The Lost American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

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The Lost American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Critics agree that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is not only a social commentary on the roaring twenties but also a revelation of the disintegration of the American Dream. Jay Gatsby embodies this smashed and illusionary dream; he is seen as a “mythic” (Bewley 17) individual, as “the end product of the American Dream” (Lehan 109) and as a representative of “man’s headlong pursuit of a dream all the way across a continent and back again” (Moyer 219). The factors that contributed to the destruction of this American fantasy are materialism, moral waste, and spiritual transgressions. As a direct result of this fallen hope, the characters search in vain for fulfillment in wasteful and trivial pursuits. Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream by as a pure fairy tale.

Many critics question what Gatsby’s role is in this text is and how it applies to the American Dream. In Marius Bewley’s “Scott Fitzgerald’s Criticism of America,” the critic argues that Fitzgerald is able to “mythicize” Gatsby by never permitting him to “become soiled by the touch of realism” (Bewley 14). Bewley believes that Gatsby is “a creature of myth in whom is incarnated the aspiration and the ordeal of his race” (Bewley 17). The critic, therefore, is not solely citing America for Gatsby’s desire for the ideal but instead his “race” or creator for making him wish these unattainable wishes. Continuing with this idea, Bewley implies that Gatsby’s mythic qualities present him as “less as an individual than as a projection , or mirror, of our ideal selves” (Bewley 24). Thus, Gatsby, in Bewley’s opinion, is a reflection of all human aspirations. On the contrary, Joyce Rowe believes that Gatsb...

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... edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 104-110.

McAdams, Tony. “Ethics in Gatsby: An Examination of American Values.” In Readings on The Great Gatsby. edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 111-120.

Miller, James E. Jr. “Fitzgerald’s Gatsby: The World as Ash Heap.” In Critical Essays on Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. edited by Scott Donaldson. Boston, Massachusetts: G.K. Hall & Co. 1984. 242-58.

Moyer, Kermit. W. “The Great Gatsby: Fitzgerald’s Meditation on American History.” In Critical Essays on Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. edited by Scott Donaldson. Boston, Massachusetts: G.K. Hall & Co. 1984. 215-28

Rowe, Joyce A. “Delusions of American Idealism.” In Readings on The Great Gatsby. edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 87-95.

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