NCwall4Americasfuture

The American Future: where dreams may or may not come true
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[|Dreams by Priscilla Ahn]

American dreamers have contributed to defining the country ever since the country’s establishment in 1776. The American dream has been the stage for higher success, a stage to which almost all Americans strive to reach. The American dream is subjective, but generally entails a hope of becoming more successful in some way or another, or gaining more of a particular object or ideal in order to become happier. The 1920’s were a time of decaying social and moral values as a result of the greed and constant pursuit of pleasure. Scott Fitzgerald ingeniously depicts the American character and the American dreams through the effervescent illusions of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is caught up in the materialistic, ignorant, and hopeful America that speaks toward dreamers across generations.

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[|Is This Our Dream???]

F. Scott Fitzgerald: "I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life” (Fitzgerald, 35).

A characteristic typical to Americans, Gatsby wants to be recognized in a country where self-satisfaction is a motive for almost everything we do, “I didn’t want you to think I was just some nobody” (Fitzgerald, 67). In the case of Jay Gatsby, “he paid a high price for living too long with a single dream,” indulged in, “A new world, material without being real” (Fitzgerald, 161). Although most people’s dreams don’t turn into their reality to the extent that Gatsby’s did, Fitzgerald is illustrating the fact that aspiration can lead to heartbreak and/or psychological death.

[|dreams]

[|Fitgerald's Homepage]

Gary Shteyngart: “But I can’t connect in any meaningful way to anyone, even to you, diary. Four young people committed suicide in our building complexes, and two of them wrote suicide notes about how they couldn’t see a future without their apparati. One needed to be ranked, to know his place in the world. And that may sound ridiculous, but I can understand him” (271). It is apparent that the apparati is tearing the future American society apart, but Lenny, in addition to all other members of that future society, ignores the fact in exchange for temporary gratification. As if losing interaction abilities weren’t enough, Lenny hits the rock bottom soon after, “I had lost the capacity to care-incessantly, morbidly, instinctually, counterproductively” (294).

[|American Dream]

Wall 4 Reflection and References Wall 1: Puritanism Wall 2: Individual expression in nature Wall 3: The foundation's transition to becoming community oriented