Tragic Misinterpretation Of The American Dream

The Tragic Misinterpretation of the 1920s American Dream
The 1920s exemplified the flaws of the American Dream and the tragic misinterpretation that money outweighed hard work and morals. The Great Gatsby, set in the 1920s, represents the demise of the traditions and values behind the American Dream as the desire to be rich took over. The novel appears to deal with the failed relationship of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, however the overall theme has to do with the culture of the 1920s and the cultural elements that led to the downfall of the American Dream. The new meaning of the American Dream combined with its altered results created the idea that money equated to happiness in the 1920s. This change was the eventual demise of what the
Americans were willing to turn to illegal and immoral things to achieve wealth and status while ignoring the values and hard work that had previously defined the American Dream. “Part of the main idea of the American Dream was that it was achieved through hard work and this contradiction between Gatsby’s American Dream-like lifestyle and the means which he achieved it are part of his downfall” (The Demise…Gatsby). The activities related to Prohibition led to a decline in the American Dream. The idea of the American Dream is that moral, hard working individuals were the only ones rewarded and yet people in the twenties, like Gatsby were achieving the American Dream lifestyle through organized crime related to the Prohibition movement, Gatsby epitomizes the idea of self-made success and yet his wealth and social status were attained through criminal activities and connections. Through bootlegging and work with the infamous gambler and racketeer Meyer Wolfsheim, the man who “fixed” the World Series, Gatsby was able to achieve the wealth and social status required to be successful in the 1920s. “Wolfsheim showed Gatsby’s dark side and the way that his dream was ultimately corrupted” (The Demise…Gatsby). Gatsby was not a corrupt man deep down, but through his association with dishonest, wayward people, he gradually became more like them. The corruption in the American Dream
“Gatsby’s Pristine Dream: The Diminishment of the Self-Made Man in the Tribal Twenties.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction 28. Academic Search Premier.
"The Demise of the 1920s American Dream in The Great Gatsby." In-Depth Articles & Hard to Research Topics. InfoRefuge, n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
Donaldson, Scott. “Possessions in the Great Gatsby.” Southern Review 37.
Fjeldstrom, Jennifer J. Jay Gatsby as a “Bold Sensualist”: Using “Self-Reliance” and Walden to Critique the Jazz Age in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Diss. Univ. of Saskatchewan.
"Introduction to Are America 's Wealthy Too Powerful?: At Issue." Are America 's Wealthy Too Powerful? Ronald D. Lankford, Jr. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 June 2013.
Lena, Alberto. “Deceitful Traces of Power: An Analysis of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.” Canadian Review of American Studies 28.
Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity. Los Angeles: University of California P.
Michaels, James W. “The Mass-Market Rich.” Forbes 9 Oct. 2000. Business Source Premier.
O’meara, Lauraleigh. “Medium of Exchange: The Blue Coupe Dialogue in The Great Gatsby.” Papers on Language & Literature