The American dream can no longer be lived, with all the corruption and surroundings of the material world that we have created. The American Dream is out of reach, too far in the past. The whole idea of living this dream was to discover new land and have new experiences in a new place. Everything today is already discovered and now it’s just about building on top of everything that was the American dream. Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we are constantly reminded that it is too late; they are trying to live a dream that can no longer be lived in a society like ours today.
We have run out of time to keep the American dream alive. Fitzgerald reminds us about time throughout the novel, whether it is in the form of a clock or in the setting of the sun and moon. The novel starts out in the past and progresses to the future. Nick encounters many characters who try to live the American dream that in reality can no longer be reached. They all want to be free and party, not care and just have fun, but they are blinded by this and end up trying to forget the dream they wanted to come true. Gatsby does not live the American dream because he had been trying to accomplish a dream of his own, to get Daisy, and got caught up in the materialistic word by trying to give everyone else the parties they wanted to live their own American dream.
Keenan,
ReplyDeleteThis is a good start. Keep your focus on all the time signatures in the novel: the timetable Nick writes the names in; the sundials that the Buchannans' lawn surmounts, the "defunct" clock present at Daisy and Gatsby's reunion; the arc of the seasons; all the instances of someone (usually Gatsby) saying "It's too late"; his misguided belief that one can "repeat the past" etc. & etc. It strikes me that you have a lot to work with, and I look forward to reading your essay!