With booming economy in the U.S.A. after “the war to end all wars”, the American dream of gaining title and wealth was in the minds of many Americans in the 1920s. Despite that, our author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, thinks differently from the majority. Through Jay Gatsby’s views by others, corruption, and greed, skilfully crafted by Fitzgerald, the reader will explore the futility of the American Dream in the “Booming Twenties”.
To portray the futility of the American Dream, Fitzgerald wanted to make a clear gap between the new wealth and the old wealth by using Gatsby and his “Old Wealth” counterparts. Fitzgerald created Tom and Daisy as Conservatives, which they have shown many times that they do not view Gatsby, who was a newly rich, as a person of same class, neither do they fond of the way of him obtaining his wealth nor the way he was spending those money. In chapter six, where Nick, Tom and Daisy was at
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Even in the “Roaring Twenties, money does not come around easily to the poor; Gatsby tried to reach his American Dream, through illegal means, by selling alcohol as a bootlegger. Despite trying to keep up a façade, Tom exposed Gatsby’s identity in chapter seven when he stated: “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter”. Furthermore, Gatsby’s acceptance of criminal activity is abnormal. In chapter four, where a normal person like Nick was introduced to Wolfsheim, he was overwhelmed and asked: “Why isn’t he in jail?” Nonetheless, Gatsby answered nonchalantly: “They can’t get him, old sport. He’s a smart man.”, acknowledged the fact the Wolfsheim is a criminal. Through Gatsby’s criminal activities and his acceptance of crimes due to his love for Daisy, Fitzgerald has successfully portrayed that Gatsby is corrupted due to his race for the American Dream, which further disdain