Bill Part 2

  After I finished the book ‘The Great Gatsby” and the movie ‘Park Avenue: money, power and the American dream’, I found that the American dream is a lie, and it is also an illusion to encourage people who don’t belong to the upper class to work hard.

  In the book ‘The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby is a person who has the American dream which is marring daisy and Gatsby is the type of people who has the ‘New Money’. After the World War I, Gatsby became rich by working hard. But Daisy did not marry with Gatsby, because Gatsby is a dishonest person. This is most important reason that Daisy did choose Tom instead of Gatsby. She is afraid of Gatsby because he was making money by selling alcohol and having some underworld business. Tom is another character in the book and he is on the opposite side with Gatsby and he has the ‘Old Money’. The definition of American dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. There is no doubt that the Gatsby’s American dream did not come true, even though Gatsby was working hard and rich enough.

  The three main words in the title of the movie are: money, power and dream. Obviously there is a connection between the three words; dream comes up with money and power. In today’s society, to step into the upper class is almost impossible for the normal person. So I think American dream is an illusion, just like the main character Gatsby who got money and power. Did he achieve his American dream that is getting married with daisy? No he didn’t. The reason why Gatsby is a dishonest person is he has a not very clean history even Gatsby didn’t want to talk about it. So that is the most important reason that I think the American dream is a lie.

Comment:

I agree with Bill, I also think the American Dream is just a lie for the optimistic people who cannot achieve their dreams. Bill said the American Dream is an illusion, because whatever Gatsby tries his best to marry Daisy, he can’t make his dream come true. He also said the definition of the American Dream is US citizens could achieve their dreams through their hard-working. After Gatsby came back from the World War I, he did some businesses and became rich, but his dream which is being with Daisy never came true. In my opinion, Gatsby owns money and powers, he is in the top class in the society, but his dream is an illusion in the reality, he can’t make his dream come true because he cannot use his money and power to change the attitudes of Daisy. Gatsby worked hard but he didn’t make his American Dream come true even when he died, being with Daisy is just his day dreaming, and it’s like the American Dream which is just an optimistic lie.

Commented by Erin (HouChenyuhan)