‘He paid a high price for living too long with a single dream’ with reference to this quotation, explore Jay Gatsby's dream in The Great Gatsby.

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‘HE PAID A HIGH PRICE FOR LIVING TOO LONG WITH A SINGLE DREAM’

WITH REFERENCE TO THIS QUOTATION, EPLORE JAY GATSBY’S DREAM IN

‘THE GREAT GATSBY’.  

RELATE THIS THEME TO OTHER TEXTS BY FITZGERALD YOU HAVE READ.

        For many ‘The Great Gatsby’ is not simply a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman, but a novel that is used to comment on the degeneration of the American dream in an era of prosperity and lavish materialism.  The American Dream for the original settlers was concerned equality, freedom, religious utopia and prosperity for the self-made man.  Just as on our initial meeting, Gatsby is reaches for the guiding “green light” sitting on Daisy’s East Egg dock to lead him to his goal, Fitzgerald suggests the founding fathers reached for the green light of America to guide them to theirs.    However the novel indicates the hedonism of 1920s America has corrupted this dream.  Whereas in the past it was possible for the likes of Ben Franklin to achieve the ‘Dream’, it has now been made an impossibility.  Gatsby’s aspirations of “future glory” parallel this notion.  Looking from the outside it seems as though Gatsby has essentially achieved the ‘Dream’.  However Fitzgerald takes us into his world so we can witness what happens when all beliefs are invested into something that is by definition a ‘Dream’, a possibility not an actuality.

        Certainly upon learning of Gatsby’s past we truly see he is a self-made man who has achieved self-sufficiency through his own determination.  Gatsby grew up as “James Gatz of North Dakota” the son of “unsuccessful farm people”.  He essentially came from a relatively humble background as a “clam digger” by comparison to the Gatsby we see in the novel.  Even as a young boy he resolved he would succeed: “grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night”.  He intensely believed the “drums of destiny” were to bring “future glory”, believing he was better than the life he was living.  As a result of his determination James Gatz: “sprang from his platonic conception of himself”.  His whole life transpired into his quest to become “just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old would be likely to invent”.          

The true extent of Gatsby’s determination is evident upon reading his “schedule”.  It seems Gatsby initially believes if he leads a virtuous life, as depicted by his vigorous timetable, he can succeed in achieving his aspirations.  It is symbolic that this was discovered in the back of a copy of “Hopalong Cassidy”, a fictional character who achieved the American Dream.  Moreover, the “schedule” is a parallel to that of one of the founding fathers of the independent state, Benjamin Franklin, a self-made and self-sufficient character from America’s history who embodies the Dream.  Just as Franklin did, Gatsby’s intention was to spend hours “studying electricity” and “the need for inventions” in order to achieve his dream.  By deliberately echoing the well know text Fitzgerald encourages us to infer similarities between them.  However Gatsby’s schedule markedly differs to that of Franklin in that Gatsby’s day lacks any periods of reflection between his long lists of daily activities.  Furthermore Gatsby already shows signs of battling against the hurdles his class brings him: “No wasting time at Shafters…No more smokeing or chewing”.  This may suggest that from the beginning it will be an uphill struggle for Gatsby to achieve his dream.

The significance of Dan Cody in his early days is also important in exploring Gatsby’s dream.  To Gatsby he embodied the American Dream, being a representative all of that could be achieved.  As an American pioneer, “a product of the Nebada silverfields”, Dan Cody had become “many times a millionaire”.  Gatsby’s determination was fuelled by Cody’s wealth and “lavish doings”.  However it is significant that Cody remained an outsider.  He was symbolically ‘at sea’, never part of the wealthy class ‘on dry land’.  This perhaps is again an indication of the flaws in Gatsby’s plans too achieve his dream; as his mentor was never truly part of the elite it is not a surprise to see that later Gatsby remains an outsider too.    

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        On the face of it the “extravagantly ambitious” Jay Gatsby does seem to have achieved his dream in terms of material success. Gatsby’s home, a mansion on Long Island, is situated on the “hot sands of his beach”.  Additionally Fitzgerald depicts “Gatsby’s enormous garden” and emphasizes the size of his mansion through use of lists of the “halls and salons and verandas”.  This perhaps enables us to infer a little of the wealth of a man able to afford an abode of such a scale and in such a location.  Fitzgerald describes “his guests…his raft…his beach…his motorboats”.  Here the ...

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