Part 2 - imbalance American Dream by Leo

American dream, firstly in my view, means a fair society for everyone to pursue both material success and spiritual success through their efforts, no matter what class they were from. However, it has become imbalance. Actually, Americans simply pursue wealth but ignore spiritual developments. Gatsby represents the material dream best in the novel, because he soon became rich though he was from the underclass. Then he moved to a big house and usually holds grand parties with the rich, which is a way to show how successful he becomes. Gatsby’s materially success shows the flourishing aspect of American dream. It seems that everyone has equal opportunities to become wealthy.

When it comes to the spiritual dream, the picture is different. Gatsby’s spiritual dream is an illusion in that society, which causes his inevitable failure. Daisy is not like the kind, pure girl that she used to be. Unfortunately, she becomes selfish after many years’ life. However, the former perfect Daisy in Gatsby’s dream have not existed any more. It is impossible to pursue an inexistent girl. The tragedy is that he devotes everything to his beautiful fantasy, while the fact is opposite. Whatever, Gatsby is still great, because he is still pure and yearns for his beautiful dream, though he is in a superficial society. He represents the initial American Dream both materially and spiritually, while his failed to realize his spiritual dream. Ironically, the pure dreamer finally dies distressingly in the society with ‘American Dream’. Both Daisy’s corruption and Gatsby’s death are caused by the sick society with imbalanced dream.

The material comparisons were ridiculous in that era. The new money looked down upon the poor, while they were looked down upon by the old money. American dream provided more opportunities. But it broke people’s relationship. Everyone became snobbish and money-oriented. For example, Gatsby wrongly thinks that wealth can help him realize everything. In fact, most of the guests including Daisy look down upon Gatsby, because few people would respect a new rich. They make fun of Gatsby in the parties and just think the parties of free entertainment places. Even in Gatsby’s funeral, few of them come. All of above shows the imbalance between material and spirit in American dream, which made the dream finally corrupted. As a result, Americans became fond of hedonism and ignored their spiritual developments then.

 According to my Part 1, the way Americans consider the American dream is becoming more and more realistic and material. Americans simply link the dream to wealth, so they can never realize how significant diversity is for America. The old money can represent the local whites, and the new money can represent people from other races or other countries. Most whites don’t want to separate their cake and become selfish and ignorance. They don’t know the reason why American is great is its diversity and refuse to be kind. It is the conflicts between material and spirit, which was originally caused by the imbalance American Dream.