The Great Gatsby And The Destruction Of
The American Dream Essay, Research Paper
The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the corruptness of the American Dream, and the ruin of those who attempt to achieve its illusional ends. As the novel shows, the twentieth century is a moral barren and a corruptness of the original idealistic American Dream of the yesteryear.
Fitzgerald & # 8217 ; s moral barren is shown physically in the & # 8220 ; vale of ashes & # 8221 ; scene of the novel. This & # 8216 ; blue & # 8217 ; and & # 8216 ; abandon & # 8217 ; barren exists side-by-side with the white and unreal dream of Daisy and her universe. Even the colourss of this landscape have correlativities to Daisy: the & # 8220 ; yellow & # 8221 ; of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg & # 8217 ; s eyeglassess and the brick of the houses on the street is a colour of decay, but besides of wealths like sunshine and gold. Besides, the ashes in the valley signifier figures ( to Nick ) which disintegrate at the slightest whiff of air current. Gatsby is incapable of acknowledging the & # 8220 ; ashes & # 8221 ; of what Daisy represents and takes her emptiness for substance. Although Nick sees the moral devastation of the Buchanans & # 8217 ; universe, Gatsby can non and attempts to happen in this universe a dream worth keeping on to. As shown in Gatsby & # 8217 ; s parties, nil is tethered to world ; there is laughter without amusement, & # 8216 ; enthusiasm & # 8217 ; between aliens, & # 8220 ; friends & # 8221 ; without friendly relationship, and life without significance.
Gatsby & # 8217 ; s dream is that through wealth and power, one can get felicity ( Daisy ) . Throughout the novel we see that Gatsby can non see that the yesteryear is over and done with and he therefor can hold no opportunity with Daisy. He is certain that he can capture his dream with wealth and influence. Nick attempts to demo Gatsby the foolishness of his dream and state him that he can non live over the past, but Gatsby confidently replies, & # 8220 ; Yes you can, old sport. & # 8221 ; There are many connexions between Gatsby & # 8217 ; s dream with the American Dream. A large portion of both is the chase 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 su
ccess through difficult work and doggedness or “luck, gutsiness, and virtue” , as Alger would set it. However, in the modern epoch, all that changed. The American Dream shrunk from self-betterment, wealth, and success through difficult work and doggedness to ’success’ through wealth by any agencies possible, merely as Gatsby’s dream, his Platonic construct of himself, shrunk into Daisy. The corruptness of the American dream can be illustrated by how Gatsby came by his luck. Through his traffics with organized offense, he didn’t adhere to the original American Dream guidelines. His really dishonesty that allowed him to acquire the wealth and connexions to be close Daisy is besides the really thing that would do it impossible for him to populate in Daisy’s universe or she in his. In consequence, prosecuting his dream without idea to honesty or morality, Gatsby guaranteed that his dream would non come true. This is true besides of the American Dream. Those who try to achieve the American Dream without idea to honesty or morality are doomed to hold their dreams remain unachievable or, if they achieve wealth, to hold the dream become meaningless due to their really immorality ( like Jordan’s rip offing takes the intending out of her ‘wins’ ) . Besides, in the novel all the immoral and dishonest people ( Tom, Daisy, Jordan ) have all the money. This construct of the corruptness and devastation of the American Dream is besides physically illustrated by how the ‘fresh, green promise’ of the universe was displaced by the ‘gloomy’ , ‘gray’ Valley of Ashes.
The Great Gatsby illustrates how the chase for felicity through philistinism can non be successful without attach toing morality. Cut off from their mid-West traditions and moralss, the characters in the fresh live in a kind of ill lampoon of the American Dream. They can non be genuinely happy because they lack the inner militias for such an emotion. This parallels modern society & # 8217 ; s rootlessness and attach toing corruptness of the American Dream. Without something to believe in, to keep on to, we can non achieve anything of echt worth.
