Adams’ depiction of what constitutes the American Dream provides a juxtaposition when contrasted with the negatively-portrayed underlying theme in these two classics of American Literature. In The Great Gatsby Scott F. Fitzgerald frames a story set in the iconic jazz-age of the Roaring Twenties. After a victory in the Great War, the quintessential era was seen as a prosperous time of extravagant parties and new beginnings when everything, including the character of Jay Gatsby who gives name to this novel, seemed possible. However, lost within the whirlwind of his own dreams Gatsby’s glory plummets under his unwavering faith in the American Dream. Offering a stark contrast and almost a decade later, John Steinbeck develops a world stuck in the Great Depression where its …show more content…
Gatsby may have notable distinction and affluence to an extent so outrageous George and Lennie are not capable of even dreaming, nevertheless it all stands as a pretentious charade. Jay Gatsby has indulged in a farce, a material life entirely planned to try and seduce back the beloved love of his life, whilst George and Lennie are stuck living in the prospect of fulfilling their dreams rather than in the present moment. Instead of living for today, the protagonists in both novels have devoted their whole lives to the likelihood that their dreams might just become true. The dream soon dies however, for all three protagonists, as it is concurrent with Fitzgerald and Steinbeck’s permeating notion that the American Dream merely develops to yield negative outcomes. The scope of this essay will focus on analyzing the different strategies used by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck in his novella Of Mice and Men that criticize the American Dream as a futile conception of an ideal which only serves to deceive its