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The Great Gatsby: The Decline Of The American Dream

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The Great Gatsby: The Decline Of The American Dream
Megan Moore
Dr. Wood
2/16/14

The Great Gatsby: The Decline of the American Dream

Following the much adored novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, came the phenomenal screenplay of The Great Gatsby, released in May, 2013. 1920's America boomed with unprecedented prosperity and material excess as stock markets skyrocketed and spirits rang high. The film, however, focuses on a much larger underlying theme that is a highly symbolic rumination of the entirety of America in the 1920's: the disintegration of the American dream. This decline came about rapidly, in step with the decay of social and moral values, empty hypocrisy of the aristocracy, and the vainness of the upperclass. Upon the beginning of the movie, Jay Gatsby (portrayed by Leonardo
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