Significance Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby
The True American Dream
The Roaring Twenties was a new era of over indulgence in materialistic things in life. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, follows the story of Jay Gatsby, a man who is driven to win back the love of Daisy Buchanan, the women of his dreams. Jay Gatsby builds social status and wealth in hopes of fulfilling the American Dream and eventually has an affair with Daisy only to lose her again, along with his life. Through the characterization of Daisy, Gatsby, and Myrtle Wilson, Fitzgerald suggests 1920’s immorality is a direct result of the corruption of the American Dream in which the Dream is reduced to the acquisition of possessions.
To begin, Jay Gatsby is an ambitious man who takes part in illegal and immoral …show more content…
Despite Daisy’s beauty and charm, she is selfish and shallow and does not care about anyone but herself. Daisy uses Gatsby as a play toy to get back at her husband for his affairs knowing that she would never actually leave Tom for Gatsby. Daisy makes a foolish remark to Gatsby, “She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw” (Fitzgerald 119). Daisy loves to tease Gatsby, and in this moment she plays with his heart right in front of her own husband. Daisy ends up running over and killing Myrtle Wilson with Gatsby’s car and does not even look back to see if she is okay. One resource, written by Jacqueline Lance, provides an example of Daisy’s immorality. Lance explains, “Not only does Daisy’s careless driving result in fatality, but it leads to other deaths that could have been prevented had she claimed responsibility for the accident” (Lance 29). Lance speaks to the highly immoral incident of Myrtle’s death at the hands of Daisy. Once Daisy returns home, she conspires with her husband. Nick Caraway, the narrator, describes the conversation between the two by stating, “They weren’t happy… and yet they weren’t unhappy either” (Fitzgerald 145). The lies about how she kills Myrtle, along with conspiring with her husband, ultimately lead to the death of
The Roaring Twenties was a new era of over indulgence in materialistic things in life. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, follows the story of Jay Gatsby, a man who is driven to win back the love of Daisy Buchanan, the women of his dreams. Jay Gatsby builds social status and wealth in hopes of fulfilling the American Dream and eventually has an affair with Daisy only to lose her again, along with his life. Through the characterization of Daisy, Gatsby, and Myrtle Wilson, Fitzgerald suggests 1920’s immorality is a direct result of the corruption of the American Dream in which the Dream is reduced to the acquisition of possessions.
To begin, Jay Gatsby is an ambitious man who takes part in illegal and immoral …show more content…
Despite Daisy’s beauty and charm, she is selfish and shallow and does not care about anyone but herself. Daisy uses Gatsby as a play toy to get back at her husband for his affairs knowing that she would never actually leave Tom for Gatsby. Daisy makes a foolish remark to Gatsby, “She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw” (Fitzgerald 119). Daisy loves to tease Gatsby, and in this moment she plays with his heart right in front of her own husband. Daisy ends up running over and killing Myrtle Wilson with Gatsby’s car and does not even look back to see if she is okay. One resource, written by Jacqueline Lance, provides an example of Daisy’s immorality. Lance explains, “Not only does Daisy’s careless driving result in fatality, but it leads to other deaths that could have been prevented had she claimed responsibility for the accident” (Lance 29). Lance speaks to the highly immoral incident of Myrtle’s death at the hands of Daisy. Once Daisy returns home, she conspires with her husband. Nick Caraway, the narrator, describes the conversation between the two by stating, “They weren’t happy… and yet they weren’t unhappy either” (Fitzgerald 145). The lies about how she kills Myrtle, along with conspiring with her husband, ultimately lead to the death of