The idea of American dream in the book is also an unfair opportunity that the hard work didn’t paid off all the time.
In the book George and James was both start from the working class of the society. However, their characteristic is totally different. James is very hypocritical and dishonest, but George is industrious and honest. In chapter 6, nick said that “James Gatz—that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen”. In this quote he declares the real identity of James Gatsby who is a nobody but a working-class child, and this shows how hypocritical
Gatsby is that he is willing to change his name to becoming one of the upper class. But looking at George is a totally different person that he is very hard-working person and even being a little bit naïve that when Tom was dropping by, he thinks Tom wants to do business with him, but in fact Tom is looking for his wife and having an affair with her. However, through the whole book the writer doesn’t mention about how Gatsby dedicating his life and effort on the way of being success. Inversely, George is the one that spent his life time chasing the dream. In chapter 2, when Tom driving to the garage to meet his wife for the first time in the story, George was planning on buying Tom’s car and reselling it for a higher price which makes him possible to move to west with his wife. Even though he tried so hard chasing his dream he still failed at last.
The unfair opportunity can also be seen in Anna’s Story create by her lies. At her hearing while she made excuses for her actions, she did not apologize for her character: “I’m not a good person.” (New York Times). she used her fake identity to create opportunity and looking for investment for her private club. Having place in the top 10% is the ultimate dream of the blue-collar group in the society, it might take forever for the normal person to achieve this goal with the hard-work. And even worse, the cost of upgrading in to the top class can be very expensive both physically and emotionally. However, Anna didn’t take any of the cost and she find herself in the top 10% group. Also, Anna is a combination of Gatsby’s hypocrisy and George’s honest, and those shaping her as a character that is shameless which will give her more access to many of resources. And this is the reason why she become so success and vividly shown how unfair the American dream is in the temporary society.
In conclusion, the American Dream in temporary society is very unfair and the cunning lair has a better opportunity to success.
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