Corrupting the American Dream in The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author establishes materialism and wealth as a corruption to the American dream. The American dream embodies the idea of self-sufficient, honest and intelligent individual with a happy successful life. It is also the idea of the pursuit of happiness but Daisy Buchanan a wealthy aristocrat goes after the empty pursuit of pleasure, portraying her character as a disillusionment of the American dream and how much it lost its good values. The wealthy are blinded by all their money, such as the Buchanan’s who forget the real idea of the American dream leading them to having no morals or values. The money gives them the ability to walk all over others, careless of whom they hurt and affect. Daisy Buchanan represents the corruption of the American dream; her careless actions resulted in destroying the ones around her. Although Daisy appears to be full of light and kindness, she is truly self-centered. Fitzgerald develops his social commentary on the idea of wealth corrupting morality and the American dream through the lack of values that Daisy embodies.

Daisy is Gatsby’s American dream; she is the symbol of perfection and became the center of his life. As a wealthy aristocrat Daisy is almost bored of her lifestyle, she was never fully content with her life, therefore she took advantage of Gatsby, because he was a distraction and brought excitement in her life. She showed affection towards him but in the end just manipulated him for her own personal pleasure and needs. She has been leading Gatsby on with this notion that they will be together, but she knows she would never leave her husband Tom Buchanan for Gatsby. She is manipulating Gatsby throughout the whole novel until he ...

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... her wealth as well as appearance,
She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except for me. (130)
Despite her affection for Gatsby, Daisy still chooses to stay with Tom because of Gatsby’s shameful past and his connection to bootlegging and crimes, even though she’s also aware of Tom’s affair, which implies her lack of intellectualism. Tom and Daisy don’t care enough about their relationship emotionally to be bothered by indefinites, which establishes the lack of values they embody. Daisy is presented in a manner where she lacks morality and proceeds without conscience; she is selfish and doesn’t value others. Fitzgerald conveys wealth as being a corruption of morality and destroying the good values the American dream embodies though the characterization of Daisy.