Gatsby American Dream Consequences

The Great Gatsby, a Story of the American Dream and its Consequences

In The Great Gatsby, one of the many works literature by the late American Jazz Age writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald, the opulence and fast-paced lifestyle of America’s Roaring Twenties is brought to full display. During this era of post-war economic expansion, a golden-age of opportunities and growth of the consumer society led to the sudden amassment of wealth and capital for many people, leading them to pursue the American Dream— the ethos that, regardless of their current socio-economic status, it is always possible to achieve a more prosperous and brighter future through one’s ability and hard work thanks to a lack in social division. Yet, as the American writer James

Set in this period of financial boom in New York City; East and West Egg, the nearby upper-class neighborhoods on Long Island; and the destitute wasteland of the Valley of Ashes, Fitzgerald created many characters of various backgrounds and wealth, some who have already achieved the Dream, as well as those who failed to do so. However, in the age of materialism and extravagance in The Great Gatsby, the message of the American Dream seems to have deteriorated into the amassment of money through whatever means necessary, just so one can get richer. Through the use of the geographic settings of the novel and their symbolic representations, Fitzgerald presents the corruption of the American Dream through a complete loss of morality, continuous lies and deceits, and the constant and insatiable

The city, even today, can be said to be the symbol representing the American Dream and freedom with the Statue of Liberty’s famous inscription of “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” (Lazarus 10-11), implying the ideal of a brighter future that is synonymous with the American Dream. As Nick described it in Chapter 3, he learns to love “the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye” (Fitzgerald 3). However, beneath the flashing lights of the metropolis, New York is the symbolic representation of a total loss of morality on the part of its inhabitants and visitors. First of all, Nick, the morally upright character— one that follows his father’s commandant to “remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1) before judging anyone— becomes tainted with the lack of morality in New York City. This is presented in the party he attended with Tom and Myrtle, Nick mentions the fact that “I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon” (Fitzgerald 2). Even for Nick’s upbringing and articulate nature that is seen for much of The Great Gatsby, he became enthralled by alcohol in his visit to New York. This shows the degenerating effect the city has