Corruption In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the corruption of the American Dream, which involves America as a new Eden, a place of opportunity and optimism and a place where personal triumph prospered. The novel follows Nick Carraway as he narrates the life of Jay Gatsby and Daisy and Tom Buchanan in East and West Egg in the summer of 1922 through the symbolism of colors in the vegetation myth. The vegetation myth is the cycle of the seasons; Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice. Fitzgerald uses the evolution in the symbolism of the colors in the Vegetation myth to show the unreachable American Dream, the refusal to give up one’s desires and the dissatisfaction/emptiness of the upper-class led to the

“On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it” (179-180). The white steps symbolize the Winter Solstice of the Vegetation myth, the ending of the renewal/vegetation cycle. Gatsby’s pursuit to reach his American Dream with Daisy finally ends. These white steps with an explicit word on them show the way Gatsby’s purity and success he worked to have for Daisy was disillusioned because Gatsby wanted to recreate his and Daisy’s past and, in the process, he became corrupted. The obscene word on the pure, white steps of Gatsby’s home shows the way the American Dream has been corrupted/disillusioned through people’s greed; the obscene word represents the corruption, and the white steps represent the American Dream. Fitzgerald uses the white steps to also show the façade of innocence and respectability that the upper class presents to the outside world, while the obscene word is a reminder that the upper class had a fake sense of innocence and respect. Through the use of the white steps and the obscene word, Fitzgerald shows the way the American Dream became disillusioned because of people’s unreachable desires and their search for those desires, such as Gatsby’s wish to be with Daisy, which was ultimately, his downfall. After Gatsby’s funeral, Nick went to Gatsby’s home for the last time and stood

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (180). The green light represents the Spring Equinox of the vegetation myth, because the bright green color originally represented the renewal of Gatsby’s life with Daisy. Gatsby wants to recreate the time he had with Daisy. However, this representation changed. Throughout the novel, the green light evolved to represent the unattainability of Gatsby’s American Dream with Daisy. Both the green light and the green leather interior of Gatsby’s car represent a desire he can never fulfill; the green light shows his longing for Daisy and the green leather interior represent his longing for a new life. Fitzgerald uses the green light again at the end of the novel to show us that through upper-class citizen’s unrealistic desires and their journey to achieve that desire, the American Dream became disillusioned with upper-class citizen’s dissatisfaction and the emptiness in their