Corruption Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Throughout the entirety of the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many things are suggested about the American dream. As well as this, many things throughout the book symbolize this dream, and the state of it. The state of the dream is not good, and Fitzgerald portrays that greatly through Jay Gatsby and the people in his life. The Great Gatsby is a book that has many different themes and quite a few different symbols, making it a very interesting read. F. Scott Fitzgerald mainly implies that the American dream has been corrupted by materialism, and that people who pursue this dream are usually just superficial and like to flaunt their belongings. All these people chasing the dream want is tangible, expensive items. They want items to prove they are wealthy, and they flaunt it. As well as this, throw all of their money away in order to have ‘friends’. This is shown through the many people in Gatsby’s life and the story, including Myrtle and Tom.

One specific symbol that I gathered for the corrupted American dream is the valley of ashes, which is explained in Chapter 2. In this, Fitzgerald writes “This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcended effort,

Gatsby ended up getting killed simply because to the American dream. This is because he only gained all of this wealth for Daisy. The reason his death falls on his love for daisy is because Daisy hit Myrtle with a car, which kills her. Gatsby is willing to take the blame because of his intense love for her. Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, ventures out to find his wife’s killer, and finds himself at Gatsby’s mansion, where he kills Gatsby and then himself. Gatsby would have never died like this had he not chased the American dream of wealth and love. Because of the dream, he met his tragic