Fitzgerald shows the 1920’s as a time of decayed social and moral values. The things Fitzgerald said about the American Dream and the people that want it are all about materialistic thing and not things that are going to last. There was many things in the story that the characters did that showed the pursuit of the American dream was materialistic and not good. The pursuit of the American dream caused many of the characters destruction and corruption. Before the corruption of it, the American Dream was about the pursuit of happiness and individualism. Easy money and changed social values changed all of that. The pursuit of Jordan’s dream is driven by fame and cheating. Tom and Daisy live the American Dream at the costs of other peoples happiness and make sure the things benefit …show more content…
The people who live here look like they have class, dignity, and manners; unlike the west eggers. But they are no better than the newly rich. Daisy and Tom both had times when they were with other people, Jordan cheats, Daisy killed someone and let someone else be punished for it, and any of the people that come to gatsbys party from the East egg bring the other woman, or women other than their wives, and do not act like classy people. The message we get from this is that destruction is also a result of the “American Dream”. The Valley of Ashes is one way these people show they don’t care about anyone but themselves. The wealthy made money from industry and tossed the waste into what they now call the Valley of Ashes. This place and everyone who lives there are irrelevant to the ones who cause the mess, which also is a bad outcome of trying to live the American dream. The valley of ashes symbolizes poverty and people with no hope. The confrontation between Tom and George showed that the rich in this story look dow non the poor because of the difference in social
The American Dream, which remains till today, bases itself upon assiduousness and high morals. Many people from foreign and faraway countries view this "dream" as a reality and believe that America upholds these high standards. Yet, Fitzgerald clearly writes this novel to show that the linchpin that kept the dream alive has eroded away.
In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind. The heart of the whole notion of wealth lies in the setting of the novel, the east and west eggs of New York City. The west egg was a clustering of the "Nouveau riche" or the newly acquired rich, and the east egg was where the people who inherited their riches resided.
naive belief is that money and social standing are all that matter in his quest
In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald many of the characters could not be classified as a truly moral, a person who exhibits goodness or correctness in their character and behavior. Nick Carraway is not moral by any means; he is responsible for an affair between two major characters, Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. Jay Gatsby does show some moral qualities when he attempts to go back and rescue Myrtle after she had been hit by Daisy. Overall Gatsby is unquestionably an immoral person. Nick Carraway and Gatsby share many immoral characteristics, but a big choice separates the two. Daisy Buchanan is an extremely immoral person; she even went to the lengths of taking someone's life. Jay and Daisy are similar but Daisy is borderline corrupt. The entire story is told through Nick Carraway's point of view and by his carelessness it is obvious the narrator possesses poor values.
The Great Gatsby: Unfaithfulness and Greed. The love described in the novel, The Great Gatsby, contains "violence and egoism not tenderness and affection." The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, writes on wealth, love, and corruption. Two coupes, Tom and Daisy Buchanan and George and Myrtle Wilson, match perfectly with these categories. Both couples are different in the way they choose to live together, but are similar in a few ways. Unfaithfulness and greed are the only similarities the couples shared.
The salient discovery of chapter three was Gatsby and his parties. Gatsby evidently throws extravagant parties, which a myriad of people of a variety of social classes assists. From the information in chapter three, Gatsby is evidently displayed as a generous, charming, and mysterious gentlemen. However, rumors about Gatsby murdering a man juxtaposes his image of the epitome of a gentleman. Chapter four and five asserts some information about Gatsby to better understand his true identity and intentions. Both chapter four and five assert Jay Gatsby is part of an organized crime group, Gatsby is dishonest towards Nick, and he is evidently in love with Daisy, but he crafts an egregious first impression.
“The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour”(Fitzgerald 28). This is representation of the social classes and how the wealthy not only perturbedly but physically ruined the townspeople. In pursuit of their own success and happiness the affluent individuals have no regard for the others that are being dragged through their path. The valley of ashes also represents not only the rich hurting others, but themselves and making their souls hollow. In result of this it overall symbolizes hopelessness and
...m that was based more on wealth and possessions and less on hard work and achievement. The fact that he later rebelled against the material 1920s culture shows that he was in fact cautioning against this lifestyle rather than encouraging it.” This more than anything proves Fitzgerald is making a commentary on the corruption of the American Dream rather than simply the tale of wealthy lovers.
The Great Gatsby: The Destruction of Morals. In The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the destruction of morals in society. The characters in this novel, all lose their morals in an attempt to find their desired place in the social world. They trade their beliefs for the hope of acceptance.
...e the people living there because they think they are superior to them, when really they will end up just like the them if they continue to destroy the moral values of society. They are becoming more greedy and violent towards each other and it was only making things worse. There is an important sign by T.J. Eckleberg that stood out to Nick in The Valley of ashes. "But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground" (Fitzgerald 24). He described the painting's eyes as being dimmed and sad because nobody really paid attention to it for so long. Similar to how to nobody pays attention to the people who live in The Valley of Ashes. "This is a blind world because there is no source of moral vision. This is a wasteland world of exhausted hopes because the only vision to be had - Gatsby - an ersatz one."
In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald explores the idea of the American Dream as well as the portrayal of social classes. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct social groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating two distinct social classes ‘old money’ and ‘new money’, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism underlying and moral corruption society. The idea of the American dream is the ideal that opportunity is available to any American, allowing their highest aspirations and goals to be achieved. In the case of The Great Gatsby it centres on the attainment of wealth and status to reach certain positions in life,
...ent efforts, or men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). Here, The Valley of Ashes is regarded as complete destitution and hopelessness. The people known as the lower class do not wish to live in the valley of ashes. This is why people, like Myrtle try to do anything to get away from it but instead it becomes unachievable for them. When Myrtle tried to escape from the ashes by trying to be with a rich man like Tom, she dies. This embellishes how The American dream is unattainable. When Tom goes and sees George, you can see how the higher classes look down on the lower classes because of their different social positions. The higher-class people such as, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan represent the unstructured bodies of ashes within the valley. They are inconsiderate and conceited people arising from the dead ashes, changing the American Dream.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, the 1920’s was a “throwaway culture, in which things (and people) are used and then abandoned” (Evans). This is true of the lives of the wealthy elite who ruled the East and West Eggs, causing the domination of materialistic thought. The substitution of money for integrity ultimately provided a way for corruption to take deep roots in the characters. The frivolous lives and relationships described by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby depict the emptiness of the shallow 1920’s era.
The American dream has an inspiring connotation, often associated with the pursuit of happiness, to compel the average citizen to prosper. In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s infatuation for Daisy drives him towards wealth in order to respark his love. Due to Daisy’s rich background, the traditional idea of love became skewed because of the materialistic mindsets of people in the 1920s. In the novel, the wealthy are further stratified into two social classes, creating a barrier between the elite and the “dreamers”. Throughout the novel, the idea of the American dream as a fresh start fails.
The unhappy and careless people of both the East and West Egg represent the immorality and corruption that wealth can bring. Gatsby’s dream was ruined by his own materialistic views. His dream of success transformed into a nightmare that ultimately led to his death. Gatsby and the Buchanans are proof that wealth does not equate to happiness or success. Gatsby’s romantic idealism is so great that he does not understand how wealth cannot bring happiness or love. Fitzgerald’s novel is great reminder to those with materialistic views about the detrimental effects the “American dream” can have on society.