F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic, The Great Gatsby takes place during golden decade of American known as the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s book portrays human nature, the realities of life, and the American Dream. The American Dream is the ideology that everyone can achieve success equally through hard work, determination, and ambition. However, The Great Gatsby is a novel about segregation of high society and the limits of opportunity for those who are not born into the elites. When Nick first talks about Gatsby he states, “No—Gatsby turned out all right in the end; it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrow and short-winded elations of men.” This “foul dust” he is referring to, is the American Dream. Gatsby’s let this desire for the American Dream take over him because he felt it would make Daisy love him again. It can …show more content…
Nick earned his money, not through hard work, but through his ancestors who paid someone to serve in the Civil War on their behalf. This in turn, allowed Nick’s ancestors to earn their money by taking advantage of the circumstances during the war while others fought his battle. His ancestors did not fight for their country, but benefited from its devastation, this is not equal opportunity. Gatsby earned his money through bootlegging and fake bonds. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are immensely rich, but deserve none of this money. Nick tells us,” They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . .