Great Gastby and A Raisin in the Sun

     The American Dream Presentation varied from person to person. For my neighborhood it resembled wealth and education that is associated with acquiring that wealth. This obviously relates  to both books because of the wealth aspect showing in both The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun. In "Raisin" it relates well with Beneatha's dream of going to college and becoming a doctor. The same goes with the American Dream of my neighborhood of the adults providing the best education to their children and sending them off the college. She wants to go off and be someone in the world and she has the support of, some, of her family. In my neighborhood we have a similar situation except that the children in my neighborhood don't have the ambition and don't want to do anything with their lives and they have FULL support from their families to go to college, get a good education, and have a career in something they'd like to do. This was Beneatha's american dream, which is the same as the one portrayed in my neighborhood.
     The American Dream project is also relative to The Great Gatsby in that they both have a wealth aspect to them related to happiness. They say money can't buy you wealth but it can buy you things that make you happy. Gatsby was a big representation of money in Great Gatsby especially because he came from a family of farmers, poor, and changed in his goal to become wealthy and respectable for Daisy. In my neighborhood the motto seems to be "money and education will bring you happiness", this is clearly not true as shown in The Great Gatsby. People seem to associate money with happiness because of all the things and luxury you can buy, it also seems almost stress-free to be wealthy which leaves you healthier and happier. By contrast though, Gatsby was the wealthiest caracter in the book, yet he seemed to be the loneliest. He achieved his american dream of becoming wealthy, yet he still wasn't happy. Perhaps the people in my neighborhood already know this and that's why they decide not to do anything about achieving goals or even setting any in the first place! Another example, also in this book, is Daisy and Tom. They are also living the american dream, Daisy being famous and Tom having power over people. But, although they have achieved their drams, they also are unhappy. They are married and don't even seem to love each other even though they have a child together. Tom is even having an affair because he is not happy enough with Daisy, then later on in the book Daisy has an affair with Gatsby, her first love. They, Tom and Daisy, both know that their "significant other" is having an affair but they don't really get jealous, until the end of the book, because they know that they are unhappy in their marriage and don't love each other as they should as a married couple.

WORD COUNT: 502