Preview

Corruption Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
788 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Corruption Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby and the American Dream

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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In The Great Gatsby Scott Fitzgerald says that the American Dream is in decline. This causes Gatsby to strive for riches because he wants to get the girl of his dreams. While she is shocked by his material things he loses her later in the story. While many of the wealthy people in this story are described as cruel, Gatsby was given a different description. Instead, they said that he turned out alright in the end. Then they went on to say that what had corrupted Gatsby was the amount of wealth that he had.…

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a book published in 1925 that revolves around the life of Nick Carraway and his experiences of moving to the east. The story, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is focused on showing the American Dream. Which is the notion that there is “a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone.” Though how do the characters in the book represent the notion of the American Dream? Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to represent the American Dream and that people will go to great lengths to achieve it.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a topic that always seems to come up, that topic is the American dream. This book makes you wonder whether this dream is actually realistic and achievable, or if it is just some made up thing that most are not able to achieve. It soon becomes clear that F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the American dream as something that is unreal and it is pretty much impossible to accomplish. Fitzgerald uses many things to represent the corruption of the American dream, these things include the green light, and the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleberg, and the geography in general.…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In both The Great Gatsby and Into the WIld, the ominous notion of the American Dream is present. In Gatsby, Jay Gatsby epitomizes the corruption of the American Dream; where immense wealth and social status is the Dream everyone strives for. The incessant need to obtain more money and a higher status, and to never be satisfied. Gatsby embodies the warped vision that wealth and prosperity will solve all your problems. Alex McCandless in Into the Wild, completely rejects the theory of the American Dream, forgoing his worldly possessions, and the materialism surrounding his life, caused by his parents. McCandless instead, chooses to pursue a life in the wilderness to experience the real definition of life. “...there is no greater joy than to have…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the Jazz Age, the people of America dreamed of attaining financial greatness. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is set in New York City, the epitome of industrialization and economic opportunity during the Jazz Age. The young, charming, and charismatic Jay Gatsby flaunts his financial prosperity through lavish and colorful parties. However, Gatsby’s money is earned dishonestly and is short lived. Fitzgerald reveals the intangibility of the American Dream through various characters in the novel.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The illusion of the American dream in the 1920s was the belief that everyone was living in it; in reality only the wealthy few were able to. In the city, the dream was being corrupted and unethical tactics were used to obtain wealth instead of actually working hard to achieve it while those in the countryside had no chance of even participating in it. In the book, Gatsby was the poster boy for the American dream, his dream was destroyed and it costed him his life. The Valley of Ashes is an important symbol because it represents the destruction of the American dream and it was a place that the main characters (excluding Nick) never held to any importance because they were apart of an elite class that looked down on the downtrodden. Today, America and the world are still recovering from the effects of the 2008 crash, and many continue to wonder whether the American Dream still exists when income inequality is at record highs and economic mobility seems completely out of reach.…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The idea of the American dream brings tremendous promise and opportunity, however it also brings heartbreaking failure. A character like Jay Gatsby seems to have achieved the American dream with his wealth, power, and lifestyle; however, he is restless and is constantly searching for something more. One is never truly happy, when they are chasing after the unattainable. In this case, Gatsby has been living his life with the hope that one day, he and Daisy could return to the times that they had been together all those years ago. The failure of Gatsby in achieving the elusive American Dream is a symbol for the difficulties in obtaining true happiness.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby, written in the 1920s, is a book symbolizing the corruption of the American Dream. The American Dream was a dream of immigrants coming to the americas in pursuit of a better life. Immigrants thought that living in the land of the free would be a lot better than it turned out to be and most of them ended up working in conditions worse than from which they came. The 1920s was nicknamed the Gilded Age because from the outside, life looked glamorous and expensive, but that isn't the way it actually was. Beneath the gold exterior of the American Dream was a harsh way of living: people were extremely poor, they had physically demanding jobs with long work hours, and there was nothing they could do to change it. The glamorous life…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Knowing he could not marry her because of the difference in their social status, he leaves…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Roaring Twenties brought in an epoch of extravagance and luxury. Besides material goods, people started pursuing the American dream of a stable life with a family. The main character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Jay Gatsby, is also fascinated to enter into the rat race of achieving the perfect “American Dream”. He wants daisy back and for that he tries to lure her with his wealth. But just like the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Gatsby’s American Dream crashes. By depicting the failure of Gatsby’s dream, Fitzgerald proves that the American dream is an illusion. This dream of finding fortune, love and happiness is idealistic even when one resorts to unethical ways to obtain it. Like others, Gatsby fails to realize this fact.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American Dream-an opportunity to start a new life with promising freedom. This idea seems to still go on today, in this century. Many people don’t think about what the aspects of the American Dream is, or what it is completely. Those who think about it, define it as kind of like a fresh start. Today, America still provides access to the American Dream as stated in The Great Gatsby, “The New Colossus,” and “Looking toward the future.”…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Americans are good dreamers who are willing to work hard to turn their dreams into reality, and some of them do succeed. By the 1920’s, a multitude of people have made large amounts of money, but due to the material excessiveness of the rich, some gradually corrupted the purity of their American Dreams. In The Great Gatsby, F.Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the theme of the decline of the American Dream in the 1920s by showing the opulence and sloth of both rich and poor characters. It is undenial that most of the characters in The Great Gatsby reflect the corruption in American Dreams from many aspects. Some of them use exsiting money for purposeless enjoyment, some of them expect to get money from rich people,…

    • 2204 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    “People are so busy dreaming the American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have the right to be, that they’re all asleep at the switch. Consequently, we are living in the age of human error.” – Florence King. The American Dream is the legendary utopia of equality, democracy, and prosperity. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, examines the question of whether or not the exuberance of material wealth and riches is really satisfactory in the seeking of the American Dream and the pursuit of happiness. The Great Gatsby is the story of an eccentric millionaire named Jay Gatsby as told by Nick Carroway, a Midwesterner who moves right into the…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within the bloods of every American flows the undeniable desire to pursuit a better life at limitless opportunities. This force leads many Americans to live up to their American Dream, but what else does the “American Dream” necessarily bring to the table? Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald deflects the idea that the American Dream is the universal dream to succeed a fulfilled life as he portrays it’s causes of corruption and destruction by the pursuit of wealth and materialism, making it hard to see the reality objectively.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What comes to our minds when we hear the words "American Dream?" Many of us think about luxury. But what is really the american dream define as too every one that doesn't know what the real meaning of it is? The "American Dream" consist of a descent home with a nice looking lawn, a decent and affordable vehicle, a nuclear family, a pet, and money. Well let me start by telling you that this is not exactly what comes to our mind when thinking of the "American Dream". In this country we have learned that everything is double sized. So for most of us the "American Dream" consists of what I mentioned before, but this time everything has to be in large quantities. In this essay we are going to be comparing and contrasting two pieces of art, that somehow marked the difference in how we see history now a days, followed by continuity of change, and last the materialistic country that we have today. From chapter 36 we chose the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F.Scott Fitzgerald and from chapter 37 the movie “Kane Campaigning in Citizen Cane” by Orson Welles.…

    • 659 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays