The American Dream In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

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The founding fathers of the United States declared that “all men are created equal”. Based on these beliefs The United States prides itself on lack of aristocracy and equal opportunity, which is basically all what the American dream represents. In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates an American society that contradicts this pride, which displays debauchery, inequality, and the hypocrisy of the American society. When Nick Carraway came back from the east after the summer of 1922, he was disgusted with what he’d seen. Only one man was exempt from his disgust, that man being Gatsby. Fitzgerald utilizes deep characterization and symbolism to elaborate themes of the American dream to illustrate what the American dream stood for and what it truly …show more content…

In the opening pages of the novel Nick affirms “Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men”(Fitzgerald 6) that “dream” Nick is describing is the American dream. The previous quotation illustrates how Fitzgerald views the American dream. Where he views that there will never be enough money, love, and fame because every time we get what we thought we wanted we realize we want more. Because what we really want is to go back in time to someplace where we felt safe, sometime before we discovered violence and corruption. Sometime when we were happy, pure, and innocent. But for Gatsby the relentless pursuit of that dream only leads to more violence, corruption, and ultimately his death. In addition this has to do with all the lies and evil deeds he has done to get to Daisy. “You can’t repeat the past…Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously…Why of course you can!”(Fitzgerald 116) Gatsby’s dream is to win back Daisy ,and recreate the past. Gatsby believes the key to the beautiful future is the perfect restoration of the beautiful past. The tragedy in the Great Gatsby isn’t that he can’t recreate the past, but that he pursues an unworthy dream. Therefore if we could “run faster, stretch out arms farther….And one fine morning”(Fitzgerald 189) there will still be foul dust in the wake of the

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