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The American Dream has been the propaganda of the country for years. America has promoted this idea for years to immigrants and current citizens. America wants its citizens to believe that they are the best and no one else has it as good as them. This propaganda has been effective in America as tens of millions of immigrants have come to America over the years. America officially started keeping records of immigrants with the census in 1850. According to the Migration Policy Institute, “Nearly 45.3 million immigrants lived in the United States in 2021” so there have been millions of immigrants that have come to America and stayed.
The American Dream has a loose definition as it might mean something slightly different for everyone. People envision a different future for themselves that might not translate the same for everyone but a common dream is success. The Wikipedia article about the American Dream talks about upward social mobility and the freedoms and rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
This American Dream is the same one that Jay Gatsby seems to attain in The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby changes from James Gatz because “He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career” (Chapter 6). Gatsby saw an opportunity to better himself from “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” (Chapter 6) to something worthwhile. He achieved the American Dream in the aspect that he came from nothing and became someone. But the drawbacks are that the old money people of East Egg will never accept him and he does not truly accept himself either. He puts so much stock in his relationship with Daisy that his meaning of success for himself becomes lost. But by the normal terms of success in that he has become someone and achieved something of himself, he could be considered an American Dream success story.
The cost of his success comes from his death as the success was not enough to keep him from harm but that could be more on the part of him being involved in crime than because his success wasn’t real.
“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.”
The Great Gatsby Chapter 9
Gatsby’s dream was simply to live a different life. He wanted to the East because the West didn’t give him anything. But he did not know that his dream was one of millions. His story might also be interpreted as the failure of many immigrants. They find a little success and believe in the dream but the dream is not ever real. There are always consequences. Maybe this lesson Nick believes is what Gatsby learned: the dream is not attainable.
BTS yet again has a song that relates to the American Dream which is funny given that BTS are not Americans themselves. But their song Tomorrow still illustrates the hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow which is an ideal that many countries have had. The chorus says, “Don’t give up, you know/Don’t get too far away, tomorrow” (Genius lyrics) meaning that someone should not give up because tomorrow promises the ability to do something better. Another lyric precedes this one that says, “Follow your dream like breaker/Even if it breaks down, don’t ever run backwards, never” which means that someone should believe in their dream and put in the hard work to achieve it. Don’t give up on yourself seems to be the main takeaway from this part of the song. The Great Gatsby goes well with this song as it seems to be an encouragement to Gatsby. He is the dreamer that needs to be assured that his dreams are possible. He does not give up but he chooses to go about his dreams differently than most.
Gatsby came to the East with some dream, some hope that he could find a better life there. This lasted for a little while but he did not realize that his dream could not be achieved without a cost and the cost was his life. He chose to go about success through underhanded means and so maybe the American Dream isn’t even true for him. Or perhaps that is exactly what the American Dream is: the ability to shape one’s own destiny.
