The Corruption of the American Dream in Fitzgerald’s The...

Francis Scott Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream, originally a set of goals that included freedom, settlement, and an honest life with the possibility of upward social and economic mobility earned through hard work, as corrupted and debased by the egotistic materialism of the 1920s, an era which Fitzgerald characterizes chiefly by its greed and lavish hedonism, in his celebrated novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald, in The Great Gatsby, seeks to discredit the supposed purity of the American Dream and belief that anyone can attain it through hard work. Instead, he argues that the dream is a mere delusion, altered so significantly from its original form that its pursuers aspire for and achieve nothing more than the hoarding of hollow†¦show more content†¦Myrtle’s depraved lover and East Egger who comes from a long-established line of money, Tom Buchanan, also serves as a portrayal of the decaying American Dream in the face of growing immorality. To start, Tom has been cheating on his wife Daisy since their honeymoon, representing again the loose morals of the time. Additionally, Tom, the wealthiest character in this novel, arguably acts the most amorally and strays away, more than the other characters, from the true ideals of the American Dream. Instead, Tom projects the idea that one does not need hard work and honesty to gain entrance to the upper class nor to make a name for oneself. For example, Tom, so rich that he does not even know where his vast wealth originates, does not need to work, content with spending his money on polo horses, maintaining a â€Å"lawn [that runs]†¦ a quarter of a mile,† and buying expensive white suits; the white indicates that he does no work that could possibly sully the suit (Fitzgerald 11). His house, described as an elegant estate with an â€Å"Italian garden, a half-acre of deep pungent roses, [and]†¦French windows†¦ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside,† serves to further emphasize his extensive wealth (Fitzgerald 12). However, as the narrator Nick begins to converseShow MoreRelatedF. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Corruption of the American Dream1488 Words   |  6 PagesJay Gatsby is a man with a dream and will stop at nothing to attain it.   When he loses the love of his life to a wealthy, sophisticated and bigoted socialite, his mind is set.   Born a poor farm boy, he centers his life around achieving extraordinarily vast amounts of wealth and great social status.   The poor man never gets the girl; in fact, he never gets anything in Gatsbys eyes.   Gatsby is determined not only to be rich, but become the richest man who ever lived.   When he does become the richestRead MoreEssay on The Great Gatsby1404 Words   |  6 Pagesprosperous decade of the 1920’s, traditional American lifestyles and principles were interjected by the new superficial and materialistic beliefs closely associated with â€Å"The Roaring Twenties.† Undoubtedly, the 1920’s were a decade of change. Deteriorating moralities and optimistic beliefs of overnight wealth replaced strict traditional views on religion, family structure, and work ethics. In an era of such high optimism, the pioneering spirit of the American Dream was revitalized. The nouveaux richesRead More Great Gatsby: Fitzgeralds Criticism Of The American Dream Essay501 Words   |  3 Pages Great Gatsby: Fitzgeralds Criticism of The American Dream The American Dream, as it arose in the Colonial period and developed in the nineteenth century, was based on the assumption that each person, no matter what his origins, could succeed in life on the sole basis of his or her own skill and effort. The dream was embodied in the ideal of the self-made man, just as it was embodied in Fitzgeralds own family by his grandfather, P. F. McQuillan. Fitzgeralds novel takes its place among other novelsRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1472 Words   |  6 Pagesnoble to suffer. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald comments on this concept with the characters Tom and Gatsby. By comparing and contrasting Tom and Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald develops his critique of the class structure of 1920s America that allows corrupt characters to thrive while punishing sympathetic characters for striving for their dreams. Fitzgerald contrasts Tom’s and Gatsby’s old and new money statuses to display the corruption of the American Dream that sustains society’sRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1646 Words   |  7 Pages1920s witnessed the death of the American Dream, a message immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Initially, the American Dream represented the outcome of American ideals, that everyone has the freedom and opportunity to achieve their dreams provided they perform honest hard work. During the 1920s, the United States experienced massive economic prosperity making the American Dream seem alive and strong. However, in Fitzgerald’s eyes, the new American culture build around that massiveRead MoreAmerican Dream In The Great Gatsby Essay1183 Words   |  5 PagesFitzgerald’s America is an accurate depiction to 1920s American Dream *HANDS OUT ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ BEFORE STARTING SEMINAR *TURNS ON POWERPOINT TO THE TITLE Now everyone I want you to close your eyes and imagine what you think living in the 1920s would be like. *GOES ONTO THE NEXT SLIDE TO THE SOCIETY IN THE 1920s Now everyone open your eyes. What do you see here? *POINTS TO PICTURE LIVING IN THE ACTUAL 1920S. Now what do you see here? *NEXT SLIDE. *POINTS TO PICTURE LIVING IN THE AMERICANRead MoreThe American Dream ( The Great Gatsby )1173 Words   |  5 PagesSLIDE. *POINTS TO PICTURE LIVING IN THE AMERICAN DREAM (THE GREAT GATSBY). Did anyone notice anything that caused a change in society between these two pictures? *POINTS TO SOMEONE WITH ONE OF THE ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ/QUESTION. READS OUT THE RAPID ECONOMIC BOOMING AND GREED. *NEXT SLIDE. That’s correct! During the 1920s of the Jazz Age in concurrence with the â€Å"Roaring Twenties†, America had experienced a rapid economic booming after World War I. The American society experienced an economic and politicalRead More Destruction and Failure of a Generation in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby1413 Words   |  6 PagesThe Great Gatsby and the Destruction of a Generation      Ã‚   The beauty and splendor of Gatsbys parties masks the decay and corruption that lay at the heart of the Roaring Twenties. The society of the Jazz Age, as observed by Fitzgerald, is morally bankrupt, and thus continually plagued by a crisis of character. Jay Gatsby, though he struggles to be a part of this world, remains unalterably an outsider. His life is a grand irony, in that it is a caricature of Twenties-style ostentation: his closetRead More1) How Does Gatsby Represent the American Dream? and What Does the Novel Have to Say About the Condition of the Amrican Dream in 1920s?1116 Words   |  5 PagesAlthough The Great Gatsby is filled with multiple themes such as love, money, order, reality, illusion and immorality, no one would probably deny that the predominate one focuses on the American Dream and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is the central of this novel. This can be explained by how Gatsb y came to get his fortune. By studying the process of how Gatsby tried to achieve his own so-called American Dream, we could haveRead More1) How Does Gatsby Represent the American Dream? and What Does the Novel Have to Say About the Condition of the Amrican Dream in 1920s?1110 Words   |  5 PagesAlthough The Great Gatsby is filled with multiple themes such as love, money, order, reality, illusion and immorality, no one would probably deny that the predominate one focuses on the American Dream and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is the central of this novel. This can be explained by how Gatsby came to get his fortune. By studying the process of how Gatsby tried to achieve his own so-called American Dream, we could have