FREE ESSAY ON THE GREAT GATSBY AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

THE GREAT GATSBY AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
is about the corruption of the American Dream, and the
downfall of those who attempt to attain its illusionary 
goals. As the novel shows, the 20th century is a moral
wasteland and a corruption of the original idealistic 
American Dream of the past.
Fitzgerald's moral wasteland is shown physically 
in the valley of ashes scene of the novel. This 
'dismal' and 'desolate' wasteland exists side-by-side 
with the white and unreal dream of Daisy and her world.
Even the colors of this landscape have correlations to
Daisy: the yellow of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg's spectacles 
and the brick of the houses on the street is a color of
decay, but also of riches like sunlight and gold. Also,
the ashes in the valley form figures (to Nick) which 
disintegrate at the slightest puff of wind. Gatsby is 
incapable of recognizing the ashes of what Daisy 
represents and takes her emptiness for substance. 
Although Nick sees the moral desolation of the 
Buchanans' world, Gatsby cannot and tries to find in 
this world a dream worth holding on to. As shown in 
Gatsby's parties, nothing is tethered to reality; 
there is laughter without amusement, 'enthusiasm' 
between strangers, friends without friendship, and 
life without meaning.
Gatsby's dream is that through wealth and power, 
one can acquire happiness (Daisy). Throughout the 
novel we see that Gatsby cannot see that the past is 
over and done with and he therefor can have no chance 
with Daisy. He is sure that he can capture his dream 
with wealth and influence. Nick attempts to show Gatsby
the folly of his dream and tell him that he cannot 
relive the past, but Gatsby confidently replies, Yes 
you can, old sport. There are many connections between
Gatsby's dream with the American Dream. A big part of 
both is the pursuit of material things and both have a
touch (or more than a touch) of unreality about them.
The American dream used to be self-betterment, 
wealth, and success through hard work and perseverance 
or luck, pluck, and virtue, as Alger would put it. 
However, in the modern era, all that changed. The 
American Dream shrunk from self-betterment, wealth, 
and success through hard work and perseverance to 
'success' through wealth by any means possible, just 
as Gatsby's dream, his Platonic conception of himself,
shrunk into Daisy. The corruption of the American 
dream can be illustrated by how Gatsby came by his 
fortune. Through his dealings with organized crime, 
he didn't adhere to the original American Dream 
guidelines. His very dishonesty that allowed him to 
get the wealth and connections to be near Daisy is 
also the very thing that would make it impossible for 
him to live in Daisy's world or she in his. In effect,
pursuing his dream without thought to honesty or 
morality, Gatsby guaranteed that his dream would not 
come true. This is true also of the American Dream. 
Those who try to attain the American Dream without 
thought to honesty or morality are doomed to have 
their dreams remain unattainable or, if they achieve 
wealth, to have the dream become meaningless due to 
their very immorality (like Jordan's cheating takes 
the meaning out of her 'wins'). Also, in the novel all
the immoral and dishonest people (Tom, Daisy, Jordan) 
have all the money. This concept of the corruption and
destruction of the American Dream is also physically 
illustrated by how the 'fresh, green promise' of the 
world was displaced by the 'gloomy', 'gray' Valley of 
Ashes.
The Great Gatsby illustrates how the pursuit for 
happiness through materialism cannot be successful 
without accompanying morality. Cut off from their 
mid-West traditions and ethics, the characters in the 
novel live in a sort of sick parody of the American 
Dream. They cannot be truly happy because they lack 
the inner reserves for such an emotion. This parallels 
modern society's rootlessness and accompanying 
corruption of the American Dream. Without something to
believe in, to hold on to, we can not attain anything 
of genuine worth.