Carlee+and+Bailey's+thoughts+on+Great+Gatsby

​​The Great Gatsby​ The American Dream is to achieve success, wealth, and fame through thrift and hard work. The American Dream, is a "dream." Therefore, it is something that people reach out for, and attempt to succeed; not necessarily meaning they will achieve that dream. In __The Great Gatsby__, by F. Scott Fitzgerald,Gatsby, recieves popularity, wealth, and has what seems, "the perfect life," when in reality, he seeks the love from Daisy. Daisy is the cherry on top of everything that is wrong with the American Dream. She is greedy, shallow, and looks for wealth and luxury. Gatsby's failure to realize this symbolizes America's failure to realize that the American Dream isn't all that wonderful.
 * 1. What is the American Dream? How does Gatsby represent this dream? **


 * 2. What part of his past is Gatsby trying to revisit? Is he sucessful in trying to recapture his past? Is there a person or event in your life you would want to go back to?**

NO! Gatsby is trying to go back to his life where he was youthful and lively with Dan Cody and Daisy. He almost lives in wanting the past but, it's not possible to live in the past, so why try to? Like in the movie, Meet the Robinson's, the family motto is keep moving forward. If Gatsby chose to not move forward, he wouldn't be where he is today, but he isn't wanting what he has anymore. The purpose of him becoming the sucessful man he was, was to get Daisy the one he loved. "He talked alot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was..." Although Gatsby had the typical "dream" life he still looked into the past and wanted things he didn't have now. There is no way to possibly re-live the past, because no matter what, something is always going to be different. I'm sure everyone wants to re-live some moment in their lives but then we wouldn't learn from our mistakes and wouldn't have wisdom of what we shouldn't do. That's why it's best to just keep moving forward. Here is a clip from the movie Meet The Robinsons it really demonstrates the way that life may not always be easy but you must keep moving forward. []


 * 3. What elements of the Jazz Age does Fitzgerald use in The Great Gatsby?**

Throughout __The Great G__atsby, the mood of Jazz is obvious. The setting of __The Great Gastby__ takes place during the roaring twenties. People during this time were changing all of society. Women started wearing make up, and cigarettes became a popular addiction. There were flappers, there were actors, there were new clothing and hair styles. However everything seemed to revolve around music. Gatsby holds parties, with full orchestra players as entertainment. "Ladies and gentlemen," (the orchestra leader) cried. "At the request of Mr. Gatsby we are going to play for you Mr. Vladimir Tostoff's latest work... Vladimir Tostoff's //Jazz History of the World//." (Fitzgerald 49). This video is some of the styles of music and dancing they had in the 1920's. Gatsby threw his parties to draw closer to Daisy, he was never really at his parties. That is an example of how people in the 1920's would party and test out new inventions to make thier lives better. In all actuality, the people aren't as happy as they seem, just how Gatsby is not really happy with his life unless he has Daisy. []


 * Works Cited:**

Photo. Jazz age sisters. March 17, 2010.[] Photo Jazz age. March 18, 2010 [] Photo Meet the Robinsons Keep moving forward. March 17, 2010[] Photo. Great Gatsby and Daisy. March 18, 2010[] Photo. Typical American Dream. March 15, 2010[] Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. //The Great Gatsby//. New York: Scribner, 1996. Web.