Corruption Of The American Dream

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CORRUPTION OF THE AMERICAN DREAM The United States of America is well known to the world as an Empire of Liberty and prosperity. In other words the American dream, the dream that promises any person from anywhere in the world can come to the United States of America and find happiness, wealth, power, and prosperity. This was done through hard work, perseverance, and self-reliance. A recent example would come from the current leader of the world the 44th president of the united states Barack Obama. Barack Obama Sr. came to the United States in nineteen sixty from Kenya to pursue his dream. While he was studying he met an American woman, Ann Dunham and got married to her and had Barack Obama Jr., The couple then separated in 1964 and Ann was stuck raising her child alone, but through hardship Ann raised her son. As of now, Barack Obama is the current president of the United States. As you can tell, Barack was just as ordinary as any human being in this world. Through hard work and perseverance Barack became what he is today. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the novel The Great Gatsby illustrates through his artistic and creative writing how the corruption of the American dream can happen. Fitzgerald uses clash between social classes, fading moral values and symbolic metaphors to show how the dream can be corrupted. The meaning of the "American Dream" has changed over the course of history. The American dream was about economic independence and social advancement. As Professor Matthew Warshauer’s essay Who Wants To Be a Millionaire shows. “For many the goal was not extravagant wealth, but, rather, economic independence and the opportunity for social advancement through financial gain.” (p.1). The clash between "Old Money" and "New Money" manifests itself in the novel's symbolic geography. East Egg represents the established older rich families. West Egg
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