analysis of the american dream in the great gatsby

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The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface, but it's most commonly understood as a pessimistic critique of the American Dream. In the novel, Jay Gatsby overcomes his poor past to gain an incredible amount of money and a limited amount of social cache in 1920s NYC, only to be rejected by the "old money" crowd. He then gets killed after being tangled up with them.

Through Gatsby's life, as well as that of the Wilsons', Fitzgerald critiques the idea that America is a meritocracy where anyone can rise to the top with enough hard work. We will explore how this theme plays out in the plot, briefly analyze some key quotes about it, as well as do some character analysis and broader analysis of topics surrounding the American Dream in The Great Gatsby .

What is the American Dream? The American Dream in the Great Gatsby plot Key American Dream quotes Analyzing characters via the American Dream Common discussion and essay topics

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book.

To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

What Exactly Is "The American Dream"?

The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of race, class, gender, or nationality, can be successful in America (read: rich) if they just work hard enough. The American Dream thus presents a pretty rosy view of American society that ignores problems like systemic racism and misogyny, xenophobia, tax evasion or state tax avoidance, and income inequality. It also presumes a myth of class equality, when the reality is America has a pretty well-developed class hierarchy.

The 1920s in particular was a pretty tumultuous time due to increased immigration (and the accompanying xenophobia), changing women's roles (spurred by the right to vote, which was won in 1919), and extraordinary income inequality.

The country was also in the midst of an economic boom, which fueled the belief that anyone could "strike it rich" on Wall Street. However, this rapid economic growth was built on a bubble which popped in 1929. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, well before the crash, but through its wry descriptions of the ultra-wealthy, it seems to somehow predict that the fantastic wealth on display in 1920s New York was just as ephemeral as one of Gatsby's parties.

In any case, the novel, just by being set in the 1920s, is unlikely to present an optimistic view of the American Dream, or at least a version of the dream that's inclusive to all genders, ethnicities, and incomes. With that background in mind, let's jump into the plot!

The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Chapter 1 places us in a particular year—1922—and gives us some background about WWI.  This is relevant, since the 1920s is presented as a time of hollow decadence among the wealthy, as evidenced especially by the parties in Chapters 2 and 3. And as we mentioned above, the 1920s were a particularly tense time in America.

We also meet George and Myrtle Wilson in Chapter 2 , both working class people who are working to improve their lot in life, George through his work, and Myrtle through her affair with Tom Buchanan.

We learn about Gatsby's goal in Chapter 4 : to win Daisy back. Despite everything he owns, including fantastic amounts of money and an over-the-top mansion, for Gatsby, Daisy is the ultimate status symbol. So in Chapter 5 , when Daisy and Gatsby reunite and begin an affair, it seems like Gatsby could, in fact, achieve his goal.

In Chapter 6 , we learn about Gatsby's less-than-wealthy past, which not only makes him look like the star of a rags-to-riches story, it makes Gatsby himself seem like someone in pursuit of the American Dream, and for him the personification of that dream is Daisy.

However, in Chapters 7 and 8 , everything comes crashing down: Daisy refuses to leave Tom, Myrtle is killed, and George breaks down and kills Gatsby and then himself, leaving all of the "strivers" dead and the old money crowd safe. Furthermore, we learn in those last chapters that Gatsby didn't even achieve all his wealth through hard work, like the American Dream would stipulate—instead, he earned his money through crime. (He did work hard and honestly under Dan Cody, but lost Dan Cody's inheritance to his ex-wife.)

In short, things do not turn out well for our dreamers in the novel! Thus, the novel ends with Nick's sad meditation on the lost promise of the American Dream. You can read a detailed analysis of these last lines in our summary of the novel's ending .

Key American Dream Quotes

In this section we analyze some of the most important quotes that relate to the American Dream in the book.

But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. (1.152)

In our first glimpse of Jay Gatsby, we see him reaching towards something far off, something in sight but definitely out of reach. This famous image of the green light is often understood as part of The Great Gatsby 's meditation on The American Dream—the idea that people are always reaching towards something greater than themselves that is just out of reach . You can read more about this in our post all about the green light .

The fact that this yearning image is our introduction to Gatsby foreshadows his unhappy end and also marks him as a dreamer, rather than people like Tom or Daisy who were born with money and don't need to strive for anything so far off.

Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.

A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms, followed by two carriages with drawn blinds and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of south-eastern Europe, and I was glad that the sight of Gatsby's splendid car was included in their somber holiday. As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish Negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.

"Anything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge," I thought; "anything at all. . . ."

Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder. (4.55-8)

Early in the novel, we get this mostly optimistic illustration of the American Dream—we see people of different races and nationalities racing towards NYC, a city of unfathomable possibility. This moment has all the classic elements of the American Dream—economic possibility, racial and religious diversity, a carefree attitude. At this moment, it does feel like "anything can happen," even a happy ending.

