The fall of the american dream
American society has been built around the notion that with hard work and motivation, one can obtain the wealth and stature that is so desired in the pursuit of the American Dream. The American Dream in the 1920's was portrayed in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as ugliness and ruin of moral values. The characters desire for material comfort and wealth out way that of the pursuit of happiness in individual relationships. The Great Gatsby is an ideal example that narrates the fall of the American Dream in the 1920's. It portrays people obsessed with self-image, wealth, and of loveless relationships. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald examines and evaluates Gatsby's vision of the American Dream in the 1920's. The narrator of the time is Nick Carraway. After serving in World War 1, 29 year-Old Nick learns the bonds business and gets drawn into the affairs involving Jay Gatsby. Having come from a prominent family himself, Nick is accustomed to the ways of the social elite. Eventually, Nick will be drawn in to the middle of the relationship between Daisy and Jay. Daisy being Nick's cousin who is married to Tom Buchanan. Tom is an extremely wealthy man and prone to having affairs. Jay Gatsby,
He is under the assumption that with wealth and prestige, he can make his life complete with the acceptance of Daisy's love. "In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars" (Fitzgerald 43). Daisy has been portrayed in Gatsby's mind for years and never quite meets up to his expectations in real life. He has been building up a fantasy in his mind for 5 years while all the while striving to make something of him. Although he has elaborate furnishings and many material goods, Gatsby himself doesn't come off as being extremely materialistic. Gatsby is taken aback by the child; she doesn't fit into the fantasy. It comes down to the conclusion that he became monetarily successful due to his illegal bootlegging activities, a fact he tries to hide from the others as he plays the role of the ever enduring host. The reality of the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby falls short of the fantasy that has been playing in Gatsby's mind when he realizes that Daisy has no intention of leaving her husband and the social standing that goes along with that marriage. Jay Gatsby's substantial fortune becomes meaningless when he fails to obtain the America Dream. Gatsby wants to associate with the upper-class, the old rich, but this division of class wants nothing to do with him. Jay Gatsby, on the other hand, is classified as a West Egger, residing on the side that has come into new money through sometimes shady means. Nick comments in the final chapter, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together. He is unaware that they do not recognize him or accept him. "Gatsby looked at me [Nick] questioningly.
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