Black Friday is a part of us

At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick notes how the island must have appeared to the first people to arrive on the land.  How it held much opportunity to the travelers.  Shortly afterwards, Nick compares this to Gatsby's perspective of his land; Gatsby saw all opportunity by looking across the water towards the green light on Toms and Daisy's dock.  Gatsby's dream, as well as the dream of many American's at the time of the novel's publication, were viewed as too superficial and shallow by author F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Gatsby, whose goal in life was to attain wealth to ultimately attain Daisy, was a representation of the shallowness of the American dream at that time; a dream that valued success by the amount of money and goods one owned.  After experiencing the festivities of Thanksgiving, reading the novel reminded me that our obsession with goods has not been a new trend.  It seems as though the true meaning of Thanksgiving: to give thanks for all blessings, has become overshadowed by the commercialism of Black Friday.  After sharing a hearty meal with family and/or friends, society willingly arises at ridiculous hours of the morning to fight for "deals".  In truth, the dangers and risks one is exposed to in order to get these deals are not worth the reduced cost.  However, perhaps it is more the mindset of the success of getting the exclusive deal that drives consumers to these great lengths.   Regardless, a simple holiday meant to display gratuity has become a mad shopping tradition.  As simple necessities like freedom and independent survival were common among their precedents, people of the 1920s became spendthrift and extremely lavish.