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Everyone has his or her own version of what the American Dream is exactly. While most peoples’ “Dreams” include the same basic features- a happy family, money, health- some people place more emphasis on one of these aspects than on the others. In a few extreme cases, the importance placed on facet of the American Dream can completely alter the goals a person has. Such is the case with Jay Gatsby. Because of a romance and parents who didn’t make much money, Gatsby felt like to earn respect, he needed to earn money. On top of that, Gatsby felt that if he made money, he could win back the one he considered his one and only, the rich and thoughtless Daisy. When James Gatz (Gatsby’s official name) was young, only seventeen, he met a man named Dan Cody. James Gatz was already Jay Gatsby by the end of the fateful conversation with Cody. Cody was on a yacht, which to Gatsby “represented all the beauty and glamour in the world” (pg 106). In this way, Cody became somewhat of a paternal father to Gatsby, because Gatsby’s parents were poor and “his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all” (pg 104). Cody was an embodiment of what Gatsby thought of as the American Dream. Cody had made all his money in silver and copper rushes; he was a self-made millionaire, which is exactly what Gatsby hoped to become.
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