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How Does Gatsby Symbolize The American Dream

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In the novel The Great Gatsby the author F.Scott Fitzgerald illustrates symbols of corruption of the “American Dream” dying. By the color gold/yellow and green by showing that the color gold/yellow is wealth and death and green is money in the novel by making them significant object in the novel. Another way the Fitzgerald showed the dying american dream is by the life of Nick Carraway, Daisy, and the main character Jay Gatsby.
One aspect of the dying American dream is found by the author is use of the colors gold/yellow and green in the story. In real life, gold symbolizes wealth and beauty but in The Great Gatsby it’s changed to richness with corruption and death. It is shown multiple times in the story like Myrtle Wilson house is yellow …show more content…

Another way in which Gatsby symbolizes the dying American Dream is the main character 's life. In the beginning of the novel, Fitzgerald starts with Nick the narrator describing Gatsby. He says, “Gatsby turned out alright in the end; it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” This is a direct reference to the American dream dying, because in that reason, that is why Nick moved back to the midwest because he moved to New York for the ambitions of becoming successfully, But this makes little sense because Nick’s family is already rich. During the civil war, Nick ancestor paid off some to serve for them in the Civil War on his behalf while he was making money. Showing the inequality of poor and the rich because many families were not able to do the same thing the Carraway. The American Dream believes that anybody able to become successful if you work hard enough. But that 's not truly shown by the example above giving the poor a disadvantage. Daisy who is crazy rich and the lover of Gatsby and the wife of pro footballer Tom tells a story about one of her butlers as an extra job was polishing silver till it ruined his nose because of the strong odors showing that wealth consumes the poor. The butler was willing to destroy his health for money, which is ridiculous. In the novel Fitzgerald writes about Nick’s first encounter with one of Gatsby crazy parties. During the party, there is a man who gets into his very expensive car after drinking who is now drunk after the effects of alcohol. Which during that time were not allowed because the setting was in the prohibition age. Ones he finally got in his car after stumbling after every step he drove for three seconds until he crashed. He kept driving even though that one of his tires falls off. To Fitzgerald, that is what the American Dream became. Another character who made his money

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