The small passage above is something I found while writing an entirely different final assignment about wealth and poverty, but this passage made me want to write about The American Dream in The Great Gatsby. I like how this blog says by the 1920s the dream has been ruined into a need for money, getting it any way possible. This is so true in The Great Gatsby. For example, Jay Gatsby seemed to get most of his money from bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition. He felt he needed this money to have a happy ending with Daisy. In the end, money did not bring him the happy ending he wanted. His money attracted Daisy but it did not seal the deal between them.
Instead of striving for equality, people just want to see how rich they can get. Nowhere in the book does it talk about equality.
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Scott Fitzgerald shows that people are not yet treated equally like the American Dream is supposed to be like and that social discrimination still exists, which ties to a scene in chapter 2 where Tom and Wilson talk to each other. To me it seemed it was clear right away that Tom sees himself as superior to Wilson. We learn that Wilson wants to sell Tom’s old car. Tom seems to continue a little game with Wilson, he can keep coming to the garage saying that he’ll give the car to Wilson only to see Myrtle, Wilson’s wife, and Tom’s lover. In order to be able to keep showing up at the garage, he doesn’t give the car to Wilson. This is the conversation between Wilson and Tom;
“When are you going to sell me that car?”
“Next week; I’ve got my man working on it