The Cost Of Pursuing a Dream
Elizabeth Fisher
Humanity
Humanity. One of the most universal of all “emotions,” the cost of pursuing a dream has repeatedly stifled man’s capacity for knowing, much less reaching, his full potential. It is, however, in the conquest of grasping the American Dream that man comes to truly know himself; man no longer questions what he could become or what he could accomplish yet rather loses his humanity along the way.
The Great Gatsby
In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s result, regarding the slow corruption of his life, begins when the motivation and ambition vanished and his “American Dream” was left with the pursuit of an empty goal. This is displayed when Daisy says, "Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day of the year and miss it" (Fitz 12). This quote shows the lack of motivation and “meaningless life” to which the empty rich society has turned her on a path leading to the loss of her humanity.
Inside Job
Relating to Daisy’s forfeiture of humanity for her American Dream, the documentary Inside Job shows the conquest of peoples own limitations to understand the “systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry” and how it propelled people toward the blindness and sheer viciousness to reach the American Dream only to lose sight of their humanity due to the “consequences of [the] systemic corruption.”
Wolf Of Wall Street
While talking about consequences of corruption, in the movie Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort unknowingly gives up his mediocre life to a whole new lifestyle of total debauchery with lavish parties, sex and drugs. The humanity that made him Man and everything he knew – his cozy apartment home with his loyal wife of years – was abandoned to reach the hierarchy of wealth, drugs and sex (otherwise known as “the American Dream.”)
Greed Is Good
Gordon Gekko, in the movie Greed is Good, regurgitates exactly what The Wolf of Wall Street displays. He verbalizes his blunt opinion that “a fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place… the point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” For Gordon to feel so confident about his “vital piece of information” for living, he would have had to lose his humanity to be so blinded by speculation of what can get someone like him to the American Dream.
Capitalism Saved the Miners
The fact that people actually felt it was ok to send numerous amounts of people down to the mines knowing that they probably won't come out is completely wrong and it just shows how money is the only thing on their mind. "Capitalism Saved the Miners" explained how people made new tools that will help save minors in order to get more coal, thus allowing them to make money. The entire system of this shows how people have lost their humanity due to money.