However, this rosy view eventually gets undermined by the tragic events later in the novel. And even at this point, Nick's condescension towards the people in the other cars reinforces America's racial hierarchy that disrupts the idea of the American Dream. There is even a little competition at play, a "haughty rivalry" at play between Gatsby's car and the one bearing the "modish Negroes."

Nick "laughs aloud" at this moment, suggesting he thinks it's amusing that the passengers in this other car see them as equals, or even rivals to be bested. In other words, he seems to firmly believe in the racial hierarchy Tom defends in Chapter 1, even if it doesn't admit it honestly.

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. (6.134)

This moment explicitly ties Daisy to all of Gatsby's larger dreams for a better life —to his American Dream. This sets the stage for the novel's tragic ending, since Daisy cannot hold up under the weight of the dream Gatsby projects onto her. Instead, she stays with Tom Buchanan, despite her feelings for Gatsby. Thus when Gatsby fails to win over Daisy, he also fails to achieve his version of the American Dream. This is why so many people read the novel as a somber or pessimistic take on the American Dream, rather than an optimistic one.  

...as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes--a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." (9.151-152)

The closing pages of the novel reflect at length on the American Dream, in an attitude that seems simultaneously mournful, appreciative, and pessimistic. It also ties back to our first glimpse of Gatsby, reaching out over the water towards the Buchanan's green light. Nick notes that Gatsby's dream was "already behind him" then (or in other words, it was impossible to attain). But still, he finds something to admire in how Gatsby still hoped for a better life, and constantly reached out toward that brighter future.

For a full consideration of these last lines and what they could mean, see our analysis of the novel's ending .

Analyzing Characters Through the American Dream

An analysis of the characters in terms of the American Dream usually leads to a pretty cynical take on the American Dream.

Most character analysis centered on the American Dream will necessarily focus on Gatsby, George, or Myrtle (the true strivers in the novel), though as we'll discuss below, the Buchanans can also provide some interesting layers of discussion. For character analysis that incorporates the American Dream, carefully consider your chosen character's motivations and desires, and how the novel does (or doesn't!) provide glimpses of the dream's fulfillment for them.

Gatsby himself is obviously the best candidate for writing about the American Dream—he comes from humble roots (he's the son of poor farmers from North Dakota) and rises to be notoriously wealthy, only for everything to slip away from him in the end. Many people also incorporate Daisy into their analyses as the physical representation of Gatsby's dream.

However, definitely consider the fact that in the traditional American Dream, people achieve their goals through honest hard work, but in Gatsby's case, he very quickly acquires a large amount of money through crime . Gatsby does attempt the hard work approach, through his years of service to Dan Cody, but that doesn't work out since Cody's ex-wife ends up with the entire inheritance. So instead he turns to crime, and only then does he manage to achieve his desired wealth.

So while Gatsby's story arc resembles a traditional rags-to-riches tale, the fact that he gained his money immorally complicates the idea that he is a perfect avatar for the American Dream . Furthermore, his success obviously doesn't last—he still pines for Daisy and loses everything in his attempt to get her back. In other words, Gatsby's huge dreams, all precariously wedded to Daisy  ("He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God" (6.134)) are as flimsy and flight as Daisy herself.

George and Myrtle Wilson

This couple also represents people aiming at the dream— George owns his own shop and is doing his best to get business, though is increasingly worn down by the harsh demands of his life, while Myrtle chases after wealth and status through an affair with Tom.

Both are disempowered due to the lack of money at their own disposal —Myrtle certainly has access to some of the "finer things" through Tom but has to deal with his abuse, while George is unable to leave his current life and move West since he doesn't have the funds available. He even has to make himself servile to Tom in an attempt to get Tom to sell his car, a fact that could even cause him to overlook the evidence of his wife's affair. So neither character is on the upward trajectory that the American Dream promises, at least during the novel.

In the end, everything goes horribly wrong for both George and Myrtle, suggesting that in this world, it's dangerous to strive for more than you're given.

George and Myrtle's deadly fates, along with Gatsby's, help illustrate the novel's pessimistic attitude toward the American Dream. After all, how unfair is it that the couple working to improve their position in society (George and Myrtle) both end up dead, while Tom, who dragged Myrtle into an increasingly dangerous situation, and Daisy, who killed her, don't face any consequences? And on top of that they are fabulously wealthy? The American Dream certainly is not alive and well for the poor Wilsons.

Tom and Daisy as Antagonists to the American Dream

We've talked quite a bit already about Gatsby, George, and Myrtle—the three characters who come from humble roots and try to climb the ranks in 1920s New York. But what about the other major characters, especially the ones born with money? What is their relationship to the American Dream?

Specifically, Tom and Daisy have old money, and thus they don't need the American Dream, since they were born with America already at their feet.

