The American Dream: All Gush and Twinkle

In his article, "The American Dream: All Gush and Twinkle", Louis Auchinclos discusses the idea tat the American dream is a myth. He describes the dream as being as fake as "the tinselly department store window ar Christmastime" (84). To the author, the American dream is represented by Daisy. It is vain, superficial, and full of itself, unable to put anyone else's desires before their own. Gatsby's "dismal atmosphere" represents the average American's life, consumed with that beautiful store window just as an "urchin on the street would be" (84). Gatsby, like the average American, is entirely consumed with that possibility, and can think of nothing else besides that possibility.

Louis Huchincloss’s article on the American Dream in The Great Gastby merely seems to ask questions about Gatsby’s motives and summarize the story in terms of how it reflects the questionable ideals of the characters and the times. One of the more important questions it raises is whether “falling in love with a beautiful heiress with a moneyed smile; regardless of her shallow, deceiving, selfish tendencies... justifies criminal activity?” This seems to bring up the question of whether or not Gatsby was right in his pursuit of Daisy, who was introduced in the article as embodying the American Dream. While it would seem admirable that Gatsby was madly in love with Daisy and was a classic romantic about it, it does appear questionable that he used illegitimate means to attain his wealth and that his entire life was centered around the attainment of a woman, who, by any legal means, was out of his reach, and who also was not even that desirable, apart from her beauty. Daisy was merely a greedy girl whose rearing in money led her to desire it even more. And if Daisy is the embodiment of the American Dream, it only makes sense to say that greed has it’s price.