The Role Of Corruption In The Great Gatsby

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“ To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom. ” (Maya Lin). The roaring twenties delivered times of great optimism, wealth, and corruption. In The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, The American Dream is established as the perfect recipe for achieving wealth and success, but later on turns into a force that inspires corruption. In the book we observe that the path to great wealth is not always a linear or moral one. It is also apparent that The American Dream does not just have one definition, but its meaning changes to reflect the ideas of what the individual is after. When prosperity is achieved, wealth tends to become a way to assert dominance over others in social status. …show more content…
In the case of Meyer Wolfsheim, he achieves his wealth and success by his involvement in crime related activities. Gatsby discloses to Nick one of the actions that Wolfsheim is infamous for, "Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he's a gambler." Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: "He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919." (79) This shows that Wolfsheim is a man who is able to achieve what he desires through the power of corruption. In comparison, Jay Gatsby, a man who decides to set out to achieve his American Dream after having the taste of luxury while working for Dan Cody, a rich man who prospers in the mining industry. Unlike Cody, Gatsby decides to work in the criminal underworld by involving himself with Wolfsheim in order to engage in the Bootlegging business and obtain the great wealth and success he is after. The path to attaining The American Dream will not always be a corruptive one, but the root of the corruption is mainly established in the interpretation of the phrase “American Dream” that an individual
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