Great Gatsby

"Evaluate The Great Gatsby as a criticism of the corruption of the American Dream."

Quoted, the American Dream is “a national ethos of the United States of America in which democratic ideals are perceived as a promise of prosperity for its people.” The American Dream is seen as a state of life thought up in the birth of the American nation, believed to be in the near-distant future and be fulfilled for all. The dream was of a land in which life would be democratic, and life richer, fuller, and with opportunity for everyone as an equal. Simply put, in the words of a famous historian, the American Dream can be summed up as "Life, Liberty and Happiness." This is the American Dream.

In the Great Gatsby, things are quite the opposite. In this book things are seen only from the New York west egg perspective. This side of town is secluded from anyone and everyone else. In the book, The Great Gatsby world centers around the image of east eggers and west eggers in New York. The time is the 1920's, and business is hopping, for those in business. The rich mingle with other wealthy civilians, and the poor dealt with being poor among those similar to them. This reality is as far as possible from an "American Dream."

The American Dream is thought to have hollowed around the time when World War I ended. This can be pinpointed to the time that stocks shot up and wealth was spread. "New money" citizens, not used to such wealth, celebrated and quickly became adapted to living the good, rich-spent life -- a little too quickly adapted. Soon, socializing became the only concern. As said in Gatsby, when people realized Gatsby wouldn't be holding any more parties, they wasted no time waiting. Even at Gatsby's funeral, none of the regular party-goers came. After all, who would want to waste time at a funeral for a man who on the surface is a man whose party you'd attend?

Surely, you'd think, that the love story between Daisy and Gatsby for a time, at least, seemed natural. However, this "love" was only skin deep. The two came from separate social statuses, as Gatsby is actually not the riches he seems to be. Gatsby, strung up on this love for Daisy, goes as far to resort to a criminal lifestyle in order to keep his parties every saturday night in order to get Daisy's attention. Daisy hordes material goods, crying at the mere sight of "beautiful shirts" flung around by Gatsby. The two, alone or together, are a corruption of the Dream.

Could this be fulfilling to the so-called, "equal, democratic, prosperous American Dream," the type of life America was expected to be? Well, it should be obvious at this point that the Great Gatsby defied this. At this time it becomes apparent that the entire point of the book was to note how the American Dream has corrupted into a society of selfish arrogant people, only concerned of their reputation and how high they are on the ladder, or how fancy or classy their lives are: an American nightmare.