One would say the American Dream is somewhat like the sun. On the outside, sometimes it is one of the most beautiful things in the world, but to really know it, and all of the dangers that come with it, one has to dig into the dangerous and corrupt insides. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as a time of decay of 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 …show more content…
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 took a twisted turn in the early 1920’s at the time of this novel. 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. Doctor T.J Eckleburg, one would say is the greatest symbol in the novel that represents more than just an advertisement, but like the sun, 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), and the only thing Gatsby believes in is money. Wilson in chapter 8, mistakes the advertisement as an advertisement for God, one would say this in turn means that the advertisement portrays