The Corrupt American Dream By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The American Dream is what we all aspire to achieve. The idea of starting off with nothing and to become something has caused millions of people from all corners of the world to immigrate to this country for over 300 years. However, what exactly is the American Dream? F Scott Fitzgerald answers this question within his novel The Great Gatsby. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald analyses the high class of the 1920s and reveals that the American Dream has been distorted from a pure ideal of security into a convoluted scheme of materialistic power. Fitzgerald incorporates the aspects of both the Òold dreamÓ & the Ònew dreamÓ in his tragic story to depicts how the inflexible dream has been corrupted and lost forever.

As the phenomenal politician Bernie Sanders once said, “For many, the American dream has become a nightmare.” In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by Scott Fitzgerald, the “American Dream” plays a crucial role in the plot. Gatsby devotes his life to accomplish his American Dream which consists of wealth and Daisy’s love. But is the American Dream actually what it seems to be? Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald utilizes the symbolic value of the Valley of Ashes, East Egg, and the significance of the color yellow to constantly establish that opulence and the American Dream is deceiving as it leads to moral and societal corruption.

For centuries in this country people have believed that through hard work, talent and ambition anyone can acquire great wealth and success regardless of their social class and background, a concept later named “The American Dream” in 1931. However, people have been questioning whether this idea of rags to riches really is attainable to all who work for it, or if it is merely a fantasy and a myth. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to illustrate the death of the American Dream.

In the past the American Dream was an inspiration to many, young and old. To live out the American Dream was what once was on the minds of many Americans. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was presented as a corrupted version of what used to be a pure and honest ideal way to live. The idea that the American Dream was about the wealth and the possessions one had been ingrained, somehow, into the minds of Americans during the 1920’s. As a result of the distortion of the American Dream, the characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby along with many others, lived life fully believing in the American Dream, becoming completely immersed in it and in the end suffered great tragedies.

The American Dream is fundamentally the idea that anyone in America can accomplish through hard work and can achieve success and happiness. It has been expanded on through the years and now incorporates ideas of attaining freedom, wealth and power. In the 1920s when 'The Great Gatsby' was written the Jazz Age was taking hold and the American Dream became more about material possessions being used to show a person's wealth and status and to indicate that they have been successful in life. The materialism of this period of time in America corrupted the American Dream by the intense focus on gaining wealth and power and

‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ is a play of the absurd genre, written by Edward Albee in the late 1950s. Whilst ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a literary fiction, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s. Both texts use the American Dream to illustrate the corrupt culture of America in the 1920s and 1960s. The ‘American Dream’ was a term first coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931, in his book, ‘The Epic of America’. His idea of the American Dream was the ‘Dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.’ Initially, in the 1920s the American Dream focused on the motivation of individuals to achieve great success. By the 1960’s the American Dream was focused on the celebration of victory, following the end of the Second World War. The dream itself revolved around the opportunity to have children and the value of family. Many individuals aspired to live up to the ideals of family, which involved having children with a stable economic status. However, many individual’s struggled to live up to these expectations and therefore suffered from disillusionment. Both texts effectively present the American Dream as a corrupt trap, through how it blurs the difference between dreams and realities.

Founding father Benjamin Franklin described the American dream as the “pursuit of a better existence… a higher quality of life through hard work, determination, and devotion” (Benjamin Franklin). The American dream is an idea that if you work hard, you can rise from “rags to riches” and live a wealthy and prosperous life with moral values of respect and integrity. Ironically, Franklin’s version of the dream was decaying during the roaring 1920s when society became corrupt and obsessed with greed. In his classic book, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows how the American dream of “hard work, determination, and devotion” was deteriorating because society had become greedy and materialistic. In addition, moral values were in decline and that

The American dream is an ideology, a vision that’s form varies from individual to individual, based upon one’s own experiences. Although the one thing that remains constant in every single definition is that this ideology, just as the name states, is only a dream. It is meant to merely drive people to unlock their hidden potential and become their best self, for the sole purpose of living one’s out one’s own definition of success. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is Jay Gatsby’s inspiration and his opportunity, however, as the book progresses it becomes more evident that not all people share the same opportunity.

The American Dream was first evinced in the Declaration of Independence, which expresses the idea that all men are created equal with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, the phrase “The American Dream” was disseminated by James Truslow Adams, in his novel Epic of America. He described the American Dream as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.". However, in the 1920’s the meaning of the American Dream morphed from the opportunity and right to achieve a better life through hard work to the impatient attainment of material possessions. This corruption of the American Dream can be seen in the novel The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerld demonstrates the corruption of the American Dream through three social groups within West Egg, East Egg, and The Valley of Ashes.

For generations many have immigrated to this great nation know, as the United states of America, all seeking for their share of the American dream. The American dream is the philosophy that anyone can become successful through hard work and perseverance. The 1920’s embodies this concept like no other decade in American history. It is also during this time frame that one sees the perversion of this dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests in his novel, The Great Gatsby that there is a right and wrong way to obtain the American dream. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is symbolic for the materialistic nature of the American dream and its corruption in the 20th century.

Life in America during the twentieth century was seen as hopeful and prosperous to many people among the land, and many others in foreign countries longing to be in America. The American Dream during this time period is seen as one becoming financially successful while holding a high social status, along with obtaining ultimate happiness with his or her own life. The American Dream is presented through various literary works, including The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and is failed by those who try to achieve it. At the end of this novel Jay Gatsby, the main character, ends up dead, along with an honest man and his wife, thus killing the dreams each of these people were working for throughout their life. It is stated

The American Dream is an Idea of after hard work and ambition from someone who starts at the lowest social and economic class and works to achieve the highest. The idea that anyone no matter where he or she starts can become successful by the means of hard work. The Great Gatsby Novel portrays the damages to the American dream during the 1920s and how it went corrupt

In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. If you have a dream in America, you can achieve it with old fashioned hard work. Whether it’s going from rags to riches or finding love, the American Dream can offer it. But the ever-popular American dream is easily corrupted. This is greatly shown in the novel The 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

Wealth, material possessions, and power are the core principles of The American Dream. Pursuit of a better life led countless numbers of foreign immigrants to America desiring their chance at the vast opportunity. Reaching the American Dream is not always reaching true happiness. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby achieves the American Dream, but his unrealistic faiths in money and life’s possibilities twist his dreams and life into useless life based on lies.

Throughout centuries, the interpretation and perception of the "American Dream" has changed considerably and frequently. From the vision of individual betterment in 1774, to African-American civil rights in 1963, the American Dream has and will continue to alter, as the country evolves. However, the basis of the American Dream has remained the same, with the set of ideals being democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality. In addition to the ideals, the Dream is believed to be, that anyone has the 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", the American Dream is an underlying theme. Fitzgerald affirms the idea of American Dream through Gatsby 's transformation in socioeconomic classes, however, critiques the pursuit of the American Dream through sharing the perspective that the Dream is not universally attainable, and those who do achieve it, may still lack emotional fulfillment.