How did society's attitudes affect the attainability of the American Dream for Gatsby? The economic boom in the Roaring Twenties changed the direction of the American Dream, forcing people to focus on one prized possession, money. F. Scott Fitzgerald used this idea to detail what life was like during the 1920s, when he wrote his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby. In the book, each character lived in a specific place on Long Island that represented their social status. Tom and Daisy Buchanan lived in the East Egg, which was “old money”. Jay Gatsby and Nick Carroway signified “new money” in the West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes, where George and Myrtle Wilson lived, was the working class. Fitzgerald kept up with the concept of symbolism and …show more content…
‘You’re one of that bunch that hangs around with Meyer Wolfsheim” (Fitzgerald 102). Gatsby would do anything to get Daisy, which is why he was involved in illegal actions. After Gatsby and Daisy regained touch for a while, Tom became suspicious of Gatsby’s intentions with Daisy and revealed his conclusions when Gatsby wanted Daisy to say that she never loved Tom. Tom was confident that he had Daisy under his control because of his social status and his inherited money. Gatsby had to “steal” his money, in order to buy Daisy’s love. In some ways, Gatsby is one of the only characters within the book that truly has any sense of morality, as the article “American Dream In The Great Gatsby” stated, “He should be called as ‘great’, because he treated people sincerely, and his love towards Daisy was true. But his illegal business and the deteriorating society destroyed him and his dream without any mercy.” With the way that society acted during the time, the only way that he could have a shot at achieving his American Dream was for him to be immoral. By gaining money, he started attaining her lifestyle, although he was still unable to be with her. Tom and Daisy never fully reached happiness, even with their vast amount of handed-down money. If people had better