The Great Gatsby Illusion

The Vain Gatsby The American Dream is pursued in vain by the characters in The Great Gatsby, while the novel serves as a prophecy for The Great Depression. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness appear to be for sale to Tom and Gatsby, yet this only is an illusion. They end up destroying everything in their path to reach their goal. In this way, the novel predicts the looming Great Depression, through the waste of money and unsupportable lifestyles of Americans. Gatsby wastes all his money to attempt to reverse time to five years prior when he had Daisy. But in the end, it is an impossible task. He cannot make Daisy say she never loved Tom, and destroys himself over his false dream. In short, the characters in the novel create their own
Nick commented of his smile saying that it "concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor"(53). The point being that Gatsby was always looking to impress and even deceive others to the truth about his life. His colossal parties weren't for the sake of altruism or fun, he was trying to bait Daisy into his trap. He also repeatedly lied about his past to raise his standing amongst others, saying he was a war hero, big game hunter, and world traveler. After Nick asked him what city he was from in the Midwest, Gatsby said San Francisco. This type of compulsive lying by Gatsby to get to Daisy was habit. He ended up going too far, leading himself out of reality, down a rabbit hole, and into his own illusionary world. In this illusion, a simple green light had such sentimental value that it controlled his life. In this way, his dream was forever left as just a
Neither were named after the other, yet the novel nearly prophesized the economic downfall. By constantly pointing out the moral decay and over luxurious lifestyles of Americans, the novel predicted an incoming financial crisis better than economists. Though Nick refused to pass judgment on others, his narration was critical of the extravagant lifestyles of the times. There were also little references to faith and unconditional love, and instead a large amount of materialism. Nick wanted to return to the innocence of the Midwest after witnessing the horrors of the New York lifestyle, where crime ruled. The unsustainable lifestyles of the East were also pointed out by the valley of ashes. Here the excessive waste piled up and was burned into a grey, volcano like, cloud that blew though the city. By creating such an obviously insupportable system, the novel highlighted that a large scale systemic crash was