The Corrupt Dream In The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: Analyze the movie the great gatsby

Nolan Pelletier
Ms. Lehman
English 5
May 25 2014
The Corrupt Dream

The American Dream is a goal that people have aspired to achieve for many years. Frequently, the dreamer “dreams” of rising from rags to riches while also obtaining love, high status, and power. Though the dream is mostly based on freedom, and the desire to achieve something greater, the concept has also evolved over time. For instance, early settlers dreamed of “living off of the land,” homesteading, and starting families. But over time, those dreams have been morphed, twisted, and corrupted into something completely new and different. Within the last century, the American Dream has been focused on obtaining money and class status; spiraling downward into corruption for its persistent obsession with pleasure and material objects. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how one’s simple dream can be twisted and corrupted when one’s obsession is only obtaining wealth. Fitzgerald demonstrates this with the use of his character Jay Gatsby.
Gatsby’s dream is ignorant. It is based on the theory that the material objects, like money and wealth, can replace happiness, friendship and love. In the novel, Gatsby is described to be a self-made, wealthy, and romantic man. He threw lavish parties for countless numbers of people, but it was said that Gatsby had no true friends. Gatsby’s neighbor, Nick, describes him as, “a penniless young man without a past and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders” (Fitzgerald pg.149). It is true that Gatsby threw large, extravagant, and memorable parties for the people of Manhattan, but rumors claimed that Gatsby never actually attended his own parties.
Gatsby claims that his dr...

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...ng. They allowed people to get killed and hurt and didn’t even bother facing their own consequences. They just packed up, moved and forgot about everything and everyone around them. All they did was think of them.
The people that lived in East Egg and West Egg represent the corruption that materialistic desire can bring. Gatsby is surrounded by materialism and corruption and it eventually begins to destroy his dream. Gatsby’s dream is what actually leads to his downfall. People who prove that success cannot buy happiness surround him. Fitzgerald specifically shows this with his use of the characters Tom and Daisy. A marriage full of cheating and lies, both consistently searching for something bigger than what they already had, Fitzgerald successfully and effectively showed the reader how one’s dreams can be ruined and destroyed by materialistic societies.

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