ability to achieve wealth or anything if one works hard enough for it. While for others, the Dream is believed to be living a simple, happy and fulfilling life. Essentially, the American Dream is theoretically for every American individual, regardless of their race or social class. Many historians and novelists, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, have accepted that these different beliefs and set of ideals make up the core components of the American Dream. In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel, "The Great Gatsby"
After a time of prosperity, the roaring 1920’s became a decade of social decay and declining moral values. The forces this erosion of ethics can be explained by a variety of theories. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald paints a convincing portrait of waning social virtue in his novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald portrays the nefarious effects of materialism created by the wealth-driven culture of the time. This was an era where societal values made wealth and material possessions a defining element of
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald recognizes and describes many of the less alluring characteristics of the 1920's and the pursuit of the American Dream including dysfunctional relationships, materialism and classism. The American dream states that people can work themselves up "from rags to riches" by hard work.1 For this reason, the new society has developed dreams of the blind pursuit of material, wealth, and economic success. F. Scott Fitzgerald realizes this big change in
demands were shifting, but what value prominently elevated above everything else? Wealth. The widespread wealth was desired and people valued social class with such high regard that to attain these two fixations became the standard “American Dream” of the 1920’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction exposes an era of poor social and moral values, and it was a miserable desire for wealth that progressed this. Fitzgerald utilizes the setting, a combination of the time period and geography, to reveal the
the American dream is an evident theme in the novel. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses the character Jay Gatsby to symbolize the corruption that the pursuit of the American Dream holds. The American Dream highlights equality and is the quintessential idea that all humans are equal. However, this idea is perceived as an illusion. Due to the social strata, humans are accordingly placed in a hierarchy based on status and wealth. This is clearly evident in the separation between East egg and West egg
unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Jefferson writes these words in the Declaration of Independence encompassing the idea of the American dream, making the basis on which the country was built. Some people perceive America as a land of promise and equal opportunity where anyone can gain success through hard work. In addition, it dissolves the barriers between social classes and wealth. Immigrants originally came to America from other countries and
desire for happiness; a pursuit instilled in American culture since the time of the founding fathers. The Great Gatsby takes place and was written during the 1920’s (nicknamed the “Roaring 20’s”), the decade after the end of World War I when many Americans, in search of the happiness that eluded them during the war, turned to wild parties, reckless drinking, and extravagant spending. The once pure dream of joy slowly corroded into one of greed and materialism. The 1920’s was also the period of prohibition
Great Gatsby as it explores both the beauty and the corruption of the American Dream in the 1920’s. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald includes many aspects in the story which show how the pursuit for the American Dream affected
The Great Gatsby “What techniques does Fitzgerald use to convey the central ideas of The Great Gatsby?” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is primarily a social commentary on the state of American society during the post-war period of unprecedented affluence and prosperity. Fitzgerald depicts 1920’s America as an age of decline in traditional social and moral values; primarily evidenced by the cynicism, greed and the relentless yet empty pursuit of prosperity and pleasure that various characters
culture beyond anything any human had seen before. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald imbues a story with many themes and qualities from his own life, reflected in the parallels between his own history and that of Gatsby and Nick Carraway. With new, unbridled, booming economic growth, what started as the Great American Dream became a vulgar, empty, greedy pursuit of material goods. On top of this rise in national wealth, the addition of disillusioned World War I veterans looking to grab the American