The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a society of high social standings, immense wealth, and love. This can be classified as the American Dream. If an individual is determined, that individual has a reasonable chance and holds the hope for acquiring wealth, and the happiness and freedoms that go with it. In essence, the American Dream gives the chance to gain personal fulfillment, materially and spiritually. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the American Dream as an unachievable illusion, one which is ultimately detrimental to the novel’s central character, Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby tries to attain happiness, Daisy’s love, which is all he wants, but ends up failing. Evidently, Gatsby may have achieved the definition of the American Dream, but at a personal standpoint, he failed to accomplish what he was truly aiming for.…
In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby money is essential for most of the characters, Daisy in particular. Money is the most important part of The American Dream in the Roaring Twenties therefore it was also the key to “happiness” back then. Gatsby did not really appreciate money, what he really wanted was Daisy, and he knew that the only way he could get her to leave Tom was with money. Gatsby’s character portrays Fitzgerald’s message of how people should be instead of caring so much for money. Fitzgerald wants people to be more like Gatsby and be a dreamer with “an extraordinary gift for hope” (Fitzgerald 2) so we will not give up on our dreams such as Gatsby did not give up on his love for Daisy even in his last moments of life.…
The Great Gatsby is a classic novel in which many characters lives revolve around money, however money cannot buy happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald pursued many things writing the book The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald offers many themes in the book he shows power, greed, and betrayal. Fitzgerald showed Gatsby as a Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating distinct social classes old money, new money, and no money Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism running throughout every strata of society.…
Money is quick to corrupt the morals of man, and the first place this can be visible is within the family. The character of Tom Buchanan is the man that Fitzgerald chooses to represent this idea. Tom represents all the cravings of the time period; a rich, athletic, charming man with a large and successful business, a tremendous house in the suburbs,…
The American Dream is an idea that has been present since American literature’s beginning. Typically, the dreamer aspires to rise from rags to riches, while accumulating such things as love, high status, wealth, and power on his way to the top. The dream has variations throughout different time periods, although it is generally based on ideas of freedom, self-reliance, and a desire for something greater. The American dream has increasingly focused on materialistic items as a sign of attaining success. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money only planned for achieving his dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and expensive things.…
In the novel “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the object of wealth. All of the characters in the book revolve their lives around money. Money is not only an object to them, but it is their life. Being rich and having all the items in the world you want may temporarily bring you happiness, but it does not bring you lifelong happiness. The characters do not live life with a purpose. Therefore the people are constantly depressed. The pursuit of money is not a valid purpose for life is demonstrated by characterization, foreshadowing, and conflict.…
Fitzgerald not only condemns the American Dream but sets the death and downfall of the American Dream as the primary theme of the novel. Throughout the novel Fitzgerald deliberately makes all characters with money appear to be unhappy, dysfunctional, snobbish, and immoral, thus contradicting the stereotyped idea of the American Dream. The American Dream that includes a happy family, living together, having lots of money and living happily ever after.…
The Great Gatsby: The Corruption of the American Dream through Materialism The American dream is an ideal that has been present since American literature’s onset. Typically, the dreamer aspires to rise from rags to riches, while accumulating such things as love, high status, wealth, and power on his way to the top. The dream has had variations throughout different time periods, although it is generally based on ideas of freedom, self-reliance, and a desire for something greater. The early settlers’ dream of traveling out West to find land and start a family has gradually transformed into a materialistic vision of having a big house, a nice car, and a life of ease. In the past century, the American dream has increasingly focused on material items as an indication of attaining success. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money—only a plan for achieving his dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream “is a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70). His American dream has become corrupted by the culture of wealth and opulence that surrounds him.…
1) Some deviant activities the Saints were involved in, included heavily drinking in nightclubs, driving drunkenly through the streets, and committing acts of vandalism and playing pranks. And just like the Saints, the Roughnecks usually committed these three types of delinquency: theft, drinking, and fighting. Both gangs involved seriousness on what they did, because all of them put people in danger whether by stealing or playing pranks on people, and being under the influence of alcohol also controlled their behaviors. I believe that the community was right at some point in focusing more harshly on the activities of the roughnecks because they could see how the way these teenagers behaved in school and after school. On the other hand the Saints seemed to be the opposite, the community was able to see only the good side of these boys because they were smart enough not to do bad stuff around their community, so no one was able to see the how they really behaved outside school. I cannot blame the community for judging them so harsh, unfortunately as humans we focus more on appearance and judge people by the way they look.…
