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| Wealth in 20s |
I have always found myself finding this term rather stupid to say it bluntly. It might be partially because I have grown up in America in modern times where I live in a middle class family in a good life. While I have seen my parents struggle, it is never from the ground up like the American Dream seems to encompass. As I have always seen it portrayed to me in various medias, The American Dream is the promise of being able to go from nothing to wherever you want to end up in this land. That America offers the freedom and opportunity to make all dreams possible.
The definition of the original American Dream from the Declaration of Independence, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" inspired hope as immigrants came to the United States looking for more. While many found it, America's history holistically has not been completely based on the successes of these people, but the downfall of many in their paths. Is the American Dream, in reality, destroying those in your way to get to the top? Or is it an idealistic term that represents a lot more work than most bargain for?
Again I go back to myself in this time. I have been born into the middle class, which allows me the means to be able to work hard to end up the same amount of well off or possibly richer. But I would not say that this fact remains true across the board, which is where we run into the "wealth" aspect. The idealistic version of The American Dream is that anyone, from any background, can make it big and swim in large amounts of money. This completely follows the Gatsby version of this Dream: never accepting his poor farming parents, leaving at sixteen, chasing the wealth of Cody, and changing his name to his new life: one of materialism and piles of wealth. But in America it seems that this version of reality is one that the percentage of those who take that life path is slim and it grows even slimmer if you are a minority, female, etc. As many pretend in these times that those factors do not and have never played into being able to reap the benefits of The America Dream, they do and they always have. As seen by Fitzgerald in the novel, the old money families such as Tom speak of themselves as being the superior race and wanting to keep that through their wealth.
So, what is wealth? I think, personally, when you dive into our social classes one can begin to find it. In Gatsby, wealth is the money, the lavish parties, the pouring expensive champagne into pools because why not. Wealth is materialism in the 20s. To me, wealth in one aspect is having money, enough of it to live comfortably but it is also the argument Fitzgerald makes. As seen at the end of the story, after Gatsby has lived out The American Dream with piles of wealth, he dies and is left without love and friends. That is where my second definition comes into play. Wealth is what we value, it is what gives our lives purpose-- for some, maybe that is money, but for others it is knowing that we are all in this together. Fitzgerald shows how easy it is to get caught up in the glitz and the glam. Through Gatsby, he shows the unrealistic nature of The American Dream and how it faults. But above all, he shows that the true Dream is finding out what wealth is to you.
