The American Dream has always captured people's interest. It can be defined as the belief in the opportunity to thrive and succeed in all areas of a person's life. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates how the characters in the novel strive for the American dream and makes readers understand how it is an unattainable concept to achieve. The author does this by focusing on the actions that the characters take to achieve their dreams and how these characters end up being insatiable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Over the course of the novel, the main protagonist Jay Gatsby builds himself from nothing to try to achieve the American Dream. However, his popular status in society was not enough to realize his ideal dream and, seeking to achieve further goals, led to his death. Daisy, who was already married, was Gatby's past love but Gatsby was still overly obsessed with her. He had the intention of reuniting with her, and that's what led him to build his house right in front of Daisy, where he can see "a single green light, a minute away...at the end of the pier." (Fitgerald, 24) The author of the novel demonstrates to the readers that Gatsby has reached the status where he is financially and socially stable to build his house wherever he wants, but Gatsby feels the need to build his house right in front of Daisy who represents the “single green light” to try to feel closer to her and feel like he is realizing the missing part of his dream. This evidence shows that no matter how much Gatsby tried to achieve his dream, it was impossible to complete it considering how far he had gone. At the end of the novel, Gatsby ends up dead and without Daisy. In his life, Gatsby accumulated so much wealth that “his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly miss it” and yet that is exactly what happened. His dream of becoming rich had already been realized, but the dream of being with Daisy even though she was married and he was extremely attached to her, was not successfully realized. Little did Gatsby know that [his dream] was already behind him, somewhere in the vast darkness beyond the city…” (Fitzgerald, 193) Fitzgerald brings the idea that even if Gatsby had lived, he would never have known that his desire to be with Daisy was a mission impossible and this would lead him on a lifelong journey to tenaciously continue to persevere for a life with Daisy that would never come to pass. Gatby's actions demonstrate the thesis that the American dream is an unattainable dream that leaves people wanting more but not being able to achieve more. Furthermore, other characters who seem to share the same fate as Gatsby are George and Myrtle Wilson. The American dream did not exist for George Wilson, a hard worker who could not leave the West with his wife Myrtle, due to a lack of funds that led to the couple's death. George Wilson was a mechanic unaware that his wife Myrtle was cheating on him with Tom Buchanan, Daisy's husband. Myrtle was a woman who wanted more than what a working-class husband could give her, which is why she had an affair with Tom. George reveals to Tom that he's been "sick all day... [and that he's] all run down." (Fitzgerald, 131) Trying to earn enough money for him and his wife to move was very stressful and was making him physically ill, which is why "in the sunlight his face was green." (Fitzgerald, 131) In this section, Fitzgerald proves that George and his wife do not belong to the same social class as Tom Buchanan because George did notenough money to pursue his American dream of leaving town with his wife. George has to work hard to try to earn enough money, which has a detrimental effect on him. Later in the novel, Myrtle is killed by a car that hits her that Geroge suspects was her lover. George then continues to assume that Gatsby is his lover because he was the owner of the car that hit Myrtle, so George kills Gatsby and then himself. (Fitzgerald, 162) The couple's death symbolizes how efforts to try to move up in social class were never a possibility for them because they did not come from wealthy families and instead had to work for what they needed. Gatsby, Myrtle, and George are all characters in Fitzgerald's novel who have to work very hard to become someone high class in society, but never fully succeed. Myrtle attempted to take a shortcut and try to achieve social betterment with someone who was already privileged and yet she was unable to get what she wanted. Gatsby and Wilson worked hard, but their hard work didn't get them far. Based on the character's actions in the novel, it can be determined that the American Dream does not exist and can even be considered dangerous to achieve. Regardless of Fitzgerlad's novel, the United States has conducted numerous polls that demonstrate a common trend in citizens' idea of ​​the American dream. For several years, Americans have constructed their views of the American Dream as it has changed. Specifically in the late 1900s and early 2000s, the American Dream was a hot topic representing materialistic and financial security with the increased influence of technology. Before that, it was more about equal opportunities, respect and freedom. A newspaper article written by Sandra Hanson and John Zogby shows a collection of polls from various different sources asking people in the United States their opinion on specific questions or statements. Table 7 in the journal article asks surveyors to answer what they think of the statement: “Hard work offers little guarantee of success.” The survey shows a mixed set of consistent responses over the years, ranging from “Strongly Agree” down to “Don't Know.” Even though the majority side with “Mostly Disagree” and “Strongly Disagree,” it should be noted that the percentage of people saying “Strongly Agree” and “Mostly Agree” is constant over the of 10 years. Opinions on this survey vary depending on the responses, which shows that people in the United States are unsure whether hard work pays off their success, which contributes to their American dream. Based on this widespread data, I can establish the idea that the American dream is an unattainable concept because it is still unclear to many Americans whether or not hard work can pay off. In addition to this newspaper article, Table 8 is another survey in which people are asked, "Do you agree or disagree: Has the American Dream become impossible for most people to achieve?" This survey collects opinions from 1995 to 2003, which makes this table more recent than the previous table presented. In Table 8, the percentage of people who agreed with the question is slightly higher than the percentage who disagreed over the years the survey was conducted. Furthermore, the percentage numbers never seem to show a huge relative change for either category. From this table it can be concluded that in recent years more and more people do not believe in the American dream and what is associated with it. These 2 tables demonstrate that people.