Perhaps because of this, they seem to directly antagonize the dream—Daisy by refusing Gatsby, and Tom by helping to drag the Wilsons into tragedy .

This is especially interesting because unlike Gatsby, Myrtle, and George, who actively hope and dream of a better life, Daisy and Tom are described as bored and "careless," and end up instigating a large amount of tragedy through their own recklessness.

In other words, income inequality and the vastly different starts in life the characters have strongly affected their outcomes. The way they choose to live their lives, their morality (or lack thereof), and how much they dream doesn't seem to matter. This, of course, is tragic and antithetical to the idea of the American Dream, which claims that class should be irrelevant and anyone can rise to the top.

Daisy as a Personification of the American Dream

As we discuss in our post on money and materialism in The Great Gatsby , Daisy's voice is explicitly tied to money by Gatsby:

"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly.

That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money--that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. . . . High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. . . . (7.105-6)

If Daisy's voice promises money, and the American Dream is explicitly linked to wealth, it's not hard to argue that Daisy herself—along with the green light at the end of her dock —stands in for the American Dream. In fact, as Nick goes on to describe Daisy as "High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl," he also seems to literally describe Daisy as a prize, much like the princess at the end of a fairy tale (or even Princess Peach at the end of a Mario game!).

But Daisy, of course, is only human—flawed, flighty, and ultimately unable to embody the huge fantasy Gatsby projects onto her. So this, in turn, means that the American Dream itself is just a fantasy, a concept too flimsy to actually hold weight, especially in the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world of 1920s America.

Furthermore, you should definitely consider the tension between the fact that Daisy represents Gatsby's ultimate goal, but at the same time (as we discussed above), her actual life is the opposite of the American Dream : she is born with money and privilege, likely dies with it all intact, and there are no consequences to how she chooses to live her life in between.

Can Female Characters Achieve the American Dream?

Finally, it's interesting to compare and contrast some of the female characters using the lens of the American Dream.

Let's start with Daisy, who is unhappy in her marriage and, despite a brief attempt to leave it, remains with Tom, unwilling to give up the status and security their marriage provides. At first, it may seem like Daisy doesn't dream at all, so of course she ends up unhappy. But consider the fact that Daisy was already born into the highest level of American society. The expectation placed on her, as a wealthy woman, was never to pursue something greater, but simply to maintain her status. She did that by marrying Tom, and it's understandable why she wouldn't risk the uncertainty and loss of status that would come through divorce and marriage to a bootlegger. Again, Daisy seems to typify the "anti-American" dream, in that she was born into a kind of aristocracy and simply has to maintain her position, not fight for something better.

In contrast, Myrtle, aside from Gatsby, seems to be the most ambitiously in pursuit of getting more than she was given in life. She parlays her affair with Tom into an apartment, nice clothes, and parties, and seems to revel in her newfound status. But of course, she is knocked down the hardest, killed for her involvement with the Buchanans, and specifically for wrongfully assuming she had value to them. Considering that Gatsby did have a chance to leave New York and distance himself from the unfolding tragedy, but Myrtle was the first to be killed, you could argue the novel presents an even bleaker view of the American Dream where women are concerned.

Even Jordan Baker , who seems to be living out a kind of dream by playing golf and being relatively independent, is tied to her family's money and insulated from consequences by it , making her a pretty poor representation of the dream. And of course, since her end game also seems to be marriage, she doesn't push the boundaries of women's roles as far as she might wish.

So while the women all push the boundaries of society's expectations of them in certain ways, they either fall in line or are killed, which definitely undermines the rosy of idea that anyone, regardless of gender, can make it in America. The American Dream as shown in Gatsby becomes even more pessimistic through the lens of the female characters.  

Common Essay Questions/Discussion Topics

Now let's work through some of the more frequently brought up subjects for discussion.

#1: Was Gatsby's dream worth it? Was all the work, time, and patience worth it for him?

Like me, you might immediately think "of course it wasn't worth it! Gatsby lost everything, not to mention the Wilsons got caught up in the tragedy and ended up dead!" So if you want to make the more obvious "the dream wasn't worth it" argument, you could point to the unraveling that happens at the end of the novel (including the deaths of Myrtle, Gatsby and George) and how all Gatsby's achievements are for nothing, as evidenced by the sparse attendance of his funeral.

However, you could definitely take the less obvious route and argue that Gatsby's dream was worth it, despite the tragic end . First of all, consider Jay's unique characterization in the story: "He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty" (6.7). In other words, Gatsby has a larger-than-life persona and he never would have been content to remain in North Dakota to be poor farmers like his parents.

Even if he ends up living a shorter life, he certainly lived a full one full of adventure. His dreams of wealth and status took him all over the world on Dan Cody's yacht, to Louisville where he met and fell in love with Daisy, to the battlefields of WWI, to the halls of Oxford University, