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What Does Gatsby Criticize American Society

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The Great gatsby written by f Scott Fitzgerald criticizes American society from nick carraway's perspective. He designs the book so that Nick watches people's lives that should have been “the American dream” actually become a wreck and destroyed. The American dream is the belief that anyone regardless of race, class, gender or nationality can be successful in America if they just strive and work hard enough. With this definition in mind, the American dream paints a very pretty picture of the way American society is viewed, while underneath the materialistic and extravagant nature of the 1920s as we can see from gatsby's extraordinary parties American society deals with problems like racism, misogyny, tax evasion, and income inequality. The idea of the …show more content…

Gatsby spends all his time chasing his American dream, Daisy. this dream results in his death at the end. For example Daisy accidently kills Myrtle in Gatsby's car and Tom tells Wilson that Gatsby was the one who hit her. This then causes Wilson to go to Gatsby's house and kill him while he is swimming. After he killed gatsby Wilson killed himself. “It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the Gardner saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the Holocaust was complete.” (ch.8 pg 152 Fitzgerald) In the end Gatsby and Daisy were never brought back together. The “holocaust ending” is symbolic of Gatsby's fantasy life in which money can buy him his love and his friends to be over. After Gatsby dies the people he thought to be his friends left and skipped town before Gatsby's funeral. “But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them.” (Fitzgerald chap 9 pg 164). This quote backs up the idea of the false reality wealthy Americans lived in the 1920s. Tom and Daisy break away from the holocaust and simply move on with their

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