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People often allow dreams to fulfill their ambitions. However, the search to achieve one’s dreams can often be corrupted along the way resulting in the loss of the dream in its entirety. Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his main character Nick Carraway, an outsider that has moved east, to observe and depict the corruption surrounding him amongst the other characters. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores through literary techniques such as characterization, point of view, and symbolism that the american dream is ultimately lost.
Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby’s dream was corrupted by his love for Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor and one true friend throughout the novel, observes:
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“Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers…” (Fitzgerald 91). Gatsby’s nervous actions in response to seeing Daisy--such as his almost breaking the clock--is symbolic of trying to stop time to be with Daisy and relive their pasts, as Gatsby is still caught up in a fantasy. Nick also observes: “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (Fitzgerald 101). Through Nick’s point of view he is observing that Gatsby’s infatuated fantasy of his love for daisy has blinded him from seeing that he has already lost her. Gatsby and Daisy’s love remains in the past but Gatsby is too blinded by his fantasy to realize that he has already lost his dream. In addition, Tom states: “‘He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (Fitzgerald 141). Through this statement Tom is characterizing Gatsby as a criminal; Gatsby took part in the bootlegging business in order to earn the wealth needed to fit Daisy’s materialistic, affluent lifestyle. In the search to achieve his dream of attaining Daisy’s love, Gatsby corrupted himself. Tom’s affair with Myrtle and his power-hungry obsession with wealth contributed to the loss of other characters dreams. Through NIck Carraway’s point of view Fitzgerald characterizes Tom Buchanan as having “Two shining, arrogant eyes” and “a body capable of enormous leverage--a cruel body” (Fitzgerald 11). Nick’s characterization is significant in identifying Tom’s megalomaniac persona. Nick also observes: “Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing in impassioned voices whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy’s name” (Fitzgerald 41). Tom cheats on his wife Daisy, with the married Myrtle Wilson not only corrupting himself and Myrtle, but also hindering George Wilson’s dreams. Through Nick’s perspective he characterizes Tom as assertive in controlling his mistress which is an example of Tom’s need for a sense of power. Myrtle being killed took away part of Tom’s egotistical sense of power, his affair. Tom is characterized by Nick as morally bankrupt and fittingly represents the true meaning of corruption within his character. Thus, Tom’s affair with Myrtle and his power-hungry obsession with wealth contributed to his own corruption and the loss of other characters dreams. Daisy’s materialistic obsession resulted in her short-lived affair and her reckless behavior.
In a retelling of Jordan Baker’s past she depicts to Nick through her point of view: “The largest of the banners and the largest of the lawns belonged to Daisy Fay’s house” (Fitzgerald 79). Daisy came from money and was taught to live life through a materialistic manner; consequently, Daisy could not marry Gatsby because he was not wealthy enough. Gatsby retells the car accident to Nick from his point of view: “...first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back” (Fitzgerald 151). Daisy’s recklessness resulted in the death of Myrtle Wilson. Nick characterizes Daisy through his observations: “For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery…” (Fitzgerald 158). NIck is observing from his point of view that Daisy is superficial and has lived in a fake, “artificial world” her whole life. Daisy’s actions not only resulted in the killing of Myrtle Wilson, but also in the killing of Gatsby’s dream for her heart. Therefore, Daisy’s obsession with wealth and her reckless behavior resulted in her own …show more content…
corruption. George Wilson’s dream of moving out west was corrupted as a result of the other characters reckless actions ideally representing the fleeting American dream. George Wilson tells Tom Buchanan about his dream when he says, “‘I’ve been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go west” (Fitzgerald 130). Early in the novel, George shares his one true dream with Tom Buchanan. Later in the novel, Nick observes from his point of view: “...he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night” (Fitzgerald 167). The “dissolving night” is symbolic imagery of Wilson’s last diminishing hopes. George Wilson is so distraught after his wife’s death he cannot differentiate between God and an advertisement. Finally, Nick observes from his point of view: “...the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete” (Fitzgerald 170). All of Wilson’s dreams of moving west with his wife were corrupted from the reckless actions of other characters, and after killing Gatsby--in an attempt to avenge his wife’s death--Wilson took his own life. Thus, Wilson’s character perfectly resembles a first hand incidence of the loss of the american dream. In the end, Nick finds that eastward expansion has accounted for the loss of the american dream.
