The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Recommended: American dream as a concept

Gatsby is a character in the short novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, who is used as an example of a victim of the American Dream. According to Joseph Yumang from Coastlinejournal.org believes that American Dream has rapidly changed, “Advertising, the power elite and the media, however, have diluted people’s ideas about success, making them believe that wealth, power and fame are the only paths to the American Dream”. Jay Gatsby is a man living the so called “American Dream”, he owns a large Mansion, spends money like crazy, has large parties every week, has clothes of every color and style, he has everything any person would want. His wealth was not inherited nor gotten in a morally right way, it was instead pouring in from his illegal underground liquor business during the Prohibition. This business gave Gatsby the unlimited funds needed to afford the things he could and live the lavish life amongst the wealthy. Gatsby had the fame of being a mysterious guy with many speculations of his past. Gatsby knew every important person in New York and every important person knew him; almost nobody from the lower social class knew who he really was until his death but one thing was certain, Gatsby's name was known by all. He lived the life of what most people would call the American Dream, but in reality it did not bring him happiness. Gatsby did not start at the top of the social class ladder, instead he had to climb up little by little until he finally made it to the top. Before Gatsby’s rise in power he created his own higher class persona. With the change of persona Gatsby went from Jimmy Gatz to Jay Gatsby who is a fictional character created to fit in the higher class. Gatsby wealth, fame, and social class is what most peo...

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.... He greatly believed that if he was able to convince Daisy that he was the right “perfect” man for her she would go with him. Gatsby had almost accomplished what he was looking for until his true face of corruptness and fake past was revealed he lost everything, happiness was not in his grasp anymore from then and there. Fitzgerald used Gatsby's social status to prove that even with the accomplishment of making it to the top of the social class stairs it is not enough to truly find happiness or the “American Dream” of making it to the top. Gatsby was a victim believing that if he could also reach the same class as Daisy he can have her but Gatsby's flaw was that he was born in a poor class and Daisy in a higher class from the start. With that disadvantage Gatsby had to fake his style and his attitude, he transformed from Jimmy Gatz to the fake character Jay Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
377 Words | 1 Pages
In F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the pursuit of the American dream in a corrupt period is a central theme. This theme exemplifies itself in the downfall of Gatsby. In a time of disillusionment the ideals of the American dream are lost. The classic American dream is one of materialism and when Gatsby incorporates Daisy, a human being, into the dream he is doomed to fail.
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curious way, and as far as I [Nick Carraway] was from him I could have
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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald