First and Last Name

Mrs. Ruiz
English 11/12
26 January 2021

Brainstorming and Critical Thinking Task

The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class
they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is
possible for everyone (Investopedia).

How was the American Dream portrayed in The Great Gatsby?

The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of
those who attempt to capture its illusionary goals. This is a common theme central to many novels.
This dream has varying significances for different people but in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the
dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness (BengjameBarber.org).

What type of thesis statement would you develop if you wanted to show the American Dream as a major theme
in the Great Gatsby? (Please try at least three) Examples

1. Option 1 Each character in the book, The greatGatsby, by Scot fitzgerald, have their own dealing with dealings
with the notion of the american ways of sucsess.

Paragraph 3 (Describe Gatsby and two symbols associated with his pursuit of the American Dream. Finally, how did
American Dream “prey” upon the hopes and dreams of Gatsby? How was Gatsby’s entire life consumed by the
pursuit of a corrupted American Dream? He has many symbols associated with this, especially the green light.)

★ Additional Graphic Organizer if you need more help.

A. Support

1. “She was the first “nice” girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in
contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly
desirable… It amazed him

It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy — it increased her value in his eyes.

he was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform
might slip from his shoulders. So he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and
unscrupulously
 but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the
same stratum as herself — that he was fully able to take care of her (149).”

Explanation: Knowing he could not marry her because of the difference in their social status, he leaves her to
accumulate his wealth to reach her economic and social standards.

2. Then he acquired his wealth with Mayer Wolfshiem.

“Mr. Carraway, this is my friend Mr. Wolfsheim.’ ‘So I took one look at him,’ said Mr. Wolfsheim, shaking
my hand earnestly, ‘and what do you think I did?’ [he] covered Gatsby with his expressive nose. ‘I handed the money
to Katspaugh and I said: all right, Katspaugh, don’t pay him a penny till he shuts his mouth. He shut it then and
there”(69).

Explanation: This implies some sketchy business between Wolfeihm and Gatsby because Wolfsheim talk
about bribing a man as soon as we meet him.

“Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler.’ Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: ‘He’s the man who fixed the
World’s Series back in 1919.’ ‘Fixed the World’s Series?’ I repeated. The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course,
that the World’s Series had been fixed in 1919”(73).

Explanation: Wolfsheim is responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. Gatsby's close relation with
Wolfsheim has involved him with illegal business. While we do not know for sure what illegal good Gatsby and
Wolfsheim are selling, we do know Gatsby acquired his wealth through unhonest means.

3. He moves near Daisy, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”(78).

Explanation: He also throws extravagant parties, “Really? I was down there at a party about a month ago. At a
man named Gatsby’s” (32) is what Myrtle says to Nick.

Explanation: Gatsby is hoping by chance that Daisy might show up at one of his parties. To be happy, Jay
must reach Daisy and make her fall in love with him.

4. “Gatsby shouldered the mattress and started for the pool...The chauffeur - heard the shots - afterward he
could only say that he hadn’t thought anything much about them… There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of
the water as the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. with little ripples that were
hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool” (161-162).

Explanation: The rich Jay died along with the moneyless james. He loved Daisy, but paid the price because
Tom blamed Gatsby for killing Myrtle, Wilson's wife. In Gatsby’s pursuit of the american dream, he died and never
courted Daisy. “the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off” (162). Gatsby believes in the american dream, but
never achieves it.
Paragraph 2 (Describe a second character and one symbol associated with their pursuit of the American Dream. For
example, you may want to focus on a character who already has the American Dream, such as Tom or Daisy.
Furthermore, describe that although they have the American Dream, they cause havoc in the lives of those around
them who do not have it. Their symbols could be the irony of the color white for Daisy. Tom's entire character is a
symbol of America's old wealth that believes that they are superior to other races, and live in constant moral hypocrisy
by drinking illegal alcohol and scoffing at family life being ruined while having an affair.)

★ Additional Graphic Organizer if you need more help.

Support: Tom’s physique is parallel to his stubborn way of thinking of the world.

Evidence: Just as Tom uncritically repeats racist things he’s read in books, “[Daisy’s] husband, among various
physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a
national figure … ‘Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white
race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved’ ”(13).

Support: The remains this way through his torned marriage with Daisy. At the end of the book, even after it becomes
clear that both Tom and Daisy have cheated on each other, Tom stubbornly maintains that they have always loved each
other and that they always will, no matter what. He feels he has lost his american dream because he lost his fame from
being a football player as a teen. He, like Gatsby, knows a time he felt fulfilled. However he does not pursue it, but
does not engage upon it. Tom’s life is a downhill and he stays unreactive to it by persuading himself he is happy with
Myrtle and Daisy.

Paragraph 1 (Describe one character and one symbol associated with the pursuit of the American Dream. For example,
Myrtle’s attempts to change her social class by having an affair with Tom. The symbol that ultimately destroys her is the
yellow vehicle and emblem of gaudy new money wealth. You could also use the eyes ofT.G. Eckelberg watching all of the
events in the Valley of the Ashes unfold. Or the Valley of the Ashes, the home of Myrtle and Wilson.)
 ★ Additional Graphic Organizer if you need more help.
Topic Sentence 1: Relevant Transition Word

Where Tom fights to keep things as they are, Wilson passively lets his life pass by minute by minute. George Wilson is
incompetent/ Nick described him as, “When any one spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable, colorless
way. He was his wife's man and not his own.” Thus does anything to please his woman, where his self regard is
blurred away.

George tells Tom that he needs money because he wants to move west with his wife. By then he's begun to suspect his
wife's affair. George has actually locked Myrtle upstairs and plans to keep her there until they have the money to
move.

Evidence: “He had slept through the heat until after five, when he strolled over to 104 the garage, and found George
Wilson sick in his office — really sick, pale as his own pale hair and shaking all over. Michaelis advised him to go to
bed, but Wilson refused... While his neighbor was trying to persuade him a violent racket broke out overhead. ‘I’ve got
my wife locked in up there,’ explained Wilson calmly. ‘She’s going to stay there till the day after to-morrow, and then
we’re going to move away.”

Support: George locked Myrtle as punishment for her affair. Yet, when he lets her drive off with Tom again because he
forgives her too easily. Then the unfortunate happens. Daisy and Gatsby speed in Tom’s blue car. Nick and Myrtle,
driving Gatsby’s yellow car. When Myrtle runs to the blue one, assuming Tom is driving, rushes out into the road
"waving her hands and shouting" (3.15).

Support: Daisy runs her over without stopping, leaving Myrtle dead.
In Chapter 8, George, reeling from his wife's violent death, tracks Gatsby down and kills him at his pool. George,
being unable to control his emotions, reacts violently. In summary, George Wilson is a frail boy in his cheracter.