Nick learns from his point of view as an outsider that: “...this has been a story of the West, after all--Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life” (Fitzgerald 184). Nick's point of view in the novel helped him understand to the fullest extent all of the corruption, misfortune, and loss of dreams that occurred as a response to the characters change in setting from moving East. After Gatsby’s death, Nick feels: “...the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction” (Fitzgerald 185). In the end, the east became so corrupted for Nick it altered the way he looked at life once before. Finally, Nick depicts the idea that: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning--” (Fitzgerald 189). Throughout the novel, the green light Gatsby believed in is symbolic as his love for Daisy but Nick comes to realize that it truly represents every american’s bleak, fleeting dreams. Therefore, Nick finds that eastward expansion has accounted for the loss of the american
dream. In conclusion, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald teaches the reader that the american dream is ultimately lost. For one of the first times people were trying to move east to find opportunity and wealth but it resulted in moral bankruptcy. All of the characters in the Great Gatsby, besides NIck, corrupted themselves in the search for their dreams and lost in the end. Sometimes the search for one’s dream fails but they can then learn from their ambitions that did not prevail.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that has a large focus on the ideas of the American Dream and social class in the 1920s. In the novel, the people of West Egg and East Egg are people of the upper who have earned money either through inheritance or working hard and have had many opportunities to make their American Dream a reality. The people of the Valley of Ashes are people of lower class who have little to no money and have to work all their lives to make ends meet. Even though both social classes strive for the same thing, The American Dream, neither of them will ever truly achieve it. Fitzgerald uses a vast contrast in the settings of East Egg, West Egg, and The Valley of Ashes to display the reoccurring theme of a pre-set social class and to expose the false reality that the American Dream presents upon society.
The two were young lovers who were unable to be together because of differences in social status. Gatsby spends his life after Daisy acquiring material wealth and social standing to try and reestablish a place in Daisy’s life. Once Gatsby gains material wealth he moves to the West Egg where the only thing separating he and Daisy is a body of water. It is through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, that the reader gains insight into the mysterious Jay Gatsby. In Nick’s description of his first encounter with Gatsby he says, “But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” The reader soon discovers that the green light is at the end of Daisy’s dock, signifying Gatsby’s desperation and desire to get her back. Gatsby’s obsessive nature drives him to throw parties in hopes that his belonged love will attend. The parties further reveal the ungrasping mysteriousness of Gatsby that lead to speculations about his past. Although the suspicions are there, Gatsby himself never denies the rumors told about him. In Nick’s examination of Gatsby he says, “He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.” This persona Gatsby portrays shows how he is viewed by others, and further signifies his hope and imagination
In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives the reader a glimpse into the life of the high class during the 1920’s through the eyes of a man named Nick Carraway. Through the narrator's dealings with high society, Fitzgerald demonstrates how modern values have transformed the American dream's ideas into a scheme for materialistic power and he reveals how the world of high society lacks any sense of morals or consequence. In order to support his message, Fitzgerald presents the original aspects of the American dream along with its modern face to show that the wanted dream is now lost forever to the American people. Jay Gatsby had a dream and did everything he could to achieve it however in the end he failed to. This reveals that the American dream is not always a reality that can be obtained. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power through imagery, symbolism, and characterization.
The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the degradation of the American dream through the loss of humility and rectitude.
... Nick makes a small funeral for Gatsby and Daisy does not attend it. He took the blame for her, and he is dead all because of her, he sacrificed for her. She and Tom decide to travel and take off. Also Nick breaks up with Jordan, and he moves back to Midwest because he has had enough of these people, and hates the people that were close to Gatsby and for bareness, emptiness, and cold heart they have of the life in the middle of the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick realizes, and reveals that Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was ruined by money and un-loyalty, dishonestly. Daisy all she cared about is wealth, she chased after the men that have a lot of money. Even though Gatsby has control, influence, and authority to change his dreams into making it into real life for him this is what Nicks says makes him a good man. Now both Gatsby’s dream and the American Dream are over.
Fitzgerald makes a bold statement to a dreaming crowd. He argues through Gatsby’s example that as dreams become as “colossal” as imaginably possible, they will become increasingly more disconnected from their realities. Gatsby lives a life “lost to the old warm world, pa[ying] a high price for living too long with a single dream” (Fitzgerald 169). Fitzgerald argues that while dreams can serve as guidance towards an ultimate goal, they can also lead to a pitiful downfall. Gatsby lives with a dream that guides him towards recapturing his love for Daisy. However, the money that Gatsby needs to recapture Daisy blinds his love for her. He loses sight of the ultimate goal of his dreams, just as Fitzgerald must have seen in the hopeful eyes of ambitious young Americans. Poor, underprivileged people were developing dreams for better lives for themselves. But, in order to have better lives, they became too fixated on the means of getting there. Their dreams became blinded by money and became misguided from the ultimate goal of bettering oneself. Thus, through Gatsby’s tragic nature, Fitzgerald argues that the American Dream becomes ultimately unobtainable by the material means required in pursuit of the ultimate goal of a successful and prosperous
He wants to marry her,but because of this problem to reach her standards. Once he reaches his goal of gaining the appropriate amount of wealth,he buys a house which is close to hers “Gatsby bought that house so Daisy would be just across the bay(p83).”He throws huge,extravagant parties,in hope that she might happen to show up at one of them. Gatsby does not actually even attend these parties,as he is not much of a socializer,instead he only watches them from a distance,inside his house. After a while Carraway,the narrator of the novel,who is a cousin of Daisy. After some discussion Nick agrees to set up a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy.
