come to my wedding. I wasn't back from the war.

That's true. She hesitated. Well, I've had a very bad time, Nick, and I'm pretty cynical about everything". - Pg 21. She doesn't really understand the harsh reality of life and hides behind her wealth and when she doesn't even remember that Nick was fighting in the war which was the reason he couldn't attend her wedding, she seemed as if it wasn't as important as her engagement. Nick notices and realizes that Daisy isn't the right person for Gatsby because of her greed and her expectations of being wealthy and keeping her status in the aristocrat society.

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made... ' - Pg 180-181. It is not until the end, the readers are revealed to Daisy's true identity. In the novel, we are given snippets of Daisy's character but when we see that Daisy doesn't truly love Gatsby and lets him take the blame for her mistakes; she is seen as a selfish and careless person. She no longer is charming but seen as a person that doesn't care about others besides themselves. Nick's last words of the novel conclude the failure of the American dream and of the characters.

"And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He 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. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgasmic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning -- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past".

When Gatsby dies, any chance of the American Dream surviving in the dehumanized modern world is destroyed with him. All of the hopes and dreams that strengthened and uplifted Gatsby are shattered. After shooting Gatsby, George Wilson, the symbol of the common man who is trying to achieve his own success in the modern dream, commits suicide. The deaths of both the rich and poor man trying to achieve their goals symbolize the disintegration of the American Dream. As for Daisy she was unable to achieve her dream of becoming the "beautiful little fool", she hoped that every girl would be. She left her past to start over again with Tom.

When Gatsby died and the other characters revealed her fake facade, she no longer could face the harsh reality. Through Gatsby's failed attempt to reach his dream, F. Scott Fitzgerald incorporates the decline of American values. The characters in The Great Gatsby are mere examples of Fitzgerald's message - the old American dream and all of its pure ideals have been replaced with money, greed, and materialism. Daisy represented the greed and was associated with the green light, symbolizing hope, money and jealousy. As hope is the core of American dream and money and jealousy is what surrounds it. Consequently, Daisy finds herself lost in her own failure of her American dream and is left with only guilt and remorse due to Gatsby's death.