The Elusive American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The elusive American Dream. The quintessential stereotype that supposedly outlines the ideal American life: success, personal fulfillment, and wealth. A long-debated concept that famed author F. Scott Fitzgerald clearly addressed in all of his novels. Fitzgerald himself lived and breathed The American Dream during the Roaring Twenties. He searched for The American Dream only to discover that the “dream” is merely an illusion of the pursuit of happiness. The "dream" remains a mirage to the middle class while the people with old money remain superficial and miserable. Fitzgerald utilizes his main characters as a vehicle to explore the idea of The American Dream, a key element in shaping American society. The Twenties were a time of social experiments, self-indulgence, and dissatisfaction for the majority of Americans—Fitzgerald depicts these characteristics throughout the novel with his provocative themes, settings, and characters. If The Great Gatsby can be seen as Fitzgerald’s prediction of American decline, Tender is the Night is his way of marking the death of his beloved Jazz Age. Fitzgerald toes the fine line between the plausible American dream and mere deceit.
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Gatsby is depicted as the resolute dreamer who went beyond achieving the American dream but was missing the one thing that the American dream couldn’t fulfill: his utmost desire for love; whereas Tender is the Night’s Dick Diver is confronted with his irrationality and loneliness after he lost his access to money, societal success, and love. Of all of Fitzgerald’s characters, Gatsby struggles the most with the fine line between reality and illusion. He chases his love for