Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream

The topic of the paper is "Park Avenue; Money, Power and the American Dream" essay where the author analyse two text in comparison. So have you ever wondered why dreams do not come true? Everyone is different but everyone has equal opportunities and chances to make their dream come true. With the upcoming 2020s, it has been 100 years since the Roaring Twenties. It is an age of revolutionary changes for politics and societal. In America there were economic prosperity and the younger generations were living a more carefree life. This is due to the span of 100 years where many events had happened to lead to where it is today. The American dream was coined by James Adam from his best-selling book 'Epic of America' and it is believed that anyone disregarding their social status can attain their own dream through sacrifice, risk-taking and hard work, rather than by chance It is a well-known fact that everyone would have at least dream of something whether it is to become financially independent or being able to live a luxury life. This has not change over the last century however, dreams and ambition are more unattainable than in 1920s. The concept of the American Dream is unattainable and over the last 100 years this has not changed – the two texts; The Great Gatsby and Park Avenue; Money, Power and the American Dream portrays different aspects of ‘Living the American Dream’ nonetheless, it is unreachable because of money and class (status).

The idea of living the American Dream is even more unachievable in contemporary day because of the great disparity between the rich and the poor. The 1920s was an age of great prosperity and even though the American Dream is unachievable however it is still more likely to be achieved than this day and age. Money is a huge factor in being able to live the American Dream because it is perceived as a “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement'. The Great Gatsby and Park Avenue; Money, Power and the American Dream clearly depicts this perspective. The top 1% of social class in 2019 believes that the American Dream is attainable whereas, the lower end of the class thinks differently. The poor are poor because they do not have the same available resources, opportunities and chances. In Park Avenue; Money, Power and the American Dream the clear distinct representation of the two Park Avenues shows the disproportion between the rich and poor through their daily lifestyles. The higher class have the money and power to achieve anything they want because they have unlimited resources and opportunities. The rich lives in luxury apartment with full services whereas the poor live every day by going to charity for food and live in crowded apartment or no housing at all.

To include, even though Jay Gatsby may have built his wealth and became New Money, but he has not achieved his American Dream and live everyday yearning for her love. It is true that dreams may never come true through the representation of Jay Gatsby. His American dream is fruitless when his love is only one sided and can never be reciprocated. Gatsby was first saw from Nick Carraway’s perspective as standing alone and reaching out his hand towards the green light at the end of the dock. The green light or specifically the colour green represents their being hope, great ambition and to never stop or gives up. Furthermore, it also represents and summarises everything about the idea of living the American Dream.

In the Great Gatsby, Myrtle is another character represented as wanting to achieve for love like Gatsby. Myrtle is known as Tom’s mistress throughout the novel however, it is actually one-sided again because in the end Tom chose to follow Gatsby’s car when Myrtle was crashed into. Myrtle ran out in-front of the car while yelling because she thought it was Tom driving furthermore the car was describe as being light green when reported to the investigators. It is clear, that this can be interpreted as Myrtle seeing an opportunity to achieve her American Dream because she did not want to follow her husband to live somewhere else and the car was like a hope for her.

The gap between the rich and the poor are increasing drastically over the last century. The economic boom in the 1920s has brought create wealth into the community however, this has meant that the younger generation of 21st century will have to achieve greater achievement in order to live up to the high standard of living. Park Avenue; Money, Power and the American Dream documented on how the distribution of income between the rich and the poor during the 1920s were still proportional however, over the last couple of years the distribution has deviated – the rich gets all the income and the poor gets almost nothing. Furthermore, the top of the richest of Americans control more wealth than the 150 million people in the bottom 50 percent of the population. This can be the results of the twenty- first century becoming more competitive than the twentieth century. The younger generation nowadays are laxer and more carefree than ever because of the environment they live in and the entertainment freely accessible to them. But the huge factor is that the rich simply does not care about people if they are poor.

The discrete distinction between the top rich people and the lowest of the poor are represented clearly through the two symbolisms; Park Avenue and the Valley and Ashes. Fitzgerald has clearly portrayed his perspective of the 1920s into the Great Gatsby through the Valley of Ashes. “This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grown like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes takes the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”. This portrayal of the Valley of Ashes represents how the top of the social class has become very self-entitled and indulge themselves in their own pleasures. They do not regard the poor as something worthy for their concern where else, the people of the Valley of Ashes has mostly given up hope because their morals and social had decayed and live unpursued of wealth or better lifestyles. Statistics has shown that the amount of resident in rural areas has gradually decreased since the 1920s and this can be the result of the people wanting to achieve a better lifestyle. The American Dream is still widespread base on the statistics and the description of the Valley of Ashes of residents it shows how people are gradually losing faith in ever achieving it. This is also an example of how unattainable the American Dream is. Furthermore, the poor of this century are experiencing an even greater gap with the rich than ever before.

It can be concluded that even though the American Dream is unachievable, the degree at which it is unachievable has increased over the last century. The portrayal of different concept and interpretation of the American Dream in the Great Gatsby and Park Avenue; Money, Power and the American Dream has shown that money and social class status has part-take in the chances and opportunities of living the American Dream. It is true that the American Dream is unattainable no matter much they play by the rules and work hard. The complexity of achieving the American Dream is different from back in the 1920s where wealth has just started to rise. The idea of new money and old money from the Great Gatsby shows that even though the poor are poor some can still work hard to become new money. In contrast, the twenty-first century is different because the top 1% wealthiest people are on another level of richness and the poor can not even afford a living anyone. The two different street Park Avenues and the Valley of Ashes are clear portrayal of the rich getting everything whereas, the poor are living with less than minimal amount of daily necessities. The gap between the rich and the poor are just increasing, and the gap is never going to close without the prosperous rich taking actions. To the rich, the American is achievable however, from the perspective of the poor or those living in the lower end never thinks so. Do you think the concept of living the American Dream is accomplishable, achievable and attainable?