Part 2 .. Cici (Yifan) Zhang .. SAD! The TRAGIC American Dream on Myrtle

Hi! This is Cici's blog💙💚💛!

Myrtle is George Wilson’s wife👇, who manages a car repair shop. Although she is in a poor condition at first, however, she has a competitive and ambitious heart to rectify her situation👿, which is the direct reason why she chooses to be Tom’s mistress😨😨😨. To be more specific, she is not satisfied with her current and tries to blend in the upper level of the society💂, without considering if the method is fit for the moral standard. For her, Tom could be seen as a path leading to money and riches. 

From my point of view💁, everyone has their own American Dream, and it is only realistic and achievable for people who have economic base and ability to earn money. In other words, for people who have no ability to make money and keep a state of poverty, achieving American Dream seems impossible!!! which is an illusion for them😥😥😥.

Myrtle is a woman who neither has the economic basis nor could earn money by herself and belongs to the poor class in the society.However, she has her ambitious American Dream and insists to struggle to reach it! To reach her goal, she chooses to sacrifice her spirit and personalities, including the sacrifice on body, distortion of the world view and destruction of characters💀💀💀!

POOR MYRTLE💧

In Chapter 2, Myrtle “wanted to get one of those dogs and the apartment”, which shows that she exactly gets a satisfaction on a material level and has what the rich have. However, what Myrtle loses is much more than she gained💔💔💔. Firstly, she uses her body to have sex and corrupt with Tom in order to keep Tom’s interests for her🙀🙀, which shows that she sold and sacrifice her body to obtain material satisfaction and the realize of American Dream. Also, in chapter two, “Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand”, from which we could know that although Tom hit her with violence💢💢💢, she still accompanies with Tom and chooses to accept his behavior. Because of the power of money, she had forgotten to resist the violence she was being subjected to, which presents that her destructed personalities which could bear any of Tom’s action as long as she could get money on martial. What is more, in Chapter 2, Myrtle said “these people! You have to keep after them all the time!” to show her ashamed😒😒😒and disgusting attitude towards the servant. It is so ironic that she forgets herself who belongs to the same class as the servant but uses a completely different view towards the world, which implies the distortion of her world view😕😕. In a word, for the poor to make their American Dream come true, what they lose would more than what they got. 

Thus, I do not think that Myrtle achieved her American Dream completely. Her American Dream is not only to be rich and has a lot of treasure on material, but also to change her identity and blend in the upper level in the society to be able to communicate with them on a spiritual level💥!There is no deny that Myrtle actually gets treasure and material satisfaction💅, which means she achieved part of her American Dream. But the other part of her dream is totally failed, on a spiritual level, she lost her body and personalities  which gives her a great destruction spiritually💣💣. She does not blend into the upper society, at the same time, she lost her nature, which means the failure of her American Dream💩. 

Both the society and Myrtle need to make a change🙅!On the one hand, the setting of the story is around 1920 s, which is a period that there is a great gap between the poor and the rich. As I could see, Gatsby has money to hold a party for celebration every weekends. George William, living a hard life by owning a non-business car repair shop, which is a contrast with Gatsby’s luxurious life😧😧. If the government takes measures to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, strictly monitor the economic resources of the rich and set up a living guarantee for people at the bottom, Myrtle may not have such idealistic American Dream. Also, Myrtle is required to change herself. It is nothing wrong for her to pursue a better life, however, she should change her mind that using her mind and ability to make money by herself is the proper way👏👏👍, rather than give her hope to men. 

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The girls in the media example, who are trained with wearing tracksuits in Nike and finally board the competition and gain people’s support, conveys a message that the achievement of American Dream is based on a certain amount of money. Their parents need to spend money sending them to the training and buying them tracksuits in Nike. Also, it is necessary for them to have the ability and talents in playing sports. Both the money and ability are required to achieve American dreams. On the contrary, there is no economic support for Myrtle to start her American Dream. Her marriage with George destinies that she belongs to the lower class and has no economic foundation. To be a conclusion, these two's different previous conditions 👉 different consequences of their AMERICAN DREAM!