The American dream has been the motivation for hard work for hundreds of years.  The opportunity for success and social mobility has lead the actions of many people throughout history.  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck are developed through themes based on the American dream.  These two stories use tragedy to portray the failures of the American dream and the downfall of working towards that end goal.              The theme of Fitzgerald's story and the theme of Steinbeck's story work together to help readers better understand the impossibility of The American dream.  The themes also lead to the realization of dreams verse the harsh reality of life.  Unlike many stories told of the american dream and how glorious America is, these two authors believe following the American dream only leads to disappointment.  The fall of the American dream is explained differently through The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men but read comparatively they help explain the tragedy of the American Dream.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald begins his story explaining the main character Gatsby and how he became to be the man he is through the story.  Fitzgerald explains his dream of loving Daisy and then eventually explains the corruption caused by following that dream. Gatsby is a self-made man that lives a luxurious life in a mansion.  After he left the war he became very rich and began to live for his dream of marrying Daisy.  Gatsby illustrated the American dream by forgetting his past and pursuing his own world and his new goals.  He did this by changing his name and everything he did in order to get the attention of the girl of his dreams.  Living by the american dream Gatsby has hope he will win Daisy back.  He throws extravagant parties to gain the attention of Daisy and works hard to be able to win her over.  Rather than recognizing reality and the complications with it, Gatsby fantasizes a better life, that will eventually lead to his downfall and death.  The American dream was a way people thought during hard times in their life so they could escape reality and envision a more lavish lifestyle.  This is shown within Gatsby's character as he devotes himself and life to Daisy a married women he has not spoke to in years.  Gatsby overlooks any hardships in society at this time and refuses to deal with anything present because of his dream to marry Daisy, he cannot see anything else going on around him.  The central theme of this story is expressed with the way Fitzgerald represents the American Dream.  Fitzgerald deals with the corruption of the way of life and the downfall many people were facing. Because the character Gatsby regrets to acknowledge reality his dreams and life begin to fall.  His dream of living the perfect life with the love of daisy is destroyed by his own actions.  Although Gatsby has Daisy's love for a short while it soon ends and Gatsby dies.  This fall represents his wasted life of hoping for something and not experiencing life as it was.  Gatsby was too busy focused on his only goal and that ultimately killed him. 

The characters George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men are critical to the development of the theme throughout the story.  Their actions while pursuing the american dream and the downfall of their loss of hope explains the author's belief in the tragedy of the American Dream and how Steinbeck similar to Fitzgerald believes dreaming of a better life only leads to disappointment.  George and Lennie work together on various farms working for their bosses in hopes to earn some money.  The story explains their life on the various farms and their motivation to wake up and tackle every obstacle every day.  George and Lennie work hard everyday in hopes to someday own their own land with their own crops.  They continuously talk about the future and how nice it will be.  Lennie is always asking George to describe the ranch they will own and the life they will live so that he can imagine the glorious life they could have. The reader can easily tell how passionate they are about their goal and Lennie even talks about how he cannot wait to have no boss and only work for himself.  This vision they set for themselves is the American Dream.  The thought of a better life in order to escape the present struggles.  The first sign of their downfall is when they are kicked off the farm they were working on because Lennie was accused of raping a girl.  They then had to find a new place to work and took time off pay.  When they eventually found a new farm to labor, it did not pay as well but when George and Lennie discussed the opportunity they thought of their dream and took the job with hopes it will pay for their own ranch someday.  At the new ranch the novel goes further into detail of the American Dream and the reality of it all.  Many other people on the farm are also living by the american dream.  Curly's wife has a dream of becoming a movie star and being rich.  She displays her dream by always speaking of her better future and wearing upscale clothes.  She along with the rest of the characters are showing the negative of the American Dream.  Curly's wife is not living in the moment at the farm but rather living only thinking a potential future she hopes for.  The final downfall of the American Dream in this book is when Lennie kills Curly's wife.  George and Lennie again will then have to find a new job and this is when George realizes his dream is unattainable especially with Lennie.  George makes the courageous decision to shoot Lennie before curly could get to him.  George shooting Lennie is not out of hatred but because George recognizes the reality of his situation and that they're dreams are not realistic and nothing else can be done.  

When reading The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men comparatively a reader can fully understand a ultimate theme of the impossible American Dream and the disappointment it brings.  Although their themes are not exact and the explanation of each are different they work together to better understand each book separately.  In the  The Great Gatsby the main characters end goal is to obtain the love and attention of his past lover.  He spends years of effort and avoids present problems all in hopes to have Daisy marry him.  This is not what many people think when thinking of the American Dream.  Fitzgerald's theme of the corruption of the American Dream is not obvious, but when read with thoughts of the book Of Mice and Men it becomes more clear. Gatsby presents the idea that people following the American Dream were destroying their own dreams and that hoping for a better future will only lead to disappointment.   The plot in Of Mice and Men is more of a typical American dream of hopes to move up the social ladder and achieve land.  The killing of Lennie presents Steinbeck's opinion on the American dream.  He believes the American Dream is only an imagination and not possible to achieve.  Throughout the story the reader can conclude the author thinks imagining a better life will avoid struggles and help get through hard times but eventually it will become apparent that the dream is just not realistic and will be a setback through life.   Both authors believe following the American Dream will lead to defeat and moral corruption but each go different ways on how to portray the fall.  The similarities of the two themes reflect to better understand the themes on their own.  The two novels differ in the way the authors presented the tragedies.  In The Great Gatsby the whole story is a tragedy and that's present throughout the story.  Gatsby's life is tragic and the events with all the characters bring about more tragedy.  The Tragedy is used the the theme of both stories however in Of Mice and Men it's not as evident.  An act of Lennie lead to the one tragic scene that then started the fall to their dream.  The way the tragedies were presented were different but in both stories the event contributed to the main theme of corruption to the American Dream. 

When hearing of the American Dream many people will automatically think of "streets paved in gold" or opportunities that would lead to a lavish lifestyle.  This was not always the case for people and many following their American Dream did not achieve their original goal. F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck use their characters to show the reality of the American Dream and the more common outcome.  The novel's themes revolve around the corruption of the American Dream and the downfall many people were facing.  The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men use tragic events to display the understanding that the lives the characters were imagining were not actually going to work out.  The two authors went different ways when trying to get their opinions across but they cooperate to benefit each other.  After reading the two stories the reader will have a better grasp on the common theme that following the American Dream is useless. Fitzgerald and Steinbeck use their characters and the theme of their novels to present their opinions on the American Dream. They both conclude the luxurious lives people dream about when living in America are not found in this world and hoping for a better life will only lead to disappointment.  

