Gatsby

If one where to skim over the surface while analyzing “The Great Gatsby” they would most likely conclude that Gatsby is a romance, focused on the fickle love of Daisy and Gatsby. However, if one is to dig deeper, they will discover that it is not really a love story at all. In fact, the main intention of “Gatsby” is not to entertain, but to tear down the distorted image of the American Dream brought upon by the gross prosperity of the 1920’s. Though this story takes place over a short period of time, this symbolic work manages to expose an entire era for the tactless, materialistic shadow of happiness it is. This was Fitzgerald’s goal when he wrote “The Great Gatsby” and one he ultimately succeeded in.
1920’s are shown by Fitzgerald to be a time of increased pessimism, gluttony, and endless pursuit of meaningless pleasure. Moral and social values have deteriorated; everyone has slipped into a frenzied state of disillusion. The wild parties thrown incessantly, such as the ones put on by Gatsby himself, are the result of this time in which the American dream was thoroughly corrupted by the unbarred desire for money, power and pleasure wiped out the more principled intentions. At the end of WWII the young soldiers returning from the bloodshed found themselves disgusted by the Victorian social morality typical of the early 20th century. The dramatic and sudden increase in the stock market led to the increase of wealth across the nation. People where becoming wealthy almost overnight, regardless of culture or background. This is what ultimately led to the new materialistic ideals found in American culture at the time. Consumerism shot through the roof as people began buying and spending at never before seen frequencies. Families thro...

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...nor Americans are able to bring back the happiness they craved.
Nick compares the green bulk of America rising from the ocean to the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Just as Americans have given America meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with a kind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Gatsby’s dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object—money and pleasure. Like 1920s Americans in general, fruitlessly seeking a bygone era in which their dreams had value, Gatsby longs to re-create a vanished past—his time in Louisville with Daisy—but is incapable of doing so. When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values have not decayed.