American Dream In The Great Gatsby Essay

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The ideal American dream, to many, could typically mean wealth, success, happiness, and a general form of prosperity. This ideal, as explored in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, can be dissected into so much more. Jay Gatsby, one of the story’s main protagonists, is first introduced through his extravagant parties; He functions as an enigmatic presence until his first speaking role in Chapter 3. These parties, thrown every Saturday night in his giant fortress, exemplify opulence and jubilance through wild jazz music and pops of champagne at every corner. The deeper thematic meaning of these parties, however, identify Fitzgerald’s cynical view of, how he coined the term, the “Jazz Age”. During the Roaring Twenties, shortly after the end of World War I, there was a sudden rise in the stock market which led to the upbringing of new wealth in those who may not have previously been so privileged. …show more content…
This new shock of wealth created a moral confusion, portrayed in the greedy social climbers who attend Gatsby’s parties and, incidentally, most everyone of some type of wealth during this time period. Additionally, the skewed view of the American dream can be paralleled with Gatsby’s infatuation with attaining the ultimately unattainable, Daisy Buchanan. This obsession of Gatsby’s, which remains the sole purpose of his maintaining of these parties in hopes that Daisy would eventually make an appearance, proves to eventually lead to his demise and the fall of this so called “American dream”. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s view of the American Dream as portrayed in The Great Gatsby is cynical, as shown in his exemplification of old wealth and new wealth and the moral corruptness that follows it, as well as Gatsby’s inability to see the truth for what it really is; all the money in the world could not buy Daisy Buchanan’s love

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