How does F. Scott Fitzgerald Create a Picture of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby?
How does F. Scott Fitzgerald Create a Picture of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby?
Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic novel, set in the year of 1922 and is primarily centered on the character known as Jay Gatsby. What makes this book so symbolic are the amount of references of the American Dream, which Fitzgerald manages to condemn, praise and define. There are many different stages and events which happen in this story that Fitzgerald is able to use to symbolize what the reality of the American Dream is. Some of these stages include the comparison between the “new rich” and the “old rich”, the valley of ashes which has become a wasteland for those who are selfishly blinded by their own delusions and the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock which represents Gatsby’s unobtainable dream.
One literary device he uses to depict the American Dream is motif; one motif is geography as represented by East and West Egg. West Egg is where the "new rich" live, those who have made a lot of money by being entrepreneurial (or criminal) in the years after World War I ended. These people are portrayed as being rather gaudy (like Gatsby's pink suit and Rolls Royce), showy (like Gatsby's rather ostentatious white mansion), and gauche (socially awkward, as Gatsby seems always to be). It is as if they do not quite know what to do with their newly earned riches and therefore try to "copy" what they perceive to be the possessions and manners of the rich. This is a clear condemnation of the excessive materialism which was the result of pursuing the American Dream.
On the other hand, East Egg is filled with those who have always had money. While they do look like they have class, dignity, and manners (things lacking in West-Eggers), they are no better in their excesses than their newly rich neighbors. Tom and Daisy both have affairs, Jordan Baker is a cheat, Daisy kills a woman and lets someone else take the blame, and many of the East Eggers
Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic novel, set in the year of 1922 and is primarily centered on the character known as Jay Gatsby. What makes this book so symbolic are the amount of references of the American Dream, which Fitzgerald manages to condemn, praise and define. There are many different stages and events which happen in this story that Fitzgerald is able to use to symbolize what the reality of the American Dream is. Some of these stages include the comparison between the “new rich” and the “old rich”, the valley of ashes which has become a wasteland for those who are selfishly blinded by their own delusions and the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock which represents Gatsby’s unobtainable dream.
One literary device he uses to depict the American Dream is motif; one motif is geography as represented by East and West Egg. West Egg is where the "new rich" live, those who have made a lot of money by being entrepreneurial (or criminal) in the years after World War I ended. These people are portrayed as being rather gaudy (like Gatsby's pink suit and Rolls Royce), showy (like Gatsby's rather ostentatious white mansion), and gauche (socially awkward, as Gatsby seems always to be). It is as if they do not quite know what to do with their newly earned riches and therefore try to "copy" what they perceive to be the possessions and manners of the rich. This is a clear condemnation of the excessive materialism which was the result of pursuing the American Dream.
On the other hand, East Egg is filled with those who have always had money. While they do look like they have class, dignity, and manners (things lacking in West-Eggers), they are no better in their excesses than their newly rich neighbors. Tom and Daisy both have affairs, Jordan Baker is a cheat, Daisy kills a woman and lets someone else take the blame, and many of the East Eggers