The concept of 'The American Dream' is one which has permeated the consciousness of American literature almost since its birth. Yet the search for a meaning behind and a definition of this ideal is still relevant even into the 21st century. In many ways it is very easily prescribed meaning - its central tenet being that the continent of America acts as a cleanser of sins, a clean slate for those who have tainted themselves in the old world. America is a blank canvas, a place where the past is forgotten and the future can belong to anyone.
             In its crudest, most obvious form, the American dream is opportunity. In theory - though rarely in practice - anyone can transcend the social confines of gender, class or colour and rise to prominence. Yet can the fabled American dream really be approximated in terms as simple as wealth and power? Surely something whose romance and mystery has endured for so long and fascinated so many must have at its heart something greater than crude materialism? The answer to that, of course, is not so easily answered, but then, America and its literature are riddled with internal contradictions - a nation founded on a freedom that was not fully extended to its minorities until the late 20th century, a literary tradition seeking to establish a valid identity for itself whose most influential writers were constantly looking towards Europe, and a keen sense of national pride and identity formed out of disparate communities of immigrants.
             F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' and Willa Cather's 'My Antonia' are two novels primarily concerned with the definition of the American dream through two extraordinary characters from two very different social spheres. Jay Gatsby and Antonia Shimerda represent the twin principles of the American dream; Gatsby, a fabulously wealthy self-made man who has transcended his own dubious past to attain the life he has always dreame...