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What Does The American Dream Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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The American Dream during the 1920s transitioned from being all about moral values to wealth and statues. In James Adams writing “The Epic of America,” the American Dream is an elusive fantasy that brought destruction and corruption upon the people who desired power, wealth, and happiness. Power and wealth corrupted people’s minds by believing a fantasy, which would later turn into reality. The American Dream that Gatsby desperately wanted to live up to was the one object of his affection, Daisy. His love for Daisy consumed his whole life and lead to his disillusionment. The repetition of the green light symbolizes Gatsby’s dream of having Daisy and living a perfectly life. It is ironic how he died looking at the green light because he captured …show more content…

When Myrtle first got married to George Wilson, she thought that she was crazy about him and thought that they were happy being together, but the desire for a luxurious life is what lured Myrtle into having an affair with Tom. Myrtle found out that George was porror than she had expected and proceeded to cry because she thought he was rich. This shows how she only cared for his money and not for who he really was. She has the hope and desire for a perfect, wealthy and famous type life that she thought could mask her ordinary life with George Wilson. She believes that Tom is the ideal picture perfect man that represents the advertisement of the American Dream. This decision harms her marriage with George, which leads to her death and loss of true happiness. It was later found that Daisy was the one that hit Myrtle with her car, which resulted in the demise of Myrtle. It is ironic how Daisy was the one that killed her, since Myrtle was having an affair with her husband, Tom. This shows how the desire for a luxurious life and having the American Dream only caused destruction in this novel, and destroyed almost all the characters lives because in the end none of them were actually

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