The
shortcut exists inside the paths to achieve the American Dream
As we all know, the
“famous” American Dream is used as propaganda and irony presently in many
articles. In my opinion, the American Dream is essentially faked and cannot be
reached normally which means it is only possible to be dishonest in order to
achieve it partly. In current society, the positions of companies are limited
and most of them are arranged to rich people’s children. This situation leads
to that a number of poor youths worked hard but cannot get jobs. Even if they
are capable of attending colleges, they also need to bear the humiliation from
rich peers, so that they have to find another path to be successful. Because of
the lack of education and work experience, some of poor youths choose to be
dishonest which does not require too much knowledge, and they are possible to
achieve the American Dream partly. On the other hand, they will loss chance to complete their American Dream because of abandoning their morality.
As the main character of The Great
Gatsby, Gatsby was born in poverty and his parent were totally farmers. He did
go a small college while doing part time job for tuition. Like most poor
people, he cannot bear sneers from others. The approach he chose is bootlegging
and used profits to open drug stores, so that he became a part of “new moneys”.
We also can see his hate of being poor from his worship blindly of wealth. When
he became the most famous person in westward, he started to rig the game by
allowing everyone to his party while inviting several people. Since now, he did
reach the wealth part of his American Dream, but he will never get Daisy's love since he leave her for years to make money. According to that, in Park Avenue: Money, Power and the
American Dream, every president of the United States all need to ask for support in Park
Avenue so as to collect fees efficiently. Then they will design
particular laws like decreasing taxes to benefits the people who invested them.
For rich people, cooperating with government is going to make themselves more
wealth and control more proportion of fund in society. But in the mean time, they will be mocked by the public as they cannot even list the contributes the candidate did, so they cannot build their real reputation without wealth. In conclusion, there is a shortcut to achieve our American Dream which is being dishonest when we choose to abandon the chance to complete it.
( I commented on Vivent's blog)
According to what you write in your second blog, you hold the belief that people including Gatsby can only achieve their American Dreams, which is irony and the propaganda for them, through the dishonest way. You have this idea on account of the fact that poor children have less opportunities and resources than the rich so that they can only make their dreams come true through the dishonest path.
ReplyDeleteWhile in my opinion, I do believe the idea which illustrates that the American Dream is fake and can hardly reach. However, I disagree with what you think that people can achieve their American Dream if they use dishonest approach. The social gap between the rich and the poor exists in this society which we can’t deny and change. And such social gap makes the American Dream illusory for Gatsby to think that they can use money to become an “old money” person. The social status and the gap are the facts that Gatsby can’t change even though he becomes rich and lies to everyone about his past, which is why he can’t reach his American Dream, Daisy.
I am glad that you give us the example about how the poor people can only choose the dishonest way to succeed because of the lack of opportunity. However, I think you should focus more on the book The Great Gatsby and make it clear that what Gatsby’s American Dream is not just money but also Daisy. When he gets rich doesn’t mean he can rig the game and win Daisy’s heart, which means that he can’t finish his American Dream even though “The approach he chose is bootlegging and used the money he made to open drug stores, so that he became a part of ‘new moneys’.”, as you say in the blog. The fact that he gets rich because of his underground business but it doesn’t change anything about Daisy and his unattainable American Dream. The ability to rig the game in the society and to win people from “old money” is not just being rich. More importantly, Gatsby needs to walk across the huge gap between “old money” and “new money”.
--comment by Vivent
In your opinion, the American dream is only partly attainable for Gatsby when he has wealth and reputation among groups, because of the inequality assigned in opportunities, the opportunity cost to achieve American dream for an ordinary people is far more than rich. Therefore, to be dishonest or abandon their morality might be easy for him to success. You used the example about rich people rigging the game in tax avoidance from the Park Avenue.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion that to abandon a person’s morality to be dishonest is an easy way to achieve American dream. This way is full of risks but it could help an ordinary people to hide some important components which they do not have. Your reasons for this opinion is convincing, because you give us the example of Gatsby’s dishonest about his status and background enable him to gain reputation among rich people. However, I could not agree that Gatsby’s American dream was partly achieved when he earned money and reputation. In the book, Gatsby gained his money from an illegal dealing and heritage succession, if what he wants was about wealth and reputation, he has already reached his goal when he earned the money. When Gatsby said: “He could remove the past to stay with daisy”.It means that all capitals and parties was accumulated to win Daisy. Money and Reputation are only small steps on the road to be with Daisy. Therefore, how can we say that Gatsby’s dream was partly achieved when he lost Daisy’s love because of his status.
--Comment by Sue
After reading this article, I can understand what you have done and the main idea of you second blog. You said that the american dream is essentially and completely faked and it is very difficult or even unachievable for the normal americans whatever they are hard working or not. In your second blog, you also said that the american dream is a kind of way of propaganda and very ironic.
ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective, I am almost agree with your idea. The reason why I agree with this main idea is that the American dream is really fake in the reality and the book the Great Gatsby. In the reality, the people who are rich can easily achieve their goals by using their money. However, for poor people, they will always find it very difficult to close to their goals and even do what they liked. Moreover, their government want them to work hard for the country, so they made a American dream to lay to their people that if they work hard, then they can achieve their American dream. All these things makes American dream become a faked goal and propaganda for the government.
For the why you answer are appealing to author's, the author want to shows that the american dream of Gatsby is Daisy's love . The Gatsby represent the "new money" which is the normal american people in the reality and Tom represent the ''old money'' which is the rich and high social status in the reality.Gatsby try his best to gain Daisy's love, but he was beat by Tom very easily. So it can show that american dream is faked and it never can help people change themselves. It means that people are what they are at the begining whatever how hard them work.
from allen