Saleh, Zelalem, Hendrix 1

Zelgai Saleh, Nathan Zelalem, Amanda Hendrix

Mrs. Partlow
English 11 AP
March 10, 2014

Pushing Up Daisies
A large Victorian house in the suburbs, an apple pie on the windowsill cooling just as dad
gets home from work to greet his family by their white picket fence. This is the image that comes
mind when people picture the American dream. The American dream can mainly be reached in
two ways. Through money and materialistic means, or through idealistic personal achievement.
Sometimes money is enough to make someone happy. Money provides comfort, and in Gatsbys
case, company. On the other hand, the idea of the American Dream can also be interpreted as
personal achievement, rugged individualism and unadulterated expressions of spontaneous free
will. While neither Gatsby nor McCandless really achieved the American Dream, Chris
McCandless came the closest because he was content throughout his journey, he embodies
rugged individualism and freedom and Jay Gatsby never came close to achieving his dream, or
the American Dream.

Before we can get into the specifics of each mans achievements and goals and who came
the closest to achieving the American Dream, we need to have a clear definition of what The
Dream is. As stated above, peoples perception of the American Dream can vary and does so
wildly. Yet, when evaluating and closely examining each variation of the American Dream
common themes prevail. One of the most common themes is individualism. This is seen in
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stories of the self-made man, in Americas apparent capacity for great social mobility and even
in our picture of the American family. Another common theme is freedom, this, in some senses,
can be regarded as the original American Dream. Freedom is the reason why America was
founded and the reason why we prosper. The ability of people to be free not only from the
government but also from society has been our constant idea of Freedom. The noble families of
England dont exist here and each man is his own man, made and judged by his own volition and
effort, not by his family. The last common theme is personal achievement and happiness. This, in
some ways, is linked to individualism; you can achieve what you want when you want as you
strive to fulfill yourself. This prevails throughout American history, going as far back as the
Declaration of Independence and mans inalienable right to the Pursuit of Happiness.

It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumph of joy of living to the fullest
extent, in which real meaning is found. God its great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.
(Krakauer 37). Throughout the book we see McCandless consistently declare himself overjoyed
or satisfied with something he has pursued. McCandless journey therefore provided him with
more happiness than Gatsbys did. Along his journey, McCandless was able to find meaning, and
in his own measure success. We see that not only did he love the life he chose to lead but he had
no regrets and was content with it: As for me, Ive decided Im going to live this life for some
time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up. (Krakauer 33).
On the other hand Gatsby reaps the exact opposite. He has found no meaning and has not
succeed primary goal of getting Daisy. You loved me too? He repeated. The words seemed
to bite physically into Gatsby. (Fitzgerald 132). Here Gatsbys dreams of Daisy and his
conception of their relationship is shattered as she tells him that she loved him and Tom too
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essentially crushing his fantasy of Daisy. McCandless journey had its shortcomings too, while
he was happy throughout his journey he did not intend to die in Alaska: It may be a very long
time before we see each other again. But providing that I get through this Alaskan Deal in one
piece you will be hearing from me again in the future. (Krakauer 56) So while McCandless
came close his unpreparedness still killed him and he never truly achieve the American Dream.

While Gatsbys version of the American Dream was riches and parties and getting the
girl, McCandless dream differed greatly but better embodied the American Dream. The original,
rugged and true American Dream. The one seen in the frontiersmen of the historic American
west and the original American patriots that freed the US from British control. We see this
continuing idea of freedom from social bonds and using that freedom with the individualism bred
by American culture to explore and do amazing things and fulfill ourselves with our own two
hands. McCandless exemplifies all these true American ideals:
Chris was gone. Five week earlier hed loaded all his belongings into his little car and
headed west without an itinerary. The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the
world, an epic journey that would change everything. At long last he was
unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of
abstraction and security and material excess, . (Krakauer 22)
Yet, while McCandless exemplified all these great American ideals and the true American
Dream Gatsby did exactly the opposite. The story of Jay Gatsby is a story of what the American
Dream hopes to escape. Clearly Scott Fitzgerald has written the Great Gatsby not to show that
Gatsby lived the American Dream or that even he came close but rather as a satire of wealth and
material excess, to show us what we need to escape to truly be happy and to truly live the
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American Dream. Throughout the story Gatsby, while he may seem free is constantly bound by
the chains of social order and by his wealth, the very things meant to free him only bind him
closer into a society that stifles and distorts the American Dream.

Jay Gatsby was a man who went from rags to riches, but at a great cost. His primary goal
was to marry and run away with the girl that he met 5 years earlier, but he attempted to achieve
this goal through dishonest means. Like Chris McCandless, Gatsby had a dream, but his dream
became corrupted by the idea that money could buy his happiness. Amassing his wealth to
impress Daisy through illegal techniques ultimately led to his demise. Gatsby died knowing that
Daisy would never truly love him as he had always intended. He had come a long way to this
blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did
not know that it was already behind him. (Fitzgerald 180) His entire life revolved around the
past, and the fact that he believed he could change it. Cant repeat the past? He cried
incredulously. Why of course you can! (Fitzgerald 110) However, this could never happen
because Daisy and Gatsby lived in different social positions. Daisy was not going to give up on
Tom to be with Gatsby and face the social consequences. Tom would also never be completely
out of their lives because he and Daisy had a child together. Jay Gatsby lost sight of happiness,
his dream and the American Dream because he was strove to achieve an impossible thing and
ultimately was in love with a past time and a past life.

Neither Gatsby nor McCandless truly achieved the American Dream. For one thing, the
American Dream involves living. Neither of them made it to the end of their race, and were cut short.
However if each were to continue their story and live on, we would see that Gatsby would first need
to completely come to terms with the end of his dream, and begin anew to free himself of the chains
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that bind him into a distorted version of the American Dream. McCandless would remain proud of
himself for accomplishing such a feat, and would most likely find peace after living his dream.
McCandless would have reason to be content because he was unhappy and took it upon himself to go
out and fulfill his idea of freedom. By escaping his parents and peers to find his own way. He pushed
for independence and needed no other comforts to satisfy himself. His lack of excess materialistic
needs freed him, while Gatsbys obsession with materials did the opposite. So many people live in
unhappy circumstances and yet ... they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and
conservatism. (Krakauer 57) McCandless freed himself and Gatsby stayed chained in the social
order of West Egg and East Egg trying to achieve a goal which was already lost and was already just
a memory. McCandless embodied all that the American Dream was, is and stands for and Gatsby
embodied all the American Dream hopes to escape. Although in the end they were both just, pushing
up daisies.











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Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.
Krakauer, Jon. Into The Wild. New York: Anchor, 2007. Print.