The Great Gatsby Research Paper

In a time of prosperity and opportunity during the 1920, America was sitting on the edge of a booming economy and diminishing success. This notion is seen all too well in the story about Jay Gatsby, a rich gentleman, who desires a woman named Daisy but is already married to Tom Buchanan. Gatsby tries to attract the attention of Daisy through over-the-top parties and the flaunting of his wealth, but nothing seems to bring her to his side. Ultimately, Gatsby's actions and conflicts during the novel uncover the illusion and reveal the dark truth of the American Dream of the 1920s. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses his characters to critique the American Dream through their moral choices. Specifically, the character Jay Gatsby suggests

Gatsby’s family was dirt poor and as someone describes it, “he had no such facilities” and he had “no comfortable family standing behind him.” (Fitzgerald 149). The phrase “no comfortable family” demonstrates that Gatsby reached his wealth all on his own to achieve the American Dream that everyone dreamed of, but Gatsby was lucky. The American dream overshadows the inequality of opportunity that many Americans experience. Like Gatsby was, many people are dirt poor and don’t have the opportunity or chance to touch the American dream, which is covered by the fact of all the corrupt rich people America harbors. Not only did Gtasby struggle in his childhood, but he got robbed of money that was entrusted to him. His mentor and father figure, Dan Cody, who taught him everything that was to life, had “a legacy of twenty-five thousand dollars.” and in the end “millions went intact to Ella Kaye.” (Fitzgerald 100). The money was intended for Gatsby, but because Gatsby didn’t know the legal system, Ella Kaye got all the money. This reinforced the idea of the inequality of opportunity to reach the American dream, that if you are not rich or knowledgeable of the real world, nobody will acknowledge you and try to gain as much profit as they can from

Not only is there the inequality of opportunity but also a corrupting influence of wealth happening in the novel. This is evident when Gatsby gets stopped for speeding and he takes “a white card from his wallet” and the policeman lets him go, saying “Know you next time” (Fitzgerald 68). The way the police let him go because Gatsby pulled out his card implies the special treatment that people of wealth receive. Wealthy people like Gatsby don’t follow the same rules as others, they aren’t bound by laws or regulations in society. This portrayal of wealthy people, specifically Gatsby, conveys the message that if you aren’t rich originally or came from a comfortable family you will have to follow other rules, making the American dream almost impossible to achieve through normal rules. Another instance of the type of corruption wealth does is when people try to win over each other with money like Gatsby is trying. Gatsby lied to Daisy, saying he came from a rich family and was rich himself, but that was not true. This is why Gatsby wanted to be rich “he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.” (Fitzgerald