Literary Essay on the Great Gatsby as an Example of the American Dream

The Great Gatsby provides an example of the American dream, showcasing which individuals started seeking out power and pleasure instead of individualism. The story has been used to indicate how wealth is accessible and how it is used as a tool in acquiring other desire. The study is majorly concerned with the subjective form of writing in which the Great Gatsby tend to understand the role of the functioning of the mind in both social and individual behavior. Practically, the story provides an analysis of power, lust, and wealth in some segment of the story. Showing a demonstration on how the level of wealth can be manipulated in getting power and how the power can be used as a tool in obtaining lust. Through different life situations like the root of someones motivation in coming up with an evolution not considering life situations, making the story to be associated with psychological points through the psychologist theories.

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Sigmund Freud who is recognized to be the father of psychology can demonstrate what consist of the unconscious mind(Drew). He can prove that the unconscious mind consists of the process in the mind that is taking place automatically and in that it not available to introspection and it includes memory, thought processes, motivation, and memory. In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby unconscious mind was able to lead him towards something that he was not able to have or even possess though he wanted it so badly.

A psychoanalytical play is demonstrated towards the story of The Great Gatsby through various ways. Gatsbys motivation to come up with a situation to create wealth and finally use it as a power in reaching Daisy since he considered her to be her first and only love. Gatsby went off at war, and through this Tom Buchanan who is identified to be influential and a rich man applied his social standing and power to convince Daisy into marriage. Later in the story, we realize that Gatsby also is doing the same too, by trying to draw her back to him. He did almost everything to get into power with an intention just to get Daisy back, and this makes him be amassed as a fortune to be used as a tool in accessing Daisy love( Alder). All Gatsby was able to do was striving to catch Daisy attention and acquisition of power to prove his social status. As Gatsby works on reaching her, the current is drawing him back, showing a repression that Gatsby was not able to move forward without the past guiding him. Through this, we can reflect it with Alfred Alder talk on the feeling of inferiority which is identified to be a group of representations and impact that can give a reflection to an individual self-devaluation about others (Alder).

Drawing from a psychological perspective, through Gatsbys invented past, his life is viewed as more than just a strategy to make himself to be recognized as a member of an upper social class. Through this Gatsby is known to be living in the form of denial, recognized as a psychological defense that was available and essential in helping him to repress his memory which was real (Tyson). And its claim that was associated with the desire to destroy the life of his parents who wounding influence psychologically inhabited his psyche.

Additionally, in the novel, almost all the romantic bonds in the story even Daisy and Tom either shows an emotional attachment which is empty or miserable worn out relationship with the character failing to relieve the painful unconscious experience. Notably, it is also able to show a breakdown of all the defense mechanisms to exploit the gratification scope that is offered by ego and also to release the repressed. Ideally, the unresolved conflicts that are existing in the psyche of the characters, therefore make the work to be considered a psychological drama of a kind of love which is dysfunctional.

In most cases, the feature of Great Gatsby is reflected in almost all the characters. In some sexual and romantic relationship, such relationship in psychoanalytic form are perceived to be a reenactment of the conflicts that happened before and was not solved, especially the conflict that took place in the family but were not resolved hence we realize that they were repressed at an early age (Tyson). For example, conflicts that arose between ego, id, and superego were recognized not to be solved and were primarily checked through a defense mechanism. O the other hand, it is known that they conflict were able to dredge up the repressed or arouse anxiety hence ending up to repression in both occasions.and in this case, the repressed has to negotiated by the ego to be able to release themselves in a behavioral pattern which is so destructive.

Work cited

Adler, Alfred. The neurotic constitution: Outlines of a comparative individualistic psychology and psychotherapy (Bernard Glueck and John E. Lind, Trans.).1926 New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co. (Original work published 1912)

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, 2014. Print.

Tyson, Lois. Psychological Politics of the American Dream: The Commodification of Subjectivity in Twentieth-Century American Literature. Ohio State University Press, 1994. Print.

Westen, Drew. "The Scientific Status of Unconscious Processes: 1999 Is Freud Really Dead?"Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 47 (4): 10611106