The American Dream in The Great Gatsby (Book Analysis)

The 1920’s, known as the roaring twenties, was a time when social activities promoted a more carefree lifestyle. This was also an era when alcohol, gender, and race were controversial topics. The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920’s and addresses many of these cultural divisions. The Great Gatsby is the tale of a man who devotes his life to one singular purpose, love. Gatsby thought that chasing the American dream would bring him love and happiness; he was very wrong. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote this book about the deception and cruelness of the American dream to convince his audience that idealizing an unattainable dream will lead to failure. To convey his message, Fitzgerald portrays persistence and shallowness within the characters, establishes a connection between him and Gatsby, and uses Nick's point of view to show a line of reasoning within the characters.

Fitzgerald uses persistence to display Gatsby’s ultimate goal to win Daisy back. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy before he went to war. After he returned from the war he could not bring himself to go back to her until he was successful as seen in this quote, “Quote ab him wanting to be successful”. Gatsby was so desperate to become rich, he went into business with Wolfsheim. The author puts emphasis on the fact that Gatsby did not like to tell people the truth about where his money came from. During the novel he lies several times about how he became rich; this is because he was so insistent on becoming rich, he earned it in a dishonest way. Gatsby reveals at the end of the book that everything he did was for Daisy. He threw all of the extravagant parties hoping that Daisy would wander in one day. Gatsby was chasing the American dream because he thought that if he made money and fell in love, his life would be perfect. His failure shows that no matter how hard he worked, his dream was a failure. 

Topic sentence for shallowness. The Buchanans live in an extravagant mansion with numerous servants. When Tom invites Nick over for dinner he begins to talk about a new book he has been reading that is teaching him about stomping the inferior race down.  “....It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.” “We’ve got to beat them down,” whispered Daisy, winking ferociously toward the fervent sun.” (Fitzgerald 13).  They say this in the presence of his black servants. This scene revealed Tom’s true nature; he doesn’t care for the lives that he believes are beneath him. Prejudice against other races in the 1920’s was very common and many people, such as Tom and Daisy, normalized it. The Buchanans were so superficial that they did not see an issue with insulting their servants in front of them. The American dream, for many, meant working as hard as you could would bring you success. Fitzgerald uses characters like Tom and Daisy to show how this is simply untrue for many African Americans because of people’s predisposed thoughts about them. 

In addition to themes of racism throughout the novel, there are many instances where the characters reveal their shallowness to the audience. For example, ““They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.”” (Fitzgerald 72). Daisy was overwhelmed by the materialistic beauty of Gatsby’s mansion and possessions. She began to weep because she loved his wealth. After she professes her love for Gatsby, Gatsby wants her to tell Tom that she never loved him. Daisy can’t do it; she begins to cry when Jay loses his temper because Tom accused him of being a bootlegger. Once Daisy found out where Gatsby’s money came from, she wanted to stay with Tom. Her actions reveal the true shallowness of her intentions; she only wanted money. Fitzgerald uses the same theme in the novel when Daisy and Tom go away right after Gatsby dies. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (Fitzgerald 137) this shows how Daisy never truly cared for Gatsby, only his possessions. In this aristocratic society, the author uses the character’s artificiality to demonstrate how the American dream was poisoned with factitious people who only care for themselves. 

Fitzgerald made the book in correspondence with his life. He wrote the Great Gatsby about the American dream in the 1920’s. He used his life experiences and paralleled them with Gatsby’s life. Fitzgerald was an only child and grew up with an unsuccessful father (Mizener). He had high expectations for American life and had a highly romanticized imagination of his future; similar to how Gatsby imagined his life with Daisy would be perfect. Fitzgerald became an important figure at Princeton, but he failed out and went to join the army. After, he fell in love and was determined to be successful so he could have a good life with his love. Likewise, Gatsby fell in love with Daisy then went to war. When he came back his only goal was to become rich so Daisy would return to him. Fitzgerald’s marriage fell apart and he became an alcoholic. Similarly, in the hotel when Daisy could not tell Tom that she never loved him, Gatsby lost his temper. These two men went down a path destined for failure, chasing money to secure the love of their life. The author uses Gatsby’s inevitable failure to draw the audience into his love story and make readers optimistic for his future with Daisy. Fitzgerald characterizes Gatsby as a determined man who only had one goal in his life and would give anything to achieve it. The author created Gatsby in his likeness to tell his own story.

In the book, Gatsby believes that he can become rich by working hard and that will lead to the perfect life. For Gatsby’s funeral, Nick invites anybody he can think of, “But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came.” (Fitzgerald 133) Gatsby had been so focused on his wealth, he had nobody with him in the end. His downfall was devoting his entire life to winning Daisy back and this ruined him. In parallel, When Fitzgerald wrote the Great Gatsby, he had an almost perfect life. He had worked his way up in society, fallen in love, obtained a good job, and become a successful author. (Mizener) The decade after the publication of Great Gatsby was not so perfect. Fitzgerald began to drink too much, his wife had a mental breakdown, he wrote an unsuccessful book, and eventually he got a divorce. This is ironic because when Fitzgerald was creating Gatsby’s character he only saw the successful part of Gatsby’s life reflected on himself, but as time went on he began to embody the latter, more desperate portion of Gatsby’s life. The American dream failed both of these men. 

While the book is titled The Great Gatsby, this story is told through Nick’s perspective. The author uses Nick’s point of view to tell Daisy and Gatsby’s love story from only details provided by the other characters. This engages the reader and forces them to come up with their own idea about what is going on beyond Nick’s observations. At the first party Nick goes to, Gatsby asks to meet Jordan alone. She says, ““It was — simply amazing,” she repeated abstractedly. “But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.” (Fitzgerald 42).  Because Nick cannot see what happened in the meeting, the reader is left to infer what Gatsby told Jordan that night. Nick’s point of view also proves to be a crucial part of the story when he sees Tom tell Daisy that they are going away. Gatsby doesn’t know about this and Nick cannot manage to tell him. This allows Gatsby to live in his fantasy longer and believe that Daisy is going to come back to him. The author wrote the book this way to portray the deception of the American dream through the lies that Nick hears. 

Near the end of the novel Nick says, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him…” (Fitzgerald 138). Gatsby worked his whole life with the sole purpose of having Daisy love him. He dreamed of their perfect life without knowing he had already lost it. Fitzgerald fills this story with: character’s persistence and shallowness, Nick’s perspective and thoughts on events, connections between himself and Gatsby. He employs all of these choices to deliver his message that the American dream will lead to failure. 

Works Cited

FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT. Great Gatsby. VINTAGE, 2021.