American fiction often explores the pursuit of dreams and desires

Point 1

Both writers explore the difference between the meaning of the ‘American Dream’, within the contexts of their personal experiences, and how this impacts the ability of certain characters to achieve their dreams and desires

Point 1 - Gatsby

A01 - while his dream appears attainable on the surface as the typical American Dream, it remains out of reach for him due to class divides.

Ao2 - ‘it was now a green light on a dock’ ‘she was effectually prevented’ ‘it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of the green light had now vanished forever’ ‘I didn’t realise it was the same man’

AO3 - link to experience of Fitzgerald & him being unable to achieve being a part of the class that he desired his whole life

AO5 - Gray - ‘(The green light is) both the necessity and impossibility of idealism.’ Bradbury - ‘The dream fails…it is counteracted by the underlying sterility of twentieth century American life and the destruction inherent in the system.’ ‘Fitzgerald was the ‘half-poor boy among the rich’

Point 1 - Passing

AO1 - Clare is unable to achieve her dreams & desires as she is restricted by her marriage, race and gender

AO2 - ‘Clare Kendry cared nothing for the race she only belonged to it’ ‘They always come back, I’ve seen it time and time again’ ‘In this pale life of mine’

AO3 - link to experiences of black women at time & of Nella Larsen herself

AO5 - Bernstein - ‘It is a tragic story rooted in the inescapable facts of American life: that whiteness conferred an almost universal unearned advantage, and that loyalty to a black racial identity was not only an act of pride but also one of courage.’

Point 2

Both writers craft an image of the fragility & consequences of dreams & desires and the extreme sacrifices made to maintain them, highlighted accurately through the deaths of Clare & Gatsby

Point 3

Both writers present the pursuit of dreams and desires as being contained only to a minority of society by creating characters who simply desire to maintain stability & status quo amidst the ever changing society of the 1920s