The Great Gatsby And The American Dream

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is much like an onion. On the surface there is the hard outer layer, but to really understand it, one has to dig into the fresh insides. On the surface of The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald portrays a romantic love between a man and a woman, but inside the real meaning is much deeper. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as a time of decay social and moral values, evidence of this is the greed and the pursuit of pleasure. Jay Gatsby’s constant parties epitomized the corruption of the American Dream as the desire for money and worldly pleasures overshadowed the true values of the American Dream. After WWI ended in 1918, veterans found that life was not as rosy as it had been before. The war led to an economic boom as more and more people were buying materialistic items that they would have never bought. With this economic boom it became apparent that any person of any social status could become wealthy. This created the social rift between the families that had just found new money and the old wealthy industrialists. 1919, the women’s suffrage movement, running strong, were quick to establish prohibition in the United states with their influence. This consequently led to an increase in crime and illegal smuggling of alcohol; Al Capone is the prime example of what came out of that era of prohibition.

Fitzgerald intricately places characters in these social trends. Meyer Wolfshiem, a man that is the epitome of the underground mafia. WWI vets Nick and Gatsby’s new found cynicism. Also, Jay Gatsby’s need to climb the “social ladder” shows the need of wealth of the individuals in this era. If one reads the passage in which Fitzgerald characterizes Gatsby’s house as an “amusement park” (41), it is also said that there are guests that attend without even meeting the host. This shows the need for “new money” people to socialize with others to climb this “social ladder”. Also the rift between “old money” and “new money” is quite evident with the geographical placement of the individual characters; East Egg, “old money” individuals, who have been wealthy for generations past, and West Egg, “new money” representing self-made individuals.

The original idea of the American Dream as described in chapter 9 is about moral values and the pursuit of happiness. It’s written in the American Constitution that every individual has the right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. This right it seems has taken a twisted turn in the early 1920’s. The pursuit of happiness soon turned into the pursuit of wealth and ultimately to greed. This led to social rifts among the different classes and eventually corrupted the true American Dream. Throughout The Great Gatsby it is shown how social rift came between the love of two individuals, Daisy and Gatsby. This led to the eventual corruption of Gatsby himself, the pursuit of wealth, greed, and illegal deeds. T.J Eckleburg, the greatest symbol in the novel, represents more then just an advertisement, but like the onion, inside he represents everything that is corrupt in the new American Dream. After renouncing his parents, James Gatsby was said to be the “son of God” (98), the only thing Gatsby believes in is money. Wilson in chapter 8, mistakes the advertisement as an advertisement for God, this in turn means that the advertisement portrays money.

On the last page of the novel Nick compares the “green breast of the new world” (180) to the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. The “green breast of the world” represents the dreams of the immigrants that came to the new world seeking religious freedom, opportunity, love, and democracy, along the way instilling universal family values. As they settled with these goals in mind, they strived and created what is America today. Fitzgerald describes the corruption as being the modernization of the beauties of what the settlers had seen before. Remember that accident which involved Daisy and Myrtle, Myrtle’s left breast had been torn off, this was regarded as Myrtle’s “greatest achievement”. This achievement was the realization of American society which has torn off the green breast of the new world and replaced it with a corrupted rendition of what the settlers brought along with them. Along with this, Fitzgerald adds in the Valley of Ashes, which is the opposite of the green breast; a valley in general is different in that the green breast of the new world represents a hill, opposite to this is a valley which is a concave piece of land. The green breast represents the true American Dream and the Valley of Ashes represents corruption, like that of Myrtle and her adultery or Wilson and his killing of Gatsby.

Fitzgerald uses an abundant amount symbols to fully satisfy the most rewarding symbol, the corruption of the American Dream. Settlers first came to America with one ambition, a better life. What came of this better life? The American Dream, a life in pursuit of opportunity, freedom, love, equality, family and wealth. These dreams soon diminished as materialistic values seemed to be above all else. These materialistic values consequently led the decay of the American Dream. The new American Dream described by Fitzgerald portrays a world where greed, the pursuit of money and pleasure are above all else. Fitzgerald portrays a world that has lost its way in the corruption of the American Dream.

I remember writing about that in 11th grade man.....ugh, what a drag. The book was meh, and I don't even remember how it related to the American Dream.

Admittedly, the Great Gatsby was probably my favorite book of all time. Why? It was so catchy!

To start off, we have Gatsby, he's so ambitious and sad in a way that he stands across the river, staring at the lights on the other side. It catches the fall of the roaring 20's right before it happens. First of all we have the narrator, Nick.

Now he's not so deluded in the riches so that he loses himself to their ways, he makes friends with Gatsby. Gatsby hosts parties every so often and would seem like he takes part in them, but he actually just stands on the outskirts. The mystique of Gatsby starts from the very beginning when we meet him. Then he gets better and better when he reveals the true motive behind his being in the area. He wants to get his lost love.

I am not a very avid reader of love stories nor do I take particular interests in political writings such as these, but I found that this book in particular struck a chord. These were one of the very few books in which I was saddened by the ending. This and 1984 were touching pieces that complexly graphed the decline of society as well as the corruption of love.

Inhuman, this book has everything to do with he American dream. Remember when Gatsby gains all of his fortune through illegal circumstances, all for his love, but in the end, when he finally opposes his love's husband, she sides with her husband. That is the tragedy, where we see that the American dream, in the end, is unachievable.

Very good read, 8.6/10

This post has been edited by Okara KAmi: May 20 2008, 02:16 AM

I did a ten minute presentation on this same topic back in December. I remember researching all of this and the time period and how the dream really did influence Fitzgerald and his writing as portrayed in The Great Gatsby Gatsby represents the superficial class that easily attained wealth through gambling and other scandals and Wolfsheim is his agent in a way. He was seen as responsible for the Black Sox Scandal which is attributed to the person Rothstein which is similar. The Buchananons represent the aristocratic class that has a history of wealth and is less superficial. The classes intertwine and cause conflict. Carraway is there to compare them both.

I studied this book just last year. It's honestly such a great book (in my humble opinion). I love the imagery, and the way the story unfolds. I don't know, I think having studied it, I found that I loved the novel even more. I liked the recurring themes (corruptions, the green light) and the central theme of it.

I really want to reread this book. Nick was an amazing character. I loved how even though Gatsby was flawed, we still like him as a character because of his ability to dream.

The Great Gatsby is an awesome novel set in the 1920s during the Prohibition. The fact that the story of Jay Gatsby and his elite clan is set during the time when consumption of alcohol was against the law becomes all the more important for two reasons. One, that bootlegging is the hinted at reason for Gatsby's wealth and secondly that in spite of the law the wealthy are constantly seen drinking expensive alcohol. The elite were obviously exempt from the laws of the time. Much as they were unaffected by the growing poverty and debt of a large population of America during this age, which Fitzgerald termed 'the Jazz Age.'

The American Dream constantly alluded to in the novel becomes the struggle to be accepted into a society that cares little for politics or matters of spirituality. The overriding need of the 'old money' that Jay aspires to is purely of social acceptance and conforming to certain standards. Touching upon issues such as organized crime, infidelity, mortality and deceit, The Great Gatsby is largely a novel of class distinctions and insurmountable contrasts. I found several interesting insights into the novel at Shmoop- A literature study guide. Check it out.

This post has been edited by Nate Gillespie: Feb 26 2009, 05:23 PM

omg that has to be the best book and movie ever by my standings. I had to do a paper on it back in highschool. Got a B Minus as I remember. but I did love the book. one of very few I have read more than once.