A Misunderstanding Of The American Dream Leads To The Tragedy Of Love

The Tragedy of Love in The American Dream
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The tragedy of love
The American Dream refers to the belief that everybody, disregarding their social class or birthplace, can achieve the success they dream of when living in a society that promotes upward mobility for everyone. “The Great Gatsby” is a tale of the frustrated love stuck between a gentleman and a lady in which characters misunderstand the American Dream, and tragedy erupts when they try to live up to it CITATION Fra16 \l 1033 (Fitzgerald, 2016). It is a story full of unhealthy relationships which are built on desire, love or sex. Notably, five significant relationships emerge from the novel whereby two of them involve two marriage affairs whereby one involving Tom and Daisy and the other one between George and Myrtle. The other three can be defined as extramarital dealings that happen between Gatsby and Daisy, Tom and Myrtle, and Jordan and Nick CITATION Fra16 \l 1033 (Fitzgerald, 2016). All these characters get involved in these romantic affairs in the quest of making their dream a reality. However, their ambitions lead them into more compromised situations since the multiple love triangles they create result in vengeance and tragedy. The most outstanding relationship which is a clear reflection of the misunderstanding of the American Dream is that of Gatsby and Daisy; it is built upon a lie since Gatsby pretends to be the person he is not. He is obsessed with daisy and tries it rekindle their lost love by proving to daisy that he is wealthy therefore capable of providing for her. He ventures into unlawful undertakings to see himself achieve the American Dream. Ultimately, he comes to an untimely demise when shot by George. On the other hand, the other relationships do not yield positive results either, since they are all driven by the fantasy of living their misunderstood American dream. The American Dream is often misunderstood, and the misguided quest to attaining it only leads to tragic love that ends in vengeance and death as evident in “The Great Gatsby.”
The era portrayed in the novel is that of social decadence of social and moral values. There are overarching distrust, greed and the empty chase of pleasure among people, which lead to a misunderstanding of the American dream since the longing for money and pleasure outshine serious goals of life. After the First World War, the youths who had wrestled in the war became disillusioned and started seeking for ways they could elevate their social class such as Nick and Gatsby CITATION Fra16 \l 1033 (Fitzgerald, 2016). There was the emergence of a new money class of people who had poor backgrounds but had managed to get wealthy through their hard work. Moreover, the original goal of the American dream was to bring discovery, individualism, and seek happiness. However, in 1920 the dream got corrupted by the easy money and loose social values CITATION Fra16 \l 1033 (Fitzgerald, 2016). Gatsby suffers the better part of his life by trying to move from low to upper class since he believed in the original American dream which promoted social mobility for all. However, he does not gain acceptance, despite him being rich, due to their birth class differences. This shows that the American dream is unattainable and can only bring tragedy to those who try to live up to its prospects. Indeed, the American Dream is misconstrued, and this only creates suffering among all characters in “The Great Gatsby” novel.
The American dream has corrupted the notion of love and marriage. People get married out of convenience and what they stand to gain out of marriage. On the contrary, in a normal society where there is no pursuit for the American dream people get married because they are in love and do not attach materialism to their union. There are two loveless marriages in “The Great Gatsby” novel, which is wealth-driven, Tom and George’s marriage CITATION Fra16 \l 1033 (Fitzgerald, 2016). These marriages are full of fractures since they are built on money. Hence there are no serious commitments from the couples.
Consequently, they form loopholes that breed other multiple illicit love affairs. Notably, the marriage relationship between Tom and Daisy is that of deception and betrayal. The only reason why they stayed married to each other despite going through countless moments of infidelity was to maintain their social class as old money upper crust as well as make their lives stable. They both come from very rich families. Their marriage fails, and Tom gets infatuated with Myrtle and develops a romantic relationship with ...