the falling off the great gatsby’s american dream

8/9/2019 The falling off The Great Gatsby’s American Dream

1/5

Cebollada 1

Javier Cebollada Desentre

Professor Mónica Calvo

Literatura Norteamericana III

June 13, 2014

The falling off The Great Gatsby’s American Dream

One of the most notable elements in Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is the

conception of the American Dream; a well-known term whose appearance is very

present throughout the story. Despite being a non-mentioned term in the novel itself, the

author still conveys the idea of the American Dream through the employment of a brilliant sociological approach. Yet, although there is not any consistent or universal

definition, the idea of American Dream might have different meanings to different

people and its achievement is what most Americans have looked for through history. It

could be considered as an idea of one’s own prosperity and happiness, with some

common factors as hard work, good ethics and equality for all. In fact, these general

factors may not be very clear for the reader when penetrating into the cultural and

historical context of the novel, due to its constant evolution through history. In this text

the purpose of the essay is to analyze Fitzgerald’s conception of “this” American

Dream, finding out in what manner this conception has evolved or changed, and having

a look in the way it is represented on the main character, Jay Gatsby, who apparently

achieves that dream of becoming a wealthy man, but at the same time fails to reach

Daisy’s love, giving some similarities between the author and the construction of the

novel.

Given the historical situation the reader is then obliged to delve into America’s

The Jazz Age of the 1920’s, a post-war and chaotic period in which American society

was being transformed, a time of moral decay, loss of old values, where corruption was

the order of the day. All these elements are going to be reflected in relation with the

pursuit of success. This transformation is a sort of degradation of ethical values where

morality is no longer possible. Besides, this period full of sumptuous parties,

clandestine alcohol, and entertainment with lack of morality was the perfect scenario in

which the same Scott Fitzgerald would be moving himself. He took part in the moraldecadence which is criticized in his books. Apart from that, it should be noted the fact


2/5


3/5

Cebollada 3

synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty” (70). Thus, there is also a romantic

idealization of Daisy which is not reflected in reality. Unlike Nick, who eventually sees

her as superficial, selfish and careless, Gatsby still sees her as the perfect woman he met

some years ago in Camp Taylor. This idealism and “extraordinary gift for hope”

(Fitzgerald 4) leads him to have a distorted reality, as Hermanson suggests: “Gatsby

seems committed to an idea of Daisy that he has created than to the real woman she is”.

Nonetheless, it is paradoxical the way Gatsby stares at his dreams, represented

by the green light, from his mansion in West Egg, to the East Egg. This approximation

to his dreams is somehow opposite in direction to that of the traditional American

Dream, which was looked from east to west, as well as the reaching of American

frontier and the westward expansion. This also represents a kind of degradation and

displacement in the notion of the American Dream, maybe a suggestion of Fitzgerald.

There are no possibilities at this point for Gatsby to reach his goal, and the reader is

allowed to see an evident failure, evidence of the degeneration and corruption of the

American dream itself in a decadent society which will lead him to his own tragedy. So,

the unreachable green light that Gatsby observe from his mansion implies the

impossibility of reaching Daisy, even though he is very close to his goal.

The reader can eventually distinguish between the American Dream itself from

the conception of the American Dream in the 1920’s, in which hard work and good

ethics, two fundamental principles which had constituted the American dream, are no

longer visible. Instead, the dream has been degenerated to materialistic and immoral

levels. The Great Gatsby as a whole is somehow a harsh critique of a society immersed

in materialism and the consequences it has in one’s hopes and dreams; and it is also

seen as a portrayal of the Jazz Age in a sociological manner.

As a way of conclusion, it would be useful to highlight the importance of the

1920’s society’s transformation. A crude reality in which American Dream is perceived

with a typical touch of the Roaring Twenties, prevailing the excess on materialism and

the lack of morality. Although the fact that Gatsby had succeeded in reaching wealth

through unfair activities such as gambling and bootlegging, his mind seemed to remain

untouched by the corruption and decadence of the society; and his romantic vision of

reality in which he was immersed places him out from that society; Nick perceives this

and he eventually states: ‘They’re a rotten crowd... You’re worth the whole damn bunch


4/5

Cebollada 4

put together ” (164), putting Gatsby above that shallow and superfluous upper class.

Somehow or other Fitzgerald manages to convey an image of perishing dreams,

whatever the kind of dream. His pessimistic vision of failure in the quest of the

American Dream is inevitable, inasmuch as nothing can be as perfect as one could

imagine. Just as Ryan explains that “although the American Dream is admirable, it is

impossible to achieve eternal satisfaction…”(1) and after all, the American Dream is

just that, a dream.


5/5

Cebollada 5

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Views: F. Scott Fitzgerald . New York: Chelsea House

Publishers, 1985.

Changizi, P. and Ghasemi, P. “Degeneration of American Dream in F. Scott

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.” Education Research Journal . 2012 Vol. 2(2):

62-65. Shiraz University, Iran. resjournals.com 9 June 2014.

Fahey, William A. F. Scott Fitzgerald and the American Dream. New York: Thomas

Y. Crowell Company, 1973.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan , 1986.

Hermanson, Casie E. “The Great Gatsby: Major Characters, Time, Ambiguity and

Tragedy.” Novels for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. 1998 Vol. 2.

Detroit: Gale. Jan. 2006. eNotes.com. 9 June 2014.

Mangum, Bryant. “An introduction to the Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald”. Virginia

Commonwealth University Files. 11 June 2014.

Ryan, Devan. “The Great Gatsby-Term Papers”. StudyMode.com. 2011. 9 June 2014.
http://resjournals.com/ERJ/Pdf/2012/Feb/CHANGIZI%20and%20GHASEMI.%09pdfhttp://resjournals.com/ERJ/Pdf/2012/Feb/CHANGIZI%20and%20GHASEMI.%09pdfhttp://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/major-characters-time-ambiguity-%09tragedyhttp://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/major-characters-time-ambiguity-%09tragedyhttp://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Great-Gatsby-636485.htmlhttp://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Great-Gatsby-636485.htmlhttp://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/major-characters-time-ambiguity-%09tragedyhttp://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/major-characters-time-ambiguity-%09tragedyhttp://resjournals.com/ERJ/Pdf/2012/Feb/CHANGIZI%20and%20GHASEMI.%09pdfhttp://resjournals.com/ERJ/Pdf/2012/Feb/CHANGIZI%20and%20GHASEMI.%09pdf

the falling off the great gatsby’s american dream

Documents