Both the novels The Great Gatsby and Netherland develop characters around the setting of attaining the American Dream, or what these characters envision as their life goal. There are many parallels between the two stories, beginning with the relatability the reader can feel towards the characters. For example, as a child of a middle-class family, it is hard to understand their mindset when it comes to finances or repercussions that come from their business dealings. In The Great Gatsby the plot revolves around Jay Gatsby and his relationship to Nick Carraway. It takes place in the West and East Egg of New York, both only inhabiting the wealthy of “old” money passed down from past generations or “new” money, when a person changed their economic status during their own lifetime.

Another striking parallel is between the personalities and doings of the characters Jay Gatsby and Chuck Ramkissoon. Both of these characters befriend a person for their own benefit early in the book. Gatsby becomes interested in Nick Carraway as he is Daisy Buchanan’s cousin and a path to a rekindling of their love, Gatsby hopes. And Chuck confides in Hans van den Broek because of his experience with cricket, and the possibility that Hans can build Chuck’s project with him. Not to mention, Han has the financial assets to contribute to get it off the ground.

Secondly, both Gatsby and Chuck participate in some in-the-dark businesses that neither the reader nor the people they are surrounded by in the novel are quite sure about. They both came into loads of money somehow, but for whatever reason, exactly what they do remains a mystery. The businesses Chuck leads allows him to have the financial stability of pursuing his dream of building a cricket stadium and increasing the presence of the sport of cricket in this country. Although he tries to rope Hans into this life dream of his, he never gets the opportunity to see it in action since he is killed before seeing it with his own eyes. Gatsby’s business involvements allow create the chance for him to come into contact with who he thinks is the love of his life again.

There are also ties between Hans and Gatsby in these novels. Both struggle within themselves and their romantic lives. Gatsby determines his economic standing according to his lover, Daisy. All the money he made he did in hopes of drawing her attention. And all the parties he hosts in his mansion are held hoping that Daisy will eventually attend one of them and come back into his life. Hans on the other hand, has a wife and a child that as cricket becomes a greater part of his adulthood through his meeting Chuck, his family falls more and more on the sideline of his priorities. Their marriage deteriorates causing Rachel to pick up her and her son’s life back to London after the 9/11 tragedy. She tells Hans she cannot imagine allowing her son to grow up in a country with the attitudes the United States has to other countries of the world after the attacks, causing the break out of a sequence of political and emotional arguments between her and Hans in regards to their future together. Hans doesn’t see eye-to-eye with his wife in this respect, and stays in the country for the time being while Rachel retreats to her parent’s home halfway across the world. Eventually, Hans makes the decision ironically around the time of Chuck’s death to move with his family.

Finally, the eventual fates of Gatsby and Chuck are unsurprisingly the same. Both end up being murdered out of revenge. Chuck’s murderer never identified but it is assumed that it had to do with the shady business he ran on the side that scammed people in a lottery-like system. His body is found in a river and as Hans investigates the case further, the detectives tell him that they know who committed the act of killing Chuck, but that’s as far as they’re going with it. This goes to show that the investigators that were on Chuck’s murder case have become aware of his under the table, illegal money making strategies. Someone, most likely one of Chuck’s scammed victims was taken advantage of and wanted the man dead. Chuck’s got what was coming for him, and brought his fate amongst himself. Gatsby ends up being shot down on his own property by Wilson, Myrtle’s widowed husband out of spite for an accident Gatsby wasn’t even a part of. After instantly killing Gatsby and leaving his corpse to float on an air mattress in his swimming pool, Wilson kills himself.

The author of Netherland, Joseph O’Neill, re-wrote The Great Gatsby with Hans as Nick Carraway and Chuck as Jay Gatsby to show that the American Dream is unobtainable for most. As close as one may feel to obtaining their life goals, it is unrealistic to get think you can get there without breaking the rules somewhere along the way. And for the few that are able to have everything they wished for in their lives, they don’t feel how they think they would. These two novels both evoke a feeling of “you can’t have it all”. Jay Gatsby swimming in all his worth, only wanted one thing: Daisy. And that was the one thing in his world that he couldn’t have. Conversely, Hans being into more money than he knows what to do with along with his love for the game of cricket, in the meanwhile he sacrificed the security of his family life. The stories of these men fantastically exemplify that living happily in this country and having every part of the American Dream including comfortable financial standings, a stable family as a backbone always, and being able to reach every one of your goals, will not all happen at once. Getting to one or two of these, often sacrifices the other in the process.

The parallels O’Neill draws often allude to the country post 9/11 and the effect it has on the characters. 9/11 was the ultimate factor in Rachel moving to another country, and these parallels are especially powerful in this country’s era because the attacks proved to the American people that nothing is definite. Things happen that you are unprepared for and never even thought could happen. This event broke the people down, and made idea the American Dream not even a thought anymore. If something like this could happen in our country, everything we thought we knew and what defined our country such as the American Dream, doesn’t exist anymore. The country had to rebuild and develop new things that is unique to this nation only.