Corruption Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The need for money and materialism throughout The Great Gatsby shows the decay of the American Dream.

His life represents The American Dream in the way that he was corrupted by his love for Daisy and was corrupted by money in the process. Gatsby became a bootlegger to obtain money to impress daisy. Money represents wealth which is one of the steps to achieving the American dream. Gatsby is portrayed as the tragic hero because of his love he was willing to abandon his family and change his lifestyle so he can finally be accepted by Daisy. The shirts symbolize the change in Gatsby from when he was younger to the present (poor to wealthy).

Money, power, and success have blinded people into thinking they are in love and it has led to these women being oppressed. Tom and Gatsby in this book are what is called the patriarchy. According to Revise Sociology, the patriarchy is “The systematic domination of women by men in some or all of society’s spheres and institutions.” In Tom and Daisy’s marriage; they are both having an affair, Tom wasn’t at his child’s birth, and he oppresses Daisy physically, maybe by accident, and socially, by not allowing her to go wherever she wants to go. In Tom and Myrtle’s affair; they are both married, yet they have this affair, she is dependent on him because he oppresses her economically and psychologically, and he also oppresses her physically when he broke her nose.

After his first marriage failed, he spends millions upon millions building an opera house for his second wife, an upcoming singer; Kane hired only the best for his darling. But, she too fails to fulfill his idealistic world and gives up on her career. Kane ends up buying a palace isolated and away from the real world. This is exactly what Gatsby does to attract Daisy, and like Gatsby, Kane gets it completely wrong. His second wife is becomes unhappy with all these gifts, and expresses to Kane, “you don 't really love me, you want me to love you!”

"The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream." In this quote, by Azar Nafisi, it explains how dreaming can be tainted by reality, and that if a person doesn’t compromise they may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes present. The American Dream that most people in this book hope to have involves wealth, status, a fun social life, and someone to lust after. It is the life they all strive to have until they obtain it and see its meaningless composure.

Gatsby is in love with Daisy, and bought his mansion across the bay from hers and throws these extravagant and large parties as a way to capture her attention. Gatsby has been trying to get into contact with Daisy for quite a bit of time, all without her knowledge. Although Gatsby wishes to be with Daisy, she is married to Tom and so far has expressed no desire to end her marriage, despite how badly Tom treats her. Gatsby enlists the help of Jordan Baker and Nick as a way to reunite him and Daisy.

Fitzgerald was very clever in the sense that he created the sad ending which tends to stamp on reader’s mind more tenaciously than happy ones. First, the novel expresses a cautious belief in the American Dream. As mentioned above, Gatsby believes lavish life will help him win the love, but ultimately, Daisy has fled with Tom. At the end of the novel, Gatsby dead, along with George and Myrtle, and only the rich alive, the novel has progressed to a charged, emotional critique of the American Dream.

Dreams are not guaranteed to come true. Myrtle Wilson, MYRTLE WILSON THE WHORE OF A WIFE, dies before achieving any of her dreams. She had an affair with Tom Wilson as an attempt to bring herself closer to the wealthy upper class, but she was never happy with what she had. In this novel, dust is a symbol representing the poor and desolate. When Myrtle dies, her blood is united “with the dust” (137, ch. 7), signifying how dissatisfying her life was.

Likewise, Michael’s mother does not approve of such a marriage and she says: “[…] I never knew till this day it was a black born fool I had for a son” (TW II. 34). Despite the scorn of his mother, Michael eventually decides to marry Sarah because, like a bourgeois, he has patriarchal economic reasons for tying up his woman as wife as she earns a great deal of money. She is good at selling and, unless married, she might leave him for another man. “He wants to keep possession of her sexual favors and her earning ability” (sternlicht.73). To his mother he says: “If I didn’t marry her, she’d be walking off to Jaunting Jim maybe at the end of the fall of

But Daisy the women he wishes to reconnect with is married to a man that is wealthy his name was Tom Buchanan. Both of them love Daisy a lot and will not let her go. The outcome of them not letting her go led them to awful decisions to win over Daisy. However they show different characteristics to accomplish there goal of getting Daisy. Gatsby is trying to win Daisy while Tom is trying to stay married to her.

to do that now because he has money. He can afford a beautiful wife who can bare him with more children if he pleases. However, the part that is so shocking is that O-lan has stuck by Wang Lung’s side throughout his ups and downs. But as soon as he is wealthy again she is not good enough for him, he could have bound her feet an bought her oil for her hair and small things that could make her more beautiful but instead he found another women that was more beautiful. Then he yelled at her as if it was her fault that she wasn 't beautiful like the rest of the wealthy men’s wives.

The discontent once again becomes apparent directly before the occurrence of the mortality-inducing car crash that killed Tom’s lover, especially demonstrated with Daisy’s venomous comment to Tom, “‘you’re revolting’”(131). By making this remark, Daisy made indisputably clear the negative sentiments she harbored for her husband. The Buchanan marriage seemed to be crumbling, the romantic facade appeared to finally breaking down to reveal the couple’s incompatibility. Overall, Daisy and Tom’s marriage was a hasty decision that led to both the individuals’ dissatisfaction. Due to her wealth, Daisy especially felt pressured by societal expectations to sacrifice her optimism in order to maintain her position in the Jazz Age hierarchy.

The American Dream, as portrayed in the Great Gatsby, was the idea that one can achieve prosperity through hard work withal of their social class. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is an indirect satire of the American dream. The death of the American Dream is depicted through the characters in the novel.

The American Dream, many strive to get it, some people come close, but not everyone truly reaches it. The novel Great Gatsby focuses on many aspects of the American Dream, what was achieved, how it affected people, and how lives were changed because of the dream. In the novel, the narrator portrays his experiences hanging out with old money and new money. Old money were people born into wealth, or who earned their way into being successful.