Bond of the Republic-The American Dream.

The article that I read was entitled: The American Dream-Is it slipping away? by Gregory Rodriguez, writing for the Los Angeles Times on September 27th of 2010. It discusses the prevalence of the dream among Americans, and what exactly it means. The article defined the dream as the acquisition of prosperous fruits from intense labors. I indeed do have trouble connecting the article to the Great Gatsby; in the novel, the American dream seems to be fake and unwanted. With the exception of Jay Gatsby, the aristocrats are an annoying, silly people consumed in vice. The article, however, focusses on statistics regarding the dream; minorities believe in the dream more than whites, the educated more so than the non-educated, and so on. The Great Gatsby continues to denounce the behavior of the wealthy, which is very phony and barbaric. Nick constantly deals with rich people that hardly seem human, such as Myrtle. At least this my interpretation. The article does bear a similarity with the novel in that it has some sort of sympathy for the poor, recognizing that they do not believe much at all in the American Dream. As well, it points out the current decline in such a dream, which is similar to the novel's complete denunciation of it as unrealistic.