Inequality In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream, a concept where success and prosperity are achievable by anyone through hard work and determination regardless of their initial social status, has been a cornerstone of American culture for decades. However, America’s never-ending inequality proves that reality is far removed from this idealistic notion. Two works of literature that explore inequality and the inaccessibility of the American Dream are F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 classic novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’ and Alex Gibney’s 2012 documentary film ‘Park Avenue: Money, Power and The American Dream’. While both works examine and highlight the factors perpetuating inequality in America, ‘The Great Gatsby’ hones in on the wealthy classes’ obliviously lavish lifestyles underpinned

Through stylistic and metaphorical characterisation of the fruitless pursuit of the American Dream, upper-class entitlement and deep-rooted inequality, audiences witness the empty promises cast upon Americans. The American Dream, although great in theory, is tainted by greed and ill morals that render it simply unattainable.

In ‘The Great Gatsby,’ the American Dream is represented as the promise of upward mobility and success, leading to the blind pursuit of wealth and status. Each day people “run faster” and “stretch out [their] arms farther”, showing their never-ending pursuit for the American dream. This idea is embodied by the character of Jay Gatsby who relentlessly chases wealth and success to overcome class boundaries so that he is no longer separated from his hopes and dreams of being with his former lover,

Fitzgerald employs the novel’s ‘green light’ to highlight the dichotomy between greed and love. The green light across from Gatsby’s porch physically illuminates the path to Daisy’s love. He “believed in the green light” and “the orgastic future” that it represents, yet this same path is green with greed and avarice as his longing for power and wealth are the means to an end, Daisy’s love.

Indeed, Daisy was to Gatsby what the American Dream is to Americans. Both are unequivocally beautiful in thought and sight yet impossible to be entirely obtained. Daisy, who is described as “the golden girl” with a “voice … full of money”, is a fundamentally arrogant, shallow, materialistic, and morally bankrupt person that prioritises wealth over true love. This along with the insatiable human desire for more inherently prefaces dissatisfaction, as seen by Gatsby’s downfall when his dream to relive the past becomes impossible. In effect, Fitzgerald tells readers that obtaining the American Dream is a