The Great Gatsby

Steven Lin

Period 8

English 11

Mr. Glatt

The capacity to dream is a natural characteristic possessed by all mankind. Americans living in a country based on the philosophy of pursuing great American dreams go about pursuing their own goals in many ways. Ironically the American dream itself is the ultimate illusion that can never satisfy those who pursue it. The American dream was only possible when it was a potential. Nick in Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, realized this as he imagines a past when the Dutch first laid their eyes on the vast wilderness of the uninhabited United States. Gatsby’s ideals in this novel are the ideals of all Americans. Gatsby and Americans search for a dream and yet nobody truly understands what it is they are really in search of. People go about fulfilling these dreams by using cheap reality and in the end it does not measure up to the size of the dream itself; the dreamer is bound to be disappointed with every accomplishment of the dream.

At the conclusion of Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, the main character Gatsby has recently died and Nick stands facing the front door of Gatsby’s mansion. From this moment, Nick looks at Gatsby’s house for a last time. He sees a swear word on the wall, and like Holden in the book, The Catcher in the Rye, he too crosses the word out; trying to preserve the innocence. Nick wants to keep Gatsby’s dream pure even though it is already lost. Later on while Nick is all alone, everything begins to melt away. He starts to picture how it looked a hundred years ago when the Dutch sailors first reached a new world. Nick’s world becomes the world of idealism, where the physical world doesn’t matter; the great house of Gatsby begins to melt away and finally disappear in Nick’s mind for that moment.

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Nick sees that, “…for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder,” (pg 189). For that one time the Dutch merchants saw the idea of property in a different way. The Dutch saw the wilderness and trees not as wood- cutters or property owners but as poets, like presented in Emerson’s, “Nature.” Wood- cutters own the timber physically, but, “there is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet,”(Nature). The Dutch saw the beauty of the land and trees and owned the land in their minds by remembering it and visualizing it. For that period of time the Dutch merchants were satisfied. But as these feelings pass them they once again saw the land as wood-cutters and owners; causing them to build fences and preserve the trees and lands for themselves. As they arrive on the land the ideas of the wood-cutter become more dominate than the ideas of the poet

In many ways dreams are too immense to be satisfied by reality. This is shown in the Dutchman and in Gatsby; both had ideas and dreams so great that when they actually received what they wanted the reality wouldn’t be able to live up to their expectations. Before they accomplished their dreams their possibilities were endless. For the Dutchman, before he arrived to America he carried temporary feelings of awe, where there were no limitations. The man goes through a wonderful dream state in which he sees all he has fantasized, open land. Unfortunately once reality sets in one cannot help but be slightly disappointed. Since the continent was built up too much in the sailor’s mind the true continent cannot compare. In the case of Gatsby this notion is shown in Gatsby’s love for Daisy. All his life he tries to become one of the higher-class men in order to gain back the love he lost from Daisy. Almost everyday Gatsby dreams of the time when Daisy will finally leave Tom to be with him. The dream was perfect, everything goes well and everything goes the way Gatsby want it to. But when he ultimately achieves that moment thing do not go his way. Everything is different; in Gatsby’s dream he gives everyone lines and imagines Daisy to say, “I love you,” where afterwards she would just leave Tom. However in reality Daisy dose not follow Gatsby’s dream and says, “I did love him once, but I loved you too,” (133). Once again since the dream is so great the reality cannot compare.

At the heart of this story is that dreams are only possible when they are still a dream. This can be shown within Gatsby’s experiences. When Gatsby kissed Daisy for the first time his dreams clashed with reality, which caused his dream to be destroyed. The same concept lies within the Dutch; for that one moment the Dutch looked at the land and saw how great it was, but once they stepped into America their dreams were also shattered. In addition to the last chapter the reader finds that Daisy and Tom had moved to the east. From this Fitzgerald tries to pass the message that Tom and Daisy are going back to the past where the Dutch originally came from. The east was the place where the Dutch first dreamed of the greatness of America. Without knowing it Daisy and Tom moved east because of their longing for the past, where dreams were still possible. From the last paragraph of the book Fitzgerald says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther,” (182). This passage pertains that Gatsby’s dream is much like our own; we as a nation are spoiled, when we want one thing we believe that it would satisfy us, but later when another thing comes up we want that as well, it is an endless cycle. Overall Fitzgerald is telling us that we are endlessly dissatisfied.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

sydneyhopcroft

20th of Mar 2012

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication is excellent. With a diverse use of the English langauge, all standards expected of a GCSE and dare I say, A-Level candidate are present. The standards of grammar aer upheld, although I would argue that underlining is not an approriate method of writing a published book/poem's title. Either inverted commas or italics are the expected norm.

Level of analysis

The Level of Analysis is very good. The is evidence of an extremely well-developed understanding of Fitzgerald's novel with the candidate not simply analysing what Fitzgerald is saying, but what he does not. The candidate takes what little Fitzgerald gives and lifts it off the page to develop their own analysis of the lesser considerd ideas that he presents. Examples include the commentary on the Dutch sailors, which at first looks like it might turn into simply outlining something that is obvious, but then relates back to the question and the topic of dream left unfulfilled by those who chase them but preserved by those who picture them and preserve them are those left most satisfied. This could be developed further into the novel's idea that chasing ideas - much like the aimless existence of those that chased The American Dream - might seem like the way forward, but because humans by default are never satisfied with what they have, they strive further to achieve better and in doing so destroy what the poets' minds preserve.

Response to question

This critical response of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' retains an excellent amount of focus on the proposed question. Delving into a profound analysis of the source text, this candidate does well to address both the literal and thematic elements that render the dreams of many of the novel's character futile. There is an extremely sensitive awareness of very few quotes. This method of analysis is far more effective than commenting on an extensive range of quotes in little detail. By analysing few of the novel's most important quotes (that pertain to the question), the candidate manages to say a lot about a little, and in doing so comments at length about the novel and it's symbolism of dreams.

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