Destruction Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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.
Fitzgerald observed a changing American society in the 1920s and reached the same conclusion: The Great Gatsby was a warning to the country that the American Dream cannot last when a few have so much and many have so