The downfall of the american dream

The Great Gatsby takes place during the roaring twenties a time and an era of non conformity, and a general movement of society, away from the old traditional values of the American dream. In the Great Gatsby Fitzgerald creates characters, some of which follow the true American dream and those who corrupt the American dream in the desire for wealth and power in society. Their wealth creates a false sense of security, which lead to the corruption of moral values.

During the novel, symbolism is a used to convey the moral depravity of the high class during the 1920’s. In the Great Gatsby Fitzgerald illustrates the decay of morals and ethical values upheld by those of a generation, through many unique and interesting characters. An example of this is when Tom Buchanan brings Nick to new york in order to meet his ‘ girl; which is his mistress while in new york tom takes the 3 including nick to an apartment bought specifically for his mistress. “at 158th street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment houses” (Fitzgerald, p 32). The word cake makes the reader relate to “food”. Because typically cake has a nice appearance with the white frosting and decorations on the outside, the inside typically looks different than the outside of the cake.. The white exterior of the apartment complex is representative of moral purity, as relating to the white frosting covering the outside of the cake, the interior of the apartment is described as overly lavish “so to move about was to stumble constantly”:. The apartment is obviously made only for its looks and appearance and has became a facade. The facade is what is becoming of the American dream, which hiding behind wealth and power, was corruption and lack of morals. Anothe...

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... the ending of the realistic American dream through hard work and honest values, and the decline and corruption due to society's obsession with material wealth and power.

From the beginning to end of the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explored the idea of corruption of the American dream and society during the 1920s (roaring 20s) at a time of great prosperity and hope in American. Jay Gatsby who Nick once described as “being better than all of them put together’ originally from the Midwest where traditional values were upheld, had became corrupted with his first contact with wealth and power which was daisy Buchanan. Wealth has a corrupting power that can corrupt even a character with the best intentions. To this day American society still struggles with corruption of morals as money has became a major factor in how one is judged and how much power they hold in society .