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American Dream Summative Project
The American Dream: A land fuller, better and richer for everyone (James Thusrow Adams).
But it is not always obtainable. Is it truly just a dream? With things such as variance, personal experience and criminals on the run.
We start with a novel by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, written in 1925.
A story of how even a simple midwestern man, Nick, could thrive,
In a neighborhood, with people richer than himself.
People like his cousin Daisy, as cheery as an elf,
This is where he and his girlfriend Jordan would meet.
In every single way, Jordan was a cheat.
He met Daisy’s husband, a stern man named Tom.
How could a man so put together be a ticking time bomb?
As Nick later found out when Tom punched his mistress Myrtle.
That lady went quiet quick and curled up like a turtle.
Next, Nick goes to the party of a man named Jay,
But he likes to go by Gatsby, every single day.
Gatsby opens up to Nick, confessing his love for Daisy.
But their previous relationship was a little bit hazy.
Nick gets them together, in his small cozy home.
As Gatsby was plotting in his everthinking dome.
And like before, they were in absolute love.
But Gatsby wasn’t the only one Daisy had to think of.
So off went Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Gatsby and Nick.
This time Gatsby’s words weren’t so slick.
He told Tom that his wife was leaving him.
But Tom eventually manipulated her, as she was a tad bit dim.
After the argument was over, they started their way back.
And Daisy hit Myrtle, nearly giving her husband George a heart attack.
Tom tells George that Gatsby was the one having the affair.
And gullible old George did not think that this was very fair.
So for sleeping and killing his wife, George leaves, armed with lead.
Puts a few bullets into Gatsby’s chest, then into his own head.
And after the funeral of Gatsby, Nick revealed,
Everybody except for him, had already peeled.
And soon, he too had left this place full of confidential matters.
Because he knew that this town was full of gossiping chatters.
And he leaves the reader with one final remark.
No matter how hard we try, we are reaching in the dark.
For the things that we have been missing from the past.
But even if we somehow reach these things, they do not last.
So you may be asking now how does this connect to the American Dream?
Well here’s some advice from F Scott and the modernist writing team.
So as Fitzgerald put it, Tom speaks of himself as “more of a man than [Nick is]” (Fitzgerald 11).
This shows how fancy Tom thinks his swagger stick is.
Gatsby and Tom, are alike in many different ways.
They both want money and women for days.
But Tom wants money for status and women to abuse
And Gatsby wants money and women for happiness and love, I deduce.
Another key difference is how and what they live for.
Tom walks by, while Gatsby holds the door.
Tom lives for himself, Gatsby for others.
Tom thinks hard work by one is money for the pocket of another.
So I believe what F Scott is trying to teach
Is that the American Dream is not relaxing on a beach.
It is working hard, and only then will you get what you deserve.
And the effort someone puts in life, is something to observe.
Next I will speak of different meanings of this dream
As all dreams are not based of the same scheme.
For example, the dream of Seymour Rechtzeit.
Who’s dream was much more of a fight
Than that of Gatsby, who simply wanted wealth
Seymour wanted to get to into America but couldn’t because of poor health
But he eventually did and “[he] became a child star of vaudeville” (Seymour’s Story, 2).
Unlike Gatsby, Seymour spent some time eating swill.
So some dreams are easy to obtain, and some are not
Just as some days are cold and some days are hot.
Another example of this, is the fight for women to vote,
Which was much harder than soaking in sun on a boat.
Alice Paul went on a hunger strike to prove her point (Iron Jawed Angels).
Wanting to be equal under the government that she’d appoint.
This is much different than the dreams of Gatsby and Seymour.
The effects of her actions is something that daily we see more.
Now, I to further explain I will show examples from the present.
Student loans are at an all time high. (New York Post)
Putting in hard work for education doesn’t get you by.
Because once you work hard for your education and furtherment, you walk out with debt.
Meanwhile all the rich person collecting it are flying in a huge jet.
This makes the dream so much harder to reach.
It makes that glorified happy place harder to breach.
So I would like to say, I believe that the dream is reachable but not for all.
As some people’s obstacles are short and some are very tall.
The American Dream has slightly change over time.
As to reach this dream you still have to climb.
But how you climb is slightly different, although the goals are the same.
The general goals are money, wealth, happiness, love and fame.
Events that changed this were World War I and Prohibition.
All these things slightly changed America’s mission.
The Great War, was highly disputed, we wanted to help but also wanted peace.
But we got angry when the Zimmerman telegram was eventually released.
Germany wanted Mexico and us to go to war.
So we went to go fight them to even the score.
This changed the dream in as big of ways.
Peace was not important nowadays.
Then, Prohibition tried to sacrifice freedom for security.
But it was overturned soon after, what didn’t work was purity.
Because in came the reign of an illegal activity.
Gangsters had the nation caught in metaphorical captivity.
This changed the dream by showing that we have to respect freedom.
To try to take away a right for safety would just be dumb.
So I hoped you’ve learned from my lengthy poem.
That to reach the Dream is not always walking through a brome.
Fitzgerald gave us one of the original ideas.
And over time that changed like the Koreas
One last thought before you have to go,
The American Dream is not like you see on a fancy TV show.
Works Cited
American Dream PowerPoint
Curan, Catherine. "Average Student-loan Debt Skyrockets to Disturbing High." New York Post. New York
Post Online, 29 Oct. 2016. Web. 04 Nov. 20
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.
Iron Jawed Angels
Rechtzeit, Seymour. "Relive a Boy's Journey to America." Scholastic Teachers. Scholastic Inc., 2016. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