The American dream was one that promised for quality. Any individual should be able to achieve success through their own ambition and hard work, without being held back by their social class or family background. Fitzgerald shows that America in the 1920s was far from what the American dream promised. The characters are defined by their relationships with money. It has an effect on everything about them; how they act, how they are seen by themselves and others, and if they don't have money no one really cares about them. For example, Myrtle. She has little money and so naturally the other characters simply disrespect her, mainly Tom who treats her horribly, i.e. breaking her nose when she mentions Daisy. Yet she still goes back to him under the impression that money can buy her happiness. Money causes a social divide in 'The Great Gatsby.' People who live in East Egg and come from old money (inherited it) look down on those from West Egg simply because they are new money (earned it through business.) East Egg find themselves superior due to family history of those in West Egg. They are everything against what the American dream stands for, it became corrupted. Within the novel in Chapter 7, Gatsby describes Daisy by saying "Her voice is full of money" showing Daisy's desire for money that ever her voice screams she has much of it.…
Nick Carraway starts off the book by telling the advice of his father. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantage that you’ve had’”. (Fitzgerald, pg. 7). In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, Fitzgerald creates an artificial world where all the characters sole purpose in life is money, wealth and power. The corruption of the American dream is through materialism freedom, equal opportunities, and the chance everyone to succeed by the ambition in their hearts. The American dream became a mindset in all who set…
F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his classic novel The Great Gatsby, illustrates the American class system in three different categories: the “old” rich, the “new” rich, and the “not” rich. He shows how each class tries to reach the American dream and struggles to remain secure in the life inside America. Fitzgerald depicts the only class that survives is the “old” rich. In the first place, progressing throughout Fitzgerald’s novel, he derives that Tom Buchanan is inside the class system of “old” rich, because “His family were enormously wealthy – even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach – but now he’d left Chicago an come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away” (Fitzgerald 6). Tom and Daisy both shared the “old” rich lifestyle. Their house together was “more elaborate” and described as, “a cheerful red-and-white Georgian colonial mansion, overlooking the bay” (6). Tom Buchanan was born into the “old” rich class system. With the privilege of having that lifestyle, he will always have money to spend. He does not have to work for his pay, and will never lose it. Tom has the ability to live securely, and use his heritance to run away or hide from his problems. Fitzgerald uses Tom’s character to express the usefulness of obtaining money from one’s family wealth. In introducing Tom, Fitzgerald reveals the importance of wealth in the 1920’s by conveying to his readers that money can buy people out of hard times and can be the solution to variable mishaps. Similarly, Fitzgerald sets forth the image of “not” rich by creating George and Myrtle Wilson. George and Myrtle are “not” rich because they live in “the Valley of Ashes” (23). George Wilson is the owner of a beaten-up car repair shop, and is described as a “spiritless man” (25). Tom and Nick journeyed to the shop because Tom wanted to see Myrtle. The garage was sort of ‘trashy’ and described by Tom, a “terrible place” (25). The Wilsons are “not” rich…
The reader can compare and contrast Tom, Gatsby, and Mr. Wilson in this area. Tom and Gatsby are at one end of the spectrum, but George Wilson is on the other end. The Buchanan’s are so wealthy that the windows “reflected gold” (Fitzgerald 6). Tom Buchanan likes to show off how much money he has. It is ironic because he inherited every penny of his wealth and did not have to work for a cent. Jay Gatsby is also very, very wealthy. At one of his lavish parties, a woman’s dress was ruined, so he sends her a two hundred and sixty-three dollar replacement gown (Fitzgerald 43). This shows how Gatsby has money to spend. It does not matter what he spends it on, because he has plenty. On the other end of the spectrum is poor, penniless, George Wilson. He could not even afford a suit, so he had to borrow one for his own wedding (Fitzgerald 35). Mr. Wilson is the “common man” during this time period. Not everyone was blessed with wealth in this era like Tom and…
The idea of accumulating great sums of money can hold a big burden on one's life. For some people, it makes them mindful to work to help others, while other people may become arrogant and selfish about accumulating their wealth. Most people hold different views of the American dream along with different goals in mind in order to make that possible. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald does not believe the American dream can be reality. To support his claim, Fitzgerald uses symbolism such as the motif of seasons to describe his outlook on the American Dream.…
The second relevant issue that Fitzgerald depicts in his work is “The 1%” of rich people in the American social ladder. Fitzgerald demonstrates the corruption of “Old money” through the behaviors of Daisy and Tom after Gatsby’s death. In the novel, he characterizes Daisy as “The 1%” of American who abuses her power and wealth. She never admits her crime of killing a woman and did not pay for respect Gatsby’s death. Likewise, her husband, Tom, takes revenge by informing Gatsby’s killer. Fitzgerald expresses, “I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated…