Saba Goodarzi

Mrs.Marsick
English 3A
May 12, 2014
The American Dream
The american dream was first coined by U.S. writer and historian J.T. Adams in his
book Epic of America. Adams died in Westport, Connecticut in 1949, and wrote the
Epic of America in 1931. He referred to the american dream as the following,
that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for
everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a
difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and
too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a
dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in
which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature
of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they
are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
In this quote Adams specifically says that the American dream isnt merely about a
higher standard of living (he speaks of motor cars and high wages). He thinks the
dream is about being recognized for what makes you special, or for what you are,
regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. His statement is
really utopian in some sense, that we can have a society where we recognize and
observe others based on their character and who they are rather than their gender,
race, and class. This is really a beautiful dream, the original american dream. But
over time this american dream has completely changed, our perception of the
dream, what it really means is very different. According to dictionary.com there are 3
definitions of the american dream the first, the ideals of freedom, equality, and
opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American. this is similar to
Adamss definition because they both speak of equality, freedom, and oppurtunity,
but Adams was signifigantly more specific, speaking about forgoing sexism and
racism to live in pursuit of what is important to us. The second definition is, a life of
personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the
U.S. This is similar to Adams since they both speak about happiness but they
disagree on the value they place on a material comfort. The 3rd definition is this, the
notion that the American social, economic, and political system makes success
possible for every individual. This is quite different than Adamss definition, he
doesnt even speak about the concept of being successful, but he does speak about
equality and how everybody should to be given opportunities. Clearly the concept
that the american dream has a single definition is absurd, its variable to the time
period, and even there it seems to have multiple meanings. Over time this dream has
changed, it used to be about this utopia of which each man and each woman shall be
able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be
recognized by others for what they are but today the dream is significantly more
materialistic, one quote that sympathises with this argument is of Holden Caulfield
from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in The Rye,
"You ought to go to a boys' school sometime. Try it sometime," I said. "It's full
of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart
enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep
making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is

talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in
these dirty little goddam cliques.
I can completely see what Holden is objecting to, maybe because I live in Westport,
his main issue is that the type of dream they have in life, their american dream in
some sense is to be rich. All they care about are these shallow material pleasures like
buying a cadillac, and the second best thing is getting drunk every weekend. But
those aspirations arent meaningful at all compared to the dreams of J.T. Adams.
Todays modern perception of the American Dream, a materialistic view of life, is not
nearly as valuable as the original american dream laid out by J.T. Adams because it
not only asserts the position that money and status are important, but all the love
and happiness in life can be bought. This paper argues that in The Great
Gatsby the characters are mislead from society to believe money and
status are important, which ultimately takes them away from the
meaningful concepts of Utopia laid out in J.T. Adams book The Epic of
America. It also attempts to prove that if it werent for the incorrect
value we place on money and status maybe we could live in a Utopia
similar to what Adams had suggested. This is done mainly through the
contrast and analysis of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The
Epic of America by J.T. Adams, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger,
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost, and Let America be America
Again by Langston Hughes.
In The Great Gatsby Gatsby would do anything for Daisys love, and the
majority of the book is spent with Gatsby trying to win her over. When Gatsby and
Daisy were young they used to date, and back then there love was meaningful and
innocent. It didnt have to do with money, or anything else, it was almost perfect in
Gatsbys view. Daisys then decided that Gatsby was not the optimal husband
because of his lack of wealth, and his lack of status. These opinions were because of
how society valued a rich man, and status, thats why Daisy adopted that way of
thinking. Because of how Daisy treated Gatsby he wanted to become rich and win her
back. Gatsby used money to try to make friends, and in reality the only friends he
had, the only people that showed up to his funeral were Nick, Owl Eyes, and Gatsbys
father. Money never bought him love and money never bought him anything else but
status, a big house, and a few fancy cars. But its not Gatsbys fault he lives in a
society that makes him want these things, these material objects. He could not help
but try to be like those images of successful people in society. Its probably because
he never really had his parents in the picture, parents are the people who are
supposed to guide you through society and help you see the world in a meaningful
way. Although Gatsby never really learns how money cant buy him love, Nick does.
Nick learns that money buys you a relationship like Daisy and Toms, a
dysfunctional, disloyal, and obnoxious relationship, but not true love. In this quote it
talks about Gatsbys attempt to buy Daisys love, Theyre such beautiful shirts, she
sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. It makes me sad because Ive never seen
such such beautiful shirts before. In this quote Gatsby took Daisy and Nick over
to his house to show them all his beautiful things, Daisy starts to fall in love with
these special collared shirts that Gatsby bought. She really starts to become
emotional about them, and this is when Gatsby and Daisys relationship starts to pick
up again. But she never ends up with Gatsby, and thats because no matter how much
stuff Gatsby has he could never buy Daisys love.

Maybe if children and new generations werent corrupted from previous

generations, Gatsby and Daisy would fall in love. The reason they would fall in love is
because their innocent minds wouldnt think about money, status, and the size of
someones house are important at all, they would be recognized for who they are.
They would think about the more valuable concepts of utopia that were laid out by
Adams in his definition of the American Dream. They would not think about the
shirts they wear, but rather what they have to say about the world, what they have to
say about humanity, and how they want to raise their children to change the next
generation. Not in the shallow and inconsiderate way that Daisy treats her children,
but in a more meaningful and innocent way, a way that Adams envisioned America
to be. This concept of corruption of purity is similar to the poem Nothing Gold Can
Stay by Robert Frost. Heres a quote from the poem,
Natures first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
The way to think about this poem is as if natures first green is a newborn baby, gold.
This period of innocence and lack of knowledge is the hardest period of your life to
maintain, and soon you are corrupted by the viewpoints, and the perspectives
manufactured to your existence and you no longer have your innocence. Back to
Gatsby and Daisys relationship, without the corruption of Daisys parents, without
the corruption of society, their relationship could have stayed as innocent and
beautiful as it was, but eden sank to grief, and dawn went to day, and not only can
nothing gold stay, but gatsbys relationship will be gone forever, like the purity of a
bloom.
Gatsby and Daisys relationship really exemplifies how society can influence
how we think and act. That is the essence of this essay, that society not only impacts
our lives but determines how we live them. The real idea to take away is that by
following the true and original american dream, only then, can we find our beautiful
american society. This quote is from Langston Hughess Let America be America
Again,
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for ones own greed!
The message Hughes is trying to convey is that America today is messed up, we have
this issue of greed, of ultimately capitalism where we all look in our own self interest.
These concepts of greed, and only acting in your self interest are some of the reasons
we dont live Adams utopia today. Until we can release ourselves from this bind we

have on materialism, of greed and capitalism we can not move towards the true
american dream.
I love that you went back and looked at the origin of The American Dream. You have
some really interesting evidence in your intro. However, you spent so much time on
that part that much of the support you needed to have in this paper is missing. The
intro is much too long and involved and you are missing the third piece we studied
and a conclusion.