Jay Gatsby is a man with a dream and he will stop at nothing to make it come true. When she loses the love of her life to a rich, sophisticated, bigoted socialite, her mind is made up. Born a poor farm boy, his life is centered around achieving extraordinarily large amounts of wealth and great social status. The poor man never gets the girl; in fact, he never achieves anything in Gatsby's eyes. Gatsby is determined not only to get rich, but to become the richest man who ever lived. When he becomes the richest man who ever lived, he will want to become the supreme ruler of the universe. Gatsby wants to be God. Nick Carraway, his laid-back and attentive neighbor, despises Gatsby's extravagant and exaggerated ways. However, he comes to admire Gatsby for his endless optimism and his never-ending quest to make his dreams a reality. For many, Gatsby can be seen as the ultimate symbol of the grandeur of the American dream. However, Gatsby is truly the ultimate symbol of the ridiculous excess and waste of America's wealthy high society, which Carraway is so against. Nowhere but in America is anything and everything possible, and nowhere but in America can the achievement of excessive frivolity be seen as admirable, even heroic. From his pathetic attempts to fake destiny to his almost childish whims of knowing no limits, Gatsby is not a symbol of the greatness of the American dream, but a mere parody of it. First of all, Gatsby is not admirable because he refuses to be himself. Perhaps he was not destined to be a farmer or a poor man, however, Gatsby will never be the Rhett Butler he boasts of being. "His parents were inept and unsuccessful farmers - his imagination had never truly accepted them as his parents... middle of paper... True success cannot be measured in monetary terms but through knowledge, wisdom and Discovery In this sense, Gatsby failed miserably. Although he was tremendously optimistic and pursued his dreams, he represented America at its worst: unnatural, overly extravagant, tasteless, and pathetic, due to the way he led the people. his life was a mockery of humanity. The beauty of fighting for one's dreams lies in the self-discipline and work required: there is little merit in generously rewarding oneself for a goal achieved the truth, he had no life, he only had his money, his dreams and his "fake" reality which represents the complete corruption of the American dream York: Macmillan, 1992.