The Idea Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The Idea of the American Dream In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader goes about the life of a young man named Nick Carraway, who then follows along with the adventures of the character, Jay Gatsby. This novel revolves around the idea of the American Dream, or in other words, the pursuit of wealth. It also reveals other layers and shows the consequences and social decay that come along with this idea of the American dream. Yet many people of the middle class were striving for money and power, Fitzgerald illustrates the American Dream more as villainous than glorious. The idea of wealth and power in The Great Gatsby are seen as goals the middle class wished to obtain, Fitzgerald associates these ideas with corruption and immorality and reveals the truth behind pursuing the American dream. To begin with, the rich were careless, unforgiving, and dishonest people. These characters don’t care much

Instead of explaining the characters as these glorious people we look up too, Fitzgerald portrays them as negligent and fraudulent. One event that happens in chapter two is that Nick goes to one of the great Gatsby’s parties. This party is full of people (mostly aristocrats), they lie about almost everything and are quite impertinent, “I am one of the few honest people I have ever known.” (59). Nick gives the reader an idea that the characters of the upper-class in this novel do not tell the truth. Leading back to how money acquires to dishonesty and carelessness, this surely does affect Mr. Gatsby. No one knows much about him and then when asked about his past, he lies. At one point, Gatsby explains that he went to Oxford but Nick can tell by his voice that there was no truth in this fact. This shows that even though these characters have money and power they do not have the guts to reveal the truth behind their