In both The Great Gatsby and Raisin in the Sun the American
Dream is shown in different ways. In the Great Gatsby, everyone was from
an upper class background. Their American Dream was based around the idea of
happiness.
Nick Carraway comes into the picture and finds out that Jay
Gatsby is stuck on one woman, his one true love and money and obtains the money through shady
business deals, but then realizes he is a loving person and means no harm. Gatsby was never able to be with
Daisy the only person that brought him true happiness. The green light
symbolized this in the way that it was there but he was unable to have it. Gatsby
does everything in his power to get Daisy’s attention he throws parties that he
doesn’t even care for and even throws himself under the bus for Daisy when she
killed Myrtle and Tom accused him.
Another example of this in the Great Gatsby is Tom’s love
for Myrtle. You would have thought
Tom had everything going for him; a wife, money, and nice home but he was
missing something; being with his true love; Myrtle, who happens to be of a
lower social class. Throughout the Great
Gatsby it shows that money cannot buy people happiness. The characters might
have all of the things that keep them in the social class of wealthy but lack emotional
happiness.
In Raisin in the Sun, the characters American Dream different
for every character. This leads to their happiness. Walter is the
character who believes in the “rags to riches” concepts but it doesn’t work out
as planned because he becomes obsessed with the idea. He wanted to show his family that he could do
something good for once. Mama tries to
“fix/help” her family no matter the cost.
Beneatha wants to become a physician and being a young independent
African American woman. She is tired of God taking credit where it is not due
and wants to marry an African instead of a rich man. The family also wanted to
move to a better neighborhood.
Both of the stories had polar opposite views on what the
American Dream meant to the characters in the book. Since the American
Dream in the Great Gatsby was about the emotional feeling people had for one
another and the American Dream in Raisin in the Sun was about the materialistic
things in life (money, houses, cars, etc.) I came up with what I thought the
American Dream was which is; it is a thought or based on what each and every
person perceives it as. The characters in the Great Gatsby had the magnificent,
wealthy, and well respected lifestyle that most of the characters from Raisin
in the Sun could only daydream of, while all the people in Raisin in the Sun had the loving relationships that some of The
Great Gatsby characters desperately needed.
The American Dream in both stories is fueled by the
relationships the characters have and the people the interacted with.
