Is The Great Gatsby Still Relevant To Today's American Society

We all like to believe that hard work and persistence pays off. The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that includes many themes such as wealth, love, dissatisfaction, and most importantly, the American dream, and how it’s really only a dream. The characters, especially Gatsby, are trying to achieve this dream of a perfect life throughout the entire book. It becomes apparent that instead of reaching the success they desire from the hard work that they put in, they destroy their entire lives and relationships with one another in the process. Unfortunately, this story is not too far off from something that could happen today. The story and themes from The Great Gatsby are still relevant in today’s American society. The biggest part of the American dream is to become successful. However, a lot of Americans just define being successful as being wealthy. “‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it... (Fitzgerald 120).” In this quote, Gatsby says that Daisy’s voice is “full of money,” and this is very interesting to Nick. After Gatsby makes this remark, it clicks in Nick’s mind for the first time. He also notices

Many people in America have always been reaching far and high for success, but many people also have a specific definition of success, which is wealth. Just like in the story, relationships in present day are very flawed. People choose to marry someone who is rich instead of someone who they really love, and many couples cheat on each other. Unlike what many people would like to believe, money cannot always buy you happiness. Instead of trying hard to reach a goal of immense wealth and a perfect life all the time, try to do what makes you happy, live for now, and never take anything in life for