Reading Great Gatsby 141-147

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CbgsEHHy9Y

Jazz Song Analysis

The entire spirit of the novel Great Gatsby is captured in the jazz song When You´re Smiling by Louis Armstrong. All the merrymaking that Jay Gatsby does during the novel is destined to catch Daisy´s attention. He really loves her and he is passionate about her. The Green Light that Gatsby stares at, in one of the book´s early chapters, represents his love for Daisy and his obsession about her.

In the same way, Louis Armstrong transmits a strong feeling of love through this song. The song says that when she smiles the whole world smiles with her and that is exactly what Jay Gatsby feels for Daisy. When she smiles he even forgets that Nick is around.

Therefore, Louis Armstrong´s song definitely represents all the romantic spirit of the Great Gatsby.

When You´re Smiling

David Murcia Guzman

Just like Jay Gastsby, David Murcia was an enterpreneur. He was creative, he had an attractive personality and he was admired by others. Both Murcia and Gatsby somehow reached one of their objectives in life: They were rich and poweful after being lower-class and even abhorrent members of society.

Murcia was the founder and CEO of a group called DMG Holdings Co., that was a pyramid-scheme company. That means, if any person invested X money in the company, DMG promised to give the investor not X money but X*10 or X*100 money. At the end, authorities discovered that the profit was coming from money laundering and DMG was closed. Nowadays, David Murcia is in jail.

That illicit way of obtaining money was also present in Gatsby's case. Although he wasn't a money launderer, he was active in the bootlegging business in a time when alcohol consumption, selling and distribution was prohibited in the U.S.

It's just a matter of time until Jay Gatsby's destiny resembles Murcia's one, perhaps at the end of the novel.  Moreover, it could be that Murcia's destiny is heaven compared to such tragic events that could happen to Gatsby as the novel goes on.

The American Dream

The American Dream is a common desire between persons outside the United States, especially in third world countries, and immigrants who already live inside the U.S. territory. They all want to go to the U.S. and to take advantage of the economic opportunities available at that country. Every single one of the individuals who believe in the American Dream have one purpose in mind: To make easy money so that they can improve their lives and the ones of their relatives.

The term “American Dream” is used in a number of ways, but essentially the American Dream is an idea which suggests that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all people have the potential to live happy, successful lives. Many people have expanded upon or refined the definition of the American Dream, and this concept has also been subject to a fair amount of criticism. Many people believe that the structure of American society belies the idealistic goal of the American Dream, pointing to examples of inequality rooted in class, race, and ethnic origin which suggest that the American Dream is not attainable for all.

WiseGeeks.com

It is a dream of success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work that has been widely spread through American and International culture.

Americansc.org.uk

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.^[1] The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Wikipedia.org

A cop talking against prohibition in the 1920's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pSk32li3U0

The Roaring 20's

American Dream = 1920's.

If you want to find a place in which industrialization, progress and opportunities are available to everyone, look at North America during the 1920's.

After winning the World War I, the American patriotism was higher than ever before. Ford's Model T was just one of many examples of how progress was now available for common people. Technological improvements and a streghtened economy were the basis for a time in which people were simply happy; happy about being Americans and joyful about working for their country. 

During this decade, imperial projects such as the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building were starting to come true. Such monumental projects all represented the effort of thousands of Americans and, moreover, of thousands of immigrants, all of them working toward one goal: Building a true Land of Opportunities.

The best of the world's creative spirit was living in America. Even the mobsters, for example, developed such a solid and progress-based structure, that today we remember that decade as Capone's golden era.

In conclusion, even though the 1920's gave birth to devastating events such as the Great Depression and the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, the spirit of a new, modern and capitalist America was carved deep inside people's minds and that same spirit is what guides the U.S. now and what will be guiding the private and public iniciatives for years and years to come.