The Great Gatsby EssayÂFailure of the American Dream

The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, an idealistic and illusionary goal to achieve wealth and status. The ruthless pursuit of wealth leads to the corruption of human nature and moral values. Fitzgerald uses characters in the novel to show the corruptions and the illusionary nature of the American Dream. The superficial achievement of the American Dreams give no fulfillment, no real joy and peace; but instead, creates lots of problems for the characters in the novel. What happens to Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan represent the failure of the American Dream. Each character has a different dream. For Jay Gatsby, his dream is to attain happiness, represented by Daisys love, through†¦show more content†¦In his eyes, Tom and Daisy and all the others are a bunch of heartless people who becomes successful at the cost of losing precious human values. Gatsby is the only exception among them. In the novel, Nick comments Theyre a rotten crowd,Â… Youre worth the whole damn bunch put together.(Pg 154) With the physical death of Gatsby, Nicks hope for the realization of the American Dream is extinguished. He also has a feeling that Gatsbys faith and hope in his dream is fading away and that Gatsby is beginning to doubt, feeling lost and empty: I have an idea that Gatsby himself didnt believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like airÂ… (Pg 161) Gatsbys dream dies, so is Nicks. In conclusion, Fitzgerald uses this tragic story to express his feeling about the American Dream of the American people during the 1920s. The characters in the novel are being used to reflect the gradual demoralization of the people in the society. Every person living in thisShow MoreRelatedWilly Loman, Jay Gatsby, and the American Dream Essay736 Words   |  3 PagesGatsby and Loman My own life’s dream is to have a career in which I can surround myself in music. I will not let anything stand between my dream and I; however, I will never allow my dream to come between myself and my loved ones, or my reality. Many have already fallen victim to the pursuit of the American Dream – a fantastic projection of life that varies based upon its dreamer. However, the road to the American Dream, if followed blindly, can lead to nothing more than a dead end. 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