Description
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald is about a tragic love story based on selfish desires, but it has never been understood as one of the suspicious critiques of the American Dream. Within this novel, we get to know about Gatsby who puts effort to overcome his poor past and acquire certain amount of money as well as a reduced amount of social cache in the 1920s NYC, only to receive rejection s by the crowd of “old money” (Berman 81) In the Great Gatsby, the writer pens down a moment in the history of America where people had a common belief that it was possible to achieve anything. The Great Gatsby portrays the corrupted American Dream through its excessive greed and wealth as illustrated by the characters.
He does not only describe the social, economic and historical circumstances which drive the characters, but also, he provides a glimpse into the minds of the characters that they utilize as a way of justifying their actions (Roberts 71). In the Great Gatsby, the American Dream is not attainable because of the indecent actions done by the characters.
The American Dream has never been fully defined, and for some people, it involves striving for success and wealth while other people may argue that it the only source of happiness in the world. From the story, we learn about the non-wealthy part of Gatsby which does not only make him appear to be like the star that denoted the story of rags to riches (Roberts 71). In this case, it makes Gatsby seem like he somebody in pursuit of the American Dream.
The American dream entails a belief that regardless of gender, race, class, any person can become successful, that is, to be rich, if they work hard (Berman 87). That is why in this novel, everyone believes that with money, they can do everything, including the heart of lady, as we see between Gatsby and Daisy. However, in the end, things do not turn out as they were expected.
In summary, just as the American dream was considered to be unrealistic and hard to achieve, likewise, things do not turn out expectedly in the novel. The novel comes to an end as Nick sadly meditates about the lost promise regarding the American dream.