In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, men fight over a woman. To stay financially secure, they go into illegal business. Dreams are crushed and lives are lost.
Purpose: is to show the unattainability/deterioration of the American dream. The American Dream is originally about the discovery of happiness, but by the 1920s, this dream has become corrupted by the desire for wealth by whatever means; mistaken that money will bring happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald does not us the words “American Dream” in the novel, The Great Gatsby, but it is evident that he shows the impossibility of achieving happiness through the American Dream. Fitzgerald demonstrates this through the green light that Gatsby strives but fails to obtain. Gatsby is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream is, by society becoming corrupted by greed and materialism.
In the opening pages of the text, we are introduced to the main characters through the believable and trustworthy narrative of Nick Carraway. We discover that Nick is a moral character who is disenchanted with society after returning from the East. Throughout the text, Fitzgerald uses Nick's narrative to guide our response to the central character of the text, Gatsby, whom Nick states, "represents everything for which I have unaffected scorn." Nick's narrative also reveals the weak and shallow characters of Tom and Daisy. Nick's ability to recognise this emptiness and compare it with Gatsby through imagery shows the effectiveness of Nick's narrative. The strong image of Gatsby reaching out toward the green light can be juxtaposed to Tom and Daisy whom Nick describes as being "careless people." Nick's references to Daisy's voice and his attraction to her voice as "glowing and singing", emphasises that we can trust him as a narrator as he too is vulnerable to temptation and worldly beauty. This concept of Nick being a character that is "within and without" leads us to trust him as he does...
After a 5 year rise to wealth and finally acquiring Daisy’s attention, we can see that Gatsby’s luxurious life of a dream led to a downward spiral to his inevitable death. Daisy is the embodiment of the corrupted American Dream, completely consumed by the material world. Murtaugh states that “Daisy is fatal to Gatsby due to her involvement in Myrtle’s death, and therefore Fitzgerald evokes the fatal quality of the materialistic American dream”, which means that Gatsby’s downfall is simply connected to him obtaining the American dream, which to him was Daisy. If Nick’s portrayal of Daisy, a careless woman who was fully consumed by materialism, was unreliable, all Daisy becomes is a “.woman caught in a complicated situation with two men she loves” and no longer a simple embodiment of the American dream. If Nick’s narration was deemed unreliable and did not portray the representations the characters were labelled as, Fitzgerald’s purpose of the novel is lost.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, The major theme is the collapse of the American dream. The American Dream consisted of money, lots of money. The Quote, "Her voice is full of money," is said about Daisy by Gatsby. To me this means that she has been raised rich and will always remain rich, which is the American dream. Gatsby believes that Daisy's voice is full of money and that is very addicting to him. It is the reason he is so attached to her, she is Mr. Gatsby's American dream. Like all people, Gatsby tries to grasp this American dream and to do that he has to convince Daisy that she should be his, if he could accomplish this task, then he could achieve this dream, but what happens if he does accomplish this and is still not happy.
Through Fitzgerald's use of symbolism, expectations, and relationships, he explores the American dream, and how it is an illusion that corrupts and destroys lives. Through Fitzgerald’s symbolic description of Gatsby, he explores the extent of the American Dream’s deceptive nature that slowly destroys a person and his/her morals. During the Roaring 20s it was very common for people to project illusions to mask who they truly were; to fit in, it was almost essential to have one to survive in the highly materialistic and deceitful society. Nick is introduced as the objective narrator of the novel.... ...
It never crosses Nick's thoughts, that setting up and condoning an affair is a moral corruption of traditionalist and religious values. Nick does this through the exchange of Gatsby and Daisy’s secret meeting, which Nick says, "I'm going to call up Daisy tomorrow and invite her over here to tea. What day would suit you?" Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby presents a realistic picture of the society he perceives around him. The idea of the American Dream is achievable, although most often is hard to accomplish, and everyone’s own interpretations and expectations make it a near impossible task.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald employs the use of characters, themes, and symbolism to convey the idea of the American Dream and its corruption through the aspects of wealth, family, and status. In regards to wealth and success, Fitzgerald makes clear the growing corruption of the American Dream by using Gatsby himself as a symbol for the corrupted dream throughout the text. In addition, when portraying the family the characters in Great Gatsby are used to expose the corruption growing in the family system present in the novel. Finally, the American longing for status as a citizen is gravely overshot when Gatsby surrounds his life with walls of lies in order to fulfill his desires for an impure dream. F. Scot. Fitzgerald, through his use of symbols, characters, and theme, displays for the reader a tale that provides a commentary on the American dream and more importantly on its corruption.