How Does Fitzgerald Present The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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How does Fitzgerald portray the corruption of the American Dream in the ‘Great Gatsby?’ In Fitzgerald’s ‘Great Gatsby’ he has portrayed how the original American Dream created by the Dutch sailors clashes inevitably with the idea of materialism and greed to fuel the our desires in life, destroying our dreams along the process. The original American Dream is that if you work hard, you could succeed in life. However, our wants are the things that blind us to what is more important throughout our lives. The author has based his novels on parties; in every chapter, there is a party, using parties. Fitzgerald introduces many characters in the novel, and further shows their character to the reader. Moreover, it depicts what kind of attitudes in…show more content…
In the 1920’s, one of the most evident factors of the decline of the American Dream is due to materialism. Fitzgerald conveys that this was the time where the original ideas of the American Dream; hope, and discovering was being substitute into a materialistic version. Nevertheless, if you “seen everything, and done everything,” the author suggests materialism can blur the way we think and live our daily life. Fitzgerald presents a major flaw that is seen in all ‘old money;’ viewing people as objects. The ‘old money’ are people who had their wealth for generations and has the higher status than the ‘new money,’ who are people that recently earned their fortune. As the readers analysis the pages of the ‘Great Gatsby’ we find out that Tom processes this flaw. This is evident when “Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand,” when she kept on repeating “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy.” Today, in the society we live in we would receive a harsh punishment if we intentionally broke someone’s nose or even hit them, however Tom didn’t. Not only, does this display how we became more civilised than in the past, it also gives the perception that Tom views Myrtle as a toy. He hits it if it malfunctions or doesn’t do what he says. In addition, Nick

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