The American Dream In The Great Gatsby Analysis

People look back on the 1920s as a time when the American Dream flourished and anyone could raise their socioeconomic status with determination and initiative. The American Dream is often romanticised through an idealistic lens in literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a Jazz Age novel that challenges these ideals and creates a more realistic picture of the extremes of wealth during the 1920s. Fitzgerald used the characters’ personal relationships and emotions, as well as their economic situations and attitudes, to symbolize the corruption of the idea of hard work, obsession with material objects, and unattainability of the American Dream. The main concept of the American Dream is that honest, hard work will result in climbing the social ladder. As seen in the novel, this concept became corrupted. Tom and Daisy both came from old money and did nothing to deserve their immense wealth. The narrator, Nick, had a difficult time comprehending Tom’s wealth but observed that his family was “enormously wealthy--even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach--but now he’d left Chicago and come East in a fashion that took your breath away…” (6) Tom then had the audacity to look down on Gatsby, who on the surface had achieved the American Dream. Despite his vast economic growth, Gatsby was still not on the same level people like Tom who had lived their entire lives in luxury. Gatsby did not attain his fortune through “honest, hard work”, but through illegal and immoral activities. It was during the pursuit of the American dream that the rise of organized crime replaced honest work for many people. In fact, the only character that truly travails is Wilson, and he remained a poor man all his life. His labor was not appreciated and rich men like Tom rejected him as “so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive.” (26) The American Dream caused the wealthy to have little compassion toward those less fortunate. The notion was that if someone was poor, they weren’t working hard enough. These ideas brought out negative traits in people as they become obsessed with wealth and status. Fitzgerald’s characters placed their focus on material objects to mask underlying emotions and desires. …show more content…
When Gatsby and Daisy were reunited, Gatsby drew her attention to all of his beautiful things and that he attained for her instead of his emotions over the years. Daisy was overwhelmed by the reappearance of Gatsby in her life, but excused her tears, claiming “it [made her] sad because [she’d] never seen… such beautiful shirts before.” (92) She saw the shirts as a reminder of the beautiful life that Gatsby has created and she could have been a part of and that is what made her sad, but she told the men and herself that it’s just the shirts. Even Gatsby’s father, who was not a rich man, measured his son’s success on Gatsby’s extravagant home and used that to place value on his life as opposed to noting that only a few people came to his funeral. The American Dream was conceptually about creating a better life for yourself but people put weight on possessions instead of personal relationships to show how wonderful their lives were and make them happy. Many characters in the novel were not satisfied with