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Examples Of Greed In The Great Gatsby

1649 Words7 Pages

In The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald shows how society gets corrupted trying to achieve the American Dream through the characterization of many characters like Gatsby. Jay Gatsby was a man who rose from nothing to being extremely wealthy, many would consider him as someone who has reached the American Dream. However after so much work he never really got the one thing that made him happy. Many critiques like Fussel argues that Gatsby is corrupted by the values and attitudes he holds in common with the society that destroys him. Others like Callahan and Gunn believe that the Great Gatsby tries to convince people that money and success is everything but they failed in the end by showing how miserable Gatsby is without Daisy. The American Dream can give off a false hope that if you have reached success and …show more content…

He seems to have everything a person could want from a lavish home, to many friends and grand parties. However, Fussel in his book “Fitzgerald’s Brave New World” explains that Americans view of the American Dream is corrupted and false. This is due to people’s ignorance towards the real reason for human happiness. Americans do not realize that money does not buy you happiness. For example Jay Gatsby influenced the way that Americans viewed the American Dream. He did this by doing everything he could to reach wealth and success in hopes of gaining Daisy back who he believes is with Tom because of his wealth and success. Fussel states that Gatsby is pathetic. He believes that Gatsby does not live life for himself. Gatsby not only tries to imitate the life of others but while doing so he does not realize that his image of a perfect life will never be reached because it’s an unrealistic one. This is shown in “The Great Gatsby” through Tom’s and Daisy’s life. This is the life that Gatsby envisioned living. He saw himself as being the winner and being married to Daisy and living in a

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