The American dream is an ideal that has existed since the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. Normally, the bottom citizen aspires to rise from rags to riches, while achieving luxuries such as love, high social status, and political and economic power on their way to the top. This dream has undergone various evolutions since its creation, but it is generally based on ideas of freedom, independence and the desire for something greater. The early settlers' desire to travel West in search of land and start a family turned into a materialistic vision of having a grand and extravagant home, a top-notch car, and an easy life. One of the major themes of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is the failure to achieve the American dream; this is illustrated by Jay Gatsby's loss of identity and poor choices. The American Dream is the belief that “all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights to liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness.” In other words, America was a place where “men and women were politically free to pursue whatever goal they desired (Pidgeon). “The theme of The Great Gatsby is the withering away of the American dream.” This dream is anti-Puritan in the sense that it shows the move from rags to riches and, in another sense, from rejection to acceptance (Pidgeon). However, according to the culture of the 1920s, true success is that which leads to material gain. Even though, like most West Eggers, Jay Gatsby had amassed wealth comparable to that of a multi-millionaire, he was still looked down upon and mocked by East Eggers who believed themselves to be better than everyone else. This shows that the American dream is imperfect, b...... middle of paper ......elf is the list he wrote when he was a child. This provides further evidence of the failure of the American dream by showing that even though Gatsby worked hard to better himself, he still failed to achieve his goal. Even through all his smuggling activities, despite his trials and tribulations, Jay Gatsby failed to make his dream a reality. After Daisy crashes Myrtle Wilson, at the Buchanan house that night, she is seen colluding with Tom in what is implied by F. Scott Fitzgerald as their abrupt vacation from New York. Daisy ran away. Jay Gatsby died waiting for a call that would never come. Jay Gatsby died faithful to his only love while Daisy Buchanan ran away at the slightest sign of trouble. Gatsby's death is essentially the destruction of the American dream, "'Gatsby, the flower of the republic, the smuggler who took the American dream as his own and died for it'" (Kazin 31).