Scene Rewrite: Jordan's View/Narration

Gatsby wisely decides to call off his parties, now that there was no need to lure Daisy back into his life. He fires all of his servants and hires those of his business partner Meyer Wolfshiem. Gatsby is now convinced that he and Daisy will return to their once forbidden love and live a lavish glamorous life together. No one seemed to know that we were on the peak of atrophy, I didn’t know what it was but things had been going too well for too long things were bound to fall apart.

Nick arrives at Daisy and Tom’s house for a little brunch and I along with Gatsby is there as well. When the nurse brings in Daisy’s baby girl, Gatsby is stunned and it appears so is daisy. Who would have thought that she’d actually have a child with Tom, then again who wouldn’t? Gatsby is shelled shocked, not just because it’s Tom’s child, but it’s Daisy, who would have thought that his love could conceive something you magnificently beautiful. Gatsby and Daisy cannot hide their love for one another. Complaining of her boredom, Daisy asks Gatsby if he wants to go into the city. Gatsby of course agrees but Tom threatened of by the lack of manhood he still desires to protect offers that we all head into the city, I don’t object and neither does poor Nick.

Nick Tom and I ride together in Gatsby’s car, and Gatsby and Daisy ride together in Tom’s car. Stopping for gas at Wilson’s garage, Nick, Tom, and Jordan learn that Wilson has discovered his wife’s infidelity. Wilson is not yet sure who the stooge and prude of the man she’s slept with is. What he does know is that she is planning to move to the west so it must be someone there. It is then that Nick seems to bounce upon some epiphany that Tom and Wilson stand in the same position, losing there pride, manhood and wives to some sleazebag of a man, all in the hopes and demise of money.

I suggested that we go to the movies. “I love New York on summer afternoons when every one’s way. There’s something very sensuous about it” I remember babbling on and on about New York I did love the place I did I was just fed up with the mess that was going on and of course I wanted to get under that perfect uneasy skin of Mr. Tom Buchanan. And if Daisy wasn’t fool enough to see she was flotsam passing through a landmine I was just the brute to help her.

The American Dream

What is the American dream? Are you living it? Do you share it or is it an individual dream?  Okay, okay after reading several interesting articles I decided to look up the definition of the American dream. Dictionary.com describes it as the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American or a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S. The American dream is seen as an ideal for opportunities and the chance for better. Several articles place the dream on the back burner, with college dropout rates at an all time high, unemployment rates soaring, government and citizen debt escalating who has time for a dream? The American dream is often linked with money and material prospering and this is what many say has caused the dream to fail. The idealistic American dream is also linked with power and leadership and I find this ironic because the American dream is suppose to be a collective link that holds the American culture together. Individually success is very important to the overall success of any country and dream, but the motive is what drives the dream. I often thought about other’s countries standard of living and their own dream and though what it would be like to live and prosper in their dreams. And I found it to be sustainably different than the American dream. The answer to my question was quite simple Americans want more stuff. While other citizens around the world are happy with less stuff Americans thrive off the need of more things. I mean look at our commercial market today ads are placed everywhere to get our attention, for the latest iPods, Jordan’s, hats, shirts, trends any and everything. Because we have such high standards of living we strive for more. This is a blessing and a curse. It was said that Americans always want the best and this is true but this can lead to huge amounts of debt, war turmoil, and confusion that we are experiencing now. If you really think about it we have so many things going on its hard to keep up with everything. Thus leading us to question our true perception of our dreams. Honestly how many of you vowed at the start of the year to read more, spend less time socializing via the web (Twitter, Facebook esp.), to spend or shop less. All of these things I have mentioned link in some form or fashion to materialism and this is the negative conception of the dream. I feel as though Americans are so driven to get ahead with money and wealth that we forget about the other aspects of the dream; like higher education, job opportunities, and the right to choose a profession or religion/belief, freedom of speech. The pursuit of happiness, laborites and justice for all is what our founding fathers considered as the American dream contemptness and personal happiness, what happen to that? In relation to the Great Gatsby, the characters all exemplify the wealth part of the American dream but they don’t truly have happiness. I challenge that there is one truly happy person in the book (as far as we have read). Gatsby is so intriguing to me because he has so many character traits that are so American. He is a melting pot of emotions and drive. If you’ve read ahead you may know that Gatsby hasn’t always been rich and he mad his way up the social and American ladder to achieve his one goal love (for daisy) now whether I agree with Gatsby’s tacit of fighting for is debatable but a fight he does put up. It is truly interesting to me that people would give up there God given right to be happy to have money and it makes me question whether happiness can be bought. And its one of those grey question where I sway back and forth because some times money is so absolute and has so many answer while sometimes it s the dumbest creation that cause destruction. The charters don’t even enjoy some of the good aspects of the American dream. Daisy ahs a daughter and I feel that this should be one of the most bonding relationships and family is truly important to the American dream. Yet Daisy doesn’t take interest in her daughter and it’s because of the path she has chosen that she holds her daughter in contempt. Views on the American Dream also very from ethnicity, gender and age. In one of the articles I read had this statement from an aspiring Broadway play writer. “The grim smell of actual want always at the end of my nose,” he was a young New Yorker man who decide he would either make it big or leave his city and home as he knew it and he did and his plays such as Once In a Lifetime got many high reviews.  While some men had rather high goals for their futures as it related to the American Dream women in American are abandoning the traditional white picket fence a dog 2 kids and a supporting husband. They are looking for self fulfillment giving back to others and the ability to chose their destiny not based on societal views. I as a female would agree someone, so watch out males women are taking over.  This also relates to the great Gatsby because the women played such a significant roles in the men’s lives, Gatsby rose to wealth and power for daisy, tom fought for daisy and in a sense the men feared the women (hence their anxiety towards cheating and lies etc.) many Americans have a materialistic point of view of the world, whether we accept it or not. Its shown through the clothes we buy, where we shop, what we eat, where we live, what we drive how we talk everything we do is in some form or fashion driven by materialism. It’s not always a bad thing but its not always good. Thanks to democracy we have choice J/L. The American dream is the dream that Dr.MLK fought for, the dream that soldiers die for every day, the dream that President John F. Kennedy lived for and the dream that both president Obama and the determined 5^th grader share? What is the American dream? Are you sharing it? Is it an individual dream or collect a collective one?

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/27/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez-dream-20100927
http://technorati.com/business/finance/article/the-american-dream-is-a-financial/
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/making_good_on_the_american_dream.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/is_the_american_dream_over.html
http://teens.webmd.com/news/20050113/american-dream-happiness-say-teens
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/04/american-dream200904
http://globalteentalk.com/?p=1612
http://technorati.com/women/article/how-women-perceive-the-american-dream/
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2778132.ece
http://classiclit.about.com/od/ofmiceandmensteinbeck/fr/aa_ofmice.htm