Significance Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The idea of what the American dream is has been extremely convoluted throughout history, as massive turns in events have affected how and why to strive to achieve it. From what the author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald,has stated regarding at-the-time interpretations to the newest generation having very abstract and concrete visions. To what extent are Fitzgerald’s interpretation and those of Americans today different and to what extent are they similar, are what many look into. Fitzgerald’s idea of the American Dream and numerous modern interpretations of it are although not exactly the same, they are very similar.
With the American Dream, the core idea is that working hard equates to a higher chance of success, but the American

Within the Great Gatsby, one of the main characters, Jay Gatsby, is first thought out to be one of the rag-to-riches success stories that the American Dream supposedly thrives on, but then it is later revealed that Gatsby acquired his wealth through illegal means. This is an important critique on the dream as it is not only found in fiction, but throughout the world, while there are many men who did acquire their money through blood, there are near as many earning their money through the spilling of it, showing how much easier it is to give in to temptation in order to make a quick buck. As is stated by one of the locals in (Source C), “The American dream is long gone. Long, long gone. Politicians have ruined it, broken our values, sold out to folks with money who only care about themselves”. That is the waking nightmare the country faces, a country where the powerful gained their power through temptation and evils that spit in the face of many Americans trying so hard to follow the dream. Of course, the biggest argument against this, especially by powerful politicians, is that their actions are for the “greater good” of the people. One must then ask, who are “the people” to them, as this is a wealth commonly shared among elites who profit off of misfortune of the common