The Never-Satiated American Dream-----to the characters of Great GastbyIn 1920s’ American, the American Dream is the firmly held belief that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their goals and become rich and prosperous if they only work hard enough. What is it about The American Dream that the characters of The Great Gatsby never seems to satisfy? At the end of this novel, Fitzgerald shows us that when facing the cruel reality, man who cannot grasp the concept that The American Dream is an illusion could not get what they want even if they work hard as best they can.Jordan Baker, a famous golf-player who is wealthy and thin, seems to have everything going for her. But she is not happy with what she has. She will do anything in order to win. She requires herself to do anything to be right all the time. Nick describes Jordan as “incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness .I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard jaunty body" (pg69). Jordan is not satisfied with her life because she is not honest. She knows that her success is fickle and that it can leave at any moment because it was not built on hard work towards The American Dream. So endless possession will be her direct and final aim. All she done for this aim makes her give up her true love to Nick.On the contrary, Myrtle Wilson does not have many material items. And she doesn't understand why others get to live The American Dream while she is stuck in "They Valley of Ashes" with her poor husband. She feels that she deserves more. So she makes an attempt to escape her own class and pursue happiness with up-class by entering into an affair with Tom. She loses all sense of morality and is scornful of people of her own class. Her constant clothing changes signify her dissatisfaction with her life - she changes personalities every time she changes her dress .Nick describe it:"with the influence of the dress her whole personality had also undergo a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur"(pg37). “She [Myrtle] raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. ’these people! You have to keep after them all the time.’"(pg 38, 39). But unfortunately, her efforts ultimately produce no results .She dies as a victim of the very group she sought to join in. Though American democracy is based on the concept of equality among people, social discrimination does still exist, and the divisions between classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle strives for a new life for herself, yet she is corrupted by the supposedly ‘better’ group and finally falls victim to it.Another two characters -- Daisy and Tom Buchanan, the rich socialite couple, seem to have everything they desire; however, though their lives are full of material possessions and worldly goods, they are unsatisfied and seek to change their own circumstances. Tom is an arrogant football player. The American Dream to him means he deserves more. Though he appears happily married to Daisy, and then has a beautiful daughter, Tom still has an affair with Myrtle and keeps an apartment with her in New York. Tom's nature of unrest prevents him from being satisfied with the life he owned, so he creates another life for himself with Myrtle. At the same time, Tom's insatiable appetite for more is apparent to many people including Nick. Nick describes like that: "Tom would drift onforever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game" (pg15). Tom is lost to his above average life because of his obsessive behavior towards always having more than anyone else. "Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his self-center no longer nourished his peremptory heart" (pg23). Tom's desire to be superior is making him crazier of someone. It is obvious the one is his wife Daisy.Daisy is rich, beautiful, has a daughter, and a husband. On the one hand, she has learned ways to manipulate others so that they pay more attention to her. It can be embodied on Nick’s words: "I've heard it said that Daisy's murmur was only to make people lean toward her;" (pg11). Everyone that looks at her thinks she embodies The American Dream, but she doesn't feel the same way.On the other hand, Daisy was aware of her charm and she used it to the best of her ability to secure her life style. From Gatsby’s words:"her voice is full of money',’ that was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl’" (pg125). But when she faced choice, she can’t seem to decide who she wants: Gatsby or Tom. Daisy does nothing but sits around all day and wonders what to do with herself. She knows that Tom has a mistress in New York, yet hesitates to leave him even when she wins Gatsby's devotion to her. Daisy professes her love to Gatsby, yet cannot say goodbye to Tom till Gatsby's insistence. Even then, once Tom pleads her for forgive and ask her to stay, Daisy quickly capitulates and immediately leaves Gatsby for a life of comfort and security.This couple are the epitome of the wealthy and prosperous life of the American Dream, yet their lives are empty, unfulfilled, and without purpose.Gatsby represents the fallen American Dream because he does not succeed in acquiring everything he wants even though he works very diligently at his goal, Daisy. Many times throughout the text a green light is mentioned. It is also a part of American Dream. It symbolizes constant searching for a way to reach that goal just of in the distance, as Nick described it, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms farther…. And one fine morning-" (Pg182).But Jay Gatsby's idealistic view of Daisy creates a conflict for him once he is confronted by the reality. Though Gatsby is rich, he is of the lower set, and he attempts to join the upper class with Daisy. His desire for a better life stems from his faith that anything is possible if he puts his mind to it, which is also a part of the American Dream. However, Gatsby's dream collapses when he fails to win Daisy and is ultimately rejected by the higher social group. All his ill-gotten wealth cannot help him and though he is killed physically by a bullet from George Wilson's gun, Gatsby dies spiritually when Daisy chooses Tom over him. Gatsby's representation of the broken American Dream gives irony to the novel because he is the only one that actually works for his station. "Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever .His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one" (pg98). "he [Gatsby] must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream .A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about" (pg169). Gatsby was the only one who believed in the goodliness ofThe American Dream. He honestly believed that his efforts and his dreams would pay off in the end. In fact, Gatsby’s fatal to lose his American Dream."Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all" (pg5). Gatsby truly looked through life from one window. His window was Daisy, but she failed him. The American Dream failed him. He failed himself. The problem with The American Dream is that it never fulfills, it never satiates, it never satisfies, and it leaves a trail of heartache in its wake.The involvement in The American Dream leads to heartache and betrayal. It leads to destroying others in the path of getting to the goal. Nick's father is quoted on the first page. He says, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had'" (pg2). If the characters would have listened to this advice, they would have realized all the great things that they have and several lives would have been spared.Bibliography:[1]. F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby.Beijing: Foreign language teaching and research press, 2005.[2]. Garrett George. Fire and Freshness: A Matter of Style in the Great Gatsby. Matthew J. Broccoli, 1984.[3].Wu Dingbai. An Outline of American Literature. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1998.[4].Zhang Tianjing.The Deeply Moving America Tragedy--Analysis the Great Gatsby. Journal of Xianyang Normal University, 2004.[5].Zheng Chenggong. The Beginning and Collapse of "American Dream"--On Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby. Journal of Tangshan Teachers College, 2002.[6].张滨江.哈佛蓝星双语名著导读:了不起的盖茨比.天津科技翻译出版公司,2003.。