Great Gatsby Analysis
American Dream In The Great Gatsby all of the characters are working towards their own happiness. Fitzgerald uses the characters to represent the different groups of people and their dreams, they are different in wealth and social status.
Fitzgerald uses the characters in the upper class to show that the American Dream is not just about money, as it seemed to be in 1920’s. He felt that the people of the 1920’s had forgotten what the American Dream was about, so he portrayed those people through Daisy and Tom. Daisy who is the woman Gatsby loves seems to have everything she could possible desire, yet she sits around all day with Jordan Baker, living an unfulfilled life. She even knows that her husband is cheating on her, as suggested by Jordan Baker, “I thought everybody knew.. Tom’s got a woman in New York.”(pg. 15) Even though she knows her husband is unfaithful she does nothing about it, showing that she will do anything to maintain the money. “Her voice is full of money” (pg. 120) is the way Gatsby, the man that loves her, describes her. Tom, Daisy’s husband, lives just as unfulfilling of a life as her. Tom is a very shallow character who reads “Deep books with long words in them”(pg. 13) to try to feel smart and give him something to try and talk about. Even Daisy knows how shallow Tom is and makes fun of him by telling Nick “Tom is getting very profound”(pg. 13) after he tries to talk about books he does not understand. He even has an affair with a low class woman named Myrtle, when he has a beautiful wife to try to escape from how he lives. These characters show that no matter how much money you have it will not be the one thing that will bring you happiness and that it is not the true American Dream. Gatsby and Myrtle are both victims of the lives of Daisy and Tom. Gatsby, who loves Daisy, does everything he thinks he has to, to get her back. Therefore, Gatsby becomes a bootlegger, makes millions, and throws extravagant parties to earn Daisy
Fitzgerald uses the characters in the upper class to show that the American Dream is not just about money, as it seemed to be in 1920’s. He felt that the people of the 1920’s had forgotten what the American Dream was about, so he portrayed those people through Daisy and Tom. Daisy who is the woman Gatsby loves seems to have everything she could possible desire, yet she sits around all day with Jordan Baker, living an unfulfilled life. She even knows that her husband is cheating on her, as suggested by Jordan Baker, “I thought everybody knew.. Tom’s got a woman in New York.”(pg. 15) Even though she knows her husband is unfaithful she does nothing about it, showing that she will do anything to maintain the money. “Her voice is full of money” (pg. 120) is the way Gatsby, the man that loves her, describes her. Tom, Daisy’s husband, lives just as unfulfilling of a life as her. Tom is a very shallow character who reads “Deep books with long words in them”(pg. 13) to try to feel smart and give him something to try and talk about. Even Daisy knows how shallow Tom is and makes fun of him by telling Nick “Tom is getting very profound”(pg. 13) after he tries to talk about books he does not understand. He even has an affair with a low class woman named Myrtle, when he has a beautiful wife to try to escape from how he lives. These characters show that no matter how much money you have it will not be the one thing that will bring you happiness and that it is not the true American Dream. Gatsby and Myrtle are both victims of the lives of Daisy and Tom. Gatsby, who loves Daisy, does everything he thinks he has to, to get her back. Therefore, Gatsby becomes a bootlegger, makes millions, and throws extravagant parties to earn Daisy