Corruption In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream by definition is “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author, shows readers the corruption of the American Dream in the 1920’s through the use of characterization, literary allusions, and symbolism.
Fitzgerald uses the character Gatsby, to show the corruption of the American Dream. Gatsby was once a poor man, coming back from war with only the clothes he was wearing, but built his way to living in a huge mansion. He threw huge parties constantly, paid thousands for drinks and servants and cars. He had a room full of real books, no fake ones in sight. He was always quiet about his past and how he exactly became so rich. Tom exposes Gatsby, yelling “I found out about you drug stores were. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn't far wrong.” (Fitzgerald 83). Readers learn that Gatsby was in business with shady people and was a bootlegger, meaning

Early in the book, when Gatsby is introduced, the guest thinks that he is a cousin to Kaiser Wilhem, who “played a decisive role in initiating the policies of naval and colonial expansion which caused a rapid deterioration in Germany's relations with Britain”. Wilhem came to power before the end of WW1, so the guest connected Gatsby to the closest powerful person at the time. Others compared him to a bootlegger which is “a hard worker, and always on the alert, and by all means must have a certain amount of self-survival. Always has to be on the lookout, and has to be on the alert. And has to do and sell what's needed to do in a hurry without getting caught.”. Some people believed that the rise to such wealth was selling things illegally. Showing that the corrupt are the ones who get