Examples Of Corruption Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

While nothing is inherently wrong with Fitzgerald’s choice to depict her as a sensuous women, the problem stems from his tendency to only characterize her as so. Stereotyping is harmful to the female identity and how women are perceived in society, which is why The Great Gatsby is a prime example of sexism amongst classic literature. Daisy and Gatsby later kill Myrtle after accidentally running her over with their car. Even though she has family, a sister who was mentioned earlier in the book, Fitzgerald chose to focus on her husband’s discovery that “Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world and the shock had made him physically sick” (Fitzgerald 132). Her husband’s reaction to being cuckolded and Tom’s reaction to losing his mistress, which is later mentioned in the novel as well, is given more precedence than the death of Myrtle herself.

The Hopeless American Dream Human Nature is inherently corruptible. We take naturally good things and we twist them until they take on a different meaning entirely. To me, the concept of the American Dream should be food for a starving man, and warmth for a cold one. It should be someone being able to acquire something that they don’t have, but desperately need. Some might say the Dream is the stereotypical nuclear family living in a quaint house with a white picket fence, or the opportunity to be whoever or whatever one wants.

Through the empty lives of three characters from this novel—Myrtle, Daisy, and Jay Gatsby—Fitzgerald shows that chasing hollow dreams leads only to misery. All Myrtle wants is a perfect and luxurious life. The

The Facade of the American Dream The American Dream is the opportunity for all Americans to live a life of personal happiness and material comfort, but is it actually achievable? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a story of characters working hard to achieve the American Dream, but ultimately they are unable to ever realize their perfect life. The novel makes a strong naturalism argument about the rigid class system in society and the disillusionment of the American Dream.

I. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is depicted as a mirage due to its ultimate lack of fulfillment, outsider’s inability to obtain it, and the corruption it causes. A. Those who have achieved their idea of the American Dream are ultimately unfulfilled emotionally even though they possess tremendous wealth. B. The American Dream is a mirage, and thus unattainable as it limits success of an individual by their class and ethnic origin. C. Not only is the American Dream exclusive and unfulfilling, but it also causes corruption as those who strive for the American Dream corrupt themselves in doing so and the old rich hide behind their wealth in order to conceal their immoralities.

"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 it that if you don 't compromise you may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes in this book. The American Dream that most people in this book obtains to have is wealth, statist, a fun social life, and someone to lust. It is the life we all strive to have until we obtain it and see it 's meaningless composure.

Tom purchased expensive gifts for Myrtle, such as dresses and jewelry. When Myrtle’s husband finally learned she was having an affair, she ran, “out in into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting” (160). However, the driver was not Tom, but Daisy, and Myrtle was hit and subsequently killed by the car, ending her dreams of wealth. By having the affair with Tom, Myrtle had sealed her own fate. Her husband George loved her, but Myrtle wanted more than just love.

Every action she takes is to create her fantasy, allowing her to miss the enjoyments of the world that are real. Her husband that loves her is deemed only as a hurdle in Myrtle's mind making her avoid the opportunities of happiness that already await her. Myrtle's sad affliction with her dreams of riches reaps the joys out of her life. Myrtles empty soul is torn between two worlds, one real and unappreciated and the other a smoke of imagination. Fitzgerald uses symbolism to emphasize her double life in physical terms.

In opposition to Gatsby, Myrtle is only trying to please one person­­­—herself. She feels stuck in her marriage to Wilson and desperately longs for an escape. When she stumbles into Tom on the train, she instantly knows he can help her attain her ideal life. Myrtle can be described as a gold digger. She showcases this through her actions: having an affair with a man who can give her a glamorous lifestyle.

The american dream is what brought everyone to this country, the dream that if they worked hard enough that they to could be rich and have everything that they ever desired. This idea brought thousands of people but how much evil is done to achieve what is desired. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about the chase for the American Dream and reveals the corruption that comes along with that chase and is demonstrated through the characterization of Gatsby and Myrtle, the symbolism of the yellow objects, and the setting of the Valley of Ashes. Jay Gatsby has one goal in life, one dream that he has based his whole life on accomplishing, and that is winning Daisy back. He realises that daisy is attracted to the wealth and luxuriant lifestyle.

Before meeting the man who would show her what living with a lot of money was like, Myrtle was just a simple woman. Her life might’ve been very monotonous, but at least she was living a good enough life. Some might argue that money did bring her a lot of happiness and didn’t destroy her happiness, but that is wrong because her infatuation with living in riches is what causes her to die, destroying any happiness she could have ever experienced in the future. The narrator states in chapter seven that Myrtle while speaking to George Wilson exclaims, “‘Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!’ " A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting before he could move from his door the business was over.”(pg. 137).

Myrtle downright ignores her own husband, “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost” and approaching Tom with a smile on her face (Fitzgerald 25-26). Though Myrtle and her husband have been married for a long time, Myrtle never got the money and status she wanted. As soon as she met Tom, all she could see was the money that surrounded him. In fact, she even changed her clothes around Tom, “attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room” (Fitzgerald 30). Myrtle often tries to come off richer than she is, proven by her various outfit changes in a small party where she wants to “prove herself a woman of Daisy's status through a melange of color, fashion, and commodities” (Goldsmith).

These people! You have to keep after them all the time" (Fitzgerald 35). Myrtle believes that acting like a snob makes her sound wealthy or fancy. Acting the way she does isn’t fooling anyone. She will still be poor and married to George in the end.

The American dream has been an ideal for many generations. Yet this “dream” Is quite deceptive. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Jay Gatsby to portray the American dream as empty, materialistic, and unattainable. Emptiness is obvious in The Great Gatsby, everyone “living the dream” is extremely unhappy. For example Gatsby throws extravagant and lavish parties that everyone attends will everyone except the one person he wants there.

The American dream stands as a symbol for hope, prosperity, and happiness. But F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, examines the American dream from a different perspective, one that sheds light on those who contort these principles to their own selfish fantasies. Fitzgerald renders Jay Gatsby as a man who takes the Dream too far, and becomes unable to distinguish his false life of riches from reality. This 'unique ' American novel describes how humanity 's insatiable desires for wealth and power subvert the idyllic principles of the American vision. Jay Gatsby is the personification of limitless wealth and prestige, a shining beacon for the aspiring rich.