Great Gatsby
By: Max • Essay • 286 Words • March 23, 2010 • 954 Views
Great Gatsby
The origin of the American dream started mostly during the later half of the nineteenth century, many of America’s physical resources were undiscovered, allowing the possibility of coming across a fortune through relatively little, but lucky investment in land or industry. Many early Americans prospectors headed west of the Rocky Mountains to buy acres of cheap land in hopes of finding gold. The American dream was a driving factor not only in the Gold rush, but also in the immigration throughout that century and the following. During the mid-to-late nineteenth century Horatio Alger, Jr. became famous for his novel that idealized the American dream. Lots of immigrants came to America to escape the poor quality of life at home. Beginning of the twentieth century, major industry personalities started humble and then were controlling enormous corporations and fortunes. Most notable would be Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, great American capitalists. This acquisition of great wealth appeared to demonstrate that if someone had talent, intelligence, and the will to work extremely