The Great Gatsby – Essay on the Corruption of the American Dream

Possibly one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most astonishing work, The Great Gatsby is not just a magnificent story, but an insightful lesson of society’s flaws during the 1920’s. Fitzgerald’s novel creates an atmosphere of superficiality, dissatisfaction and dishonesty by the depictive illustration of each character’s defect. With economical growth, the immoral society of the twenties ultimately brought corruption to the American Dream of achieving prosperity.

At the end of the first chapter, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is introduced, the symbol for hope and a promising future for the Great Gatsby. In the second chapter however, the reader is presented with the, “… valley of ashes… where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally… of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” . The valley of ashes can be interpreted as the superficial and dirt-filled materialistic world that the characters live in. The author’s great use of imagery helps accentuate the setting and the crumbling foundation of society.

In Fitzgerald’s novel, Gatsby is labeled as “new money”. Having come from no wealthy background, and building his fortunes early in life, Gatsby nearly fulfills all the aspects of the American Dream with hard work, courage and determination but comes short by not achieving satisfaction from prosperity. Money was the critical reagent to Gatsby’s corruption that unfolds when he describes Daisy. “Her voice is full of money” . Often identified as a symbol of wealth, Daisy was Gatsby’s main goal. Gatsby had an enormous need to impress Daisy with his riches; his tainted mind could only offer what he had acquired all these years, money.

The 1920’s was a time of great spending and with the massive amounts of money in circulation, dishonesty flowed with ease. ” Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the Cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” . Nick Carraway’s sincere comment reflects the high amount of dishonesty of the “Roaring Twenties.” Because Carraway had come from the Midwest and moved to New York, his statement of knowing few honest people proves that during the 1920’s corruption was widespread.

Murders, affairs and disregard of the law in which the characters of Fitzgerald’s novel chose to take, confirm the diversion of the American Dream and insignificance that money brings to fulfilling satisfaction. Gatsby’s unquenchable thirst of winning Daisy was infected with monetary motivation. In the end, Fitzgerald’s purpose of writing The Great Gatsby was to show how the American Dream became corrupted in the 1920s and striped away of ambition and left with the pursuit of pleasure.