Corruption Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby Essay Example

The corruption of the American dream is causing destruction in the novel. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald combines setting, objective symbols, and characterization to highlight how dreams can be destructive. Fitzgerald uses the characterization of Gatsby to demonstrate how the American dream is destructive (at that time). By the end of the story, Gatsby had failed to achieve his dream because of his constant desire for more, never being happy and content with his life and achievements, as Nick started: “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.” (Fitzgerald 124). The book depicts that Gatsby built his way up from the lower class to luxury life/ upper class. He invented a new identity for himself and achieved his dream of living a rich high class life, but he kept on focusing on materialistic lifestyle hoping it will bring him happiness and the feeling of contentment as the American dream seems to promise, but the quote above reveals that it been one of the main factors that led to the destruction of his dream. Gatsby ‘s main goal in life which represented “America’s main goal” was to always achieve more, rather than be satisfied with what was already achieved. This desire for more was the main factor for the distraction of Gatsby's dream of a luxury life with Daisy by his side. Fitzgerald uses automobiles to represent the new technology and fortune of the high class. In this scene Fitzgerald wanted to give an insight on the way people viewed cars as a way to exhibit their fortune to society when Nick narrated his meeting with Gatsby: “He saw me looking with admiration at his car. “It’s pretty, isn’t it, old sport?” He jumped off to give me a better view. “Haven’t you ever seen it before? ” I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel” (Fitzgerald 50) with this scene the author is revealing to the audience that the high class used the automobiles in a way to show off their fortune more than use for transportation, yet the role of cars is very much related to the failure of the American dream because, similar to what was mentioned before, Gatsby was trying to win over people, especially daisy, through his luxury life. The car crash at the end of the story where Myrtle died which led to a chain of events that caused Gatsby’s and Wilson's death, is a symbol the destruction of the American dream, relating the automobiles to such a terrible chain of events, metaphorically represents the corruption of the American dream in the 1920s.

Fitzgerald uses the settings of the story to symbolize the enormous difference between the rich and the poor. At the beginning of the novel, the author describes a very big contrast between the east and west egg and the valley of ashes, as stated in the book: “This is a valley of ashes — where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest” (Fitzgerald 20). This quote reveals to the reader that the valley of ashes is a symbol of death, poverty, and mortal decay. It shows that in contrast to the setting in east egg and west egg the American dream is not attainable, a good example would be George Wilson having to work hard but never move forward and was never able to live the so called “American dream” where supposedly your hard work would lead you to success in a land of opportunities. The unattainability of the American dream in the valley of ashes reveals the dark side of American society. Ultimately the valley of ashes represents the inequality between the rich and the poor not having the same opportunities to achieve their goals.

Through this novel, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream cannot be fully attained because those who believe in it are constantly striving for something better than themselves, therefore it’s destructive. Gatsby’s unsatisfactory even after achieving a rich high class life, the automobiles symbolic meaning of the corruption of the American dream by the down fall of events after the car accident and the dark gloomy/ hopeless settings of the valley of ashes revealing the truth about the unattainable goal known as the American dream are all providing examples to support the fact that Fitzgerald shows dreams as destructive in the novel “The Great Gatsby”.