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Broken Dream
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, there are many themes of American society explored, but the most prevalent is obtaining the American dream. Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby struggles to live his own version of the American dream. The dream of high social status, wealth, and past love ultimately leads to the down fall of Jay Gatsby.
Gatsby is not born into wealth and tradition, but into a lower social class than that of his love, Daisy. After returning from the war, Gatsby decides that in order to court Daisy he must obtain wealth. Gatsby meets Meyer Wolfsheim, a known gambler, and a shady character. Gatsby tells Nick of Wolfsheim,” He’s the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919” (78). Later on in the novel Wolfsheim tells Nick of how he met Gatsby as a poor young soldier just back from the war, “I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter” (179).Fitzgerald leads the reader to believe that Gatsby’s wealth has been acquired through illegal activities.
“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (43). Gatsby’s parties became the place to be on Saturday nights. Daisy is a materialistic girl, Gatsby hopes that in throwing all these parties Daisy would one night stumble in. Gatsby does not even attend his own parties but gains social status by word of mouth about how great his parties are. People that are not even invited show up.
When Gatsby gives Daisy the tour of his mansion, she is overwhelmed by his wealth and how he has changed from the soldier she once knew. “While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher-shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue”(98). This showcase is not even about shirts, but Gatsby showing off his materialistic property to impress Daisy. Daisy is a very shallow character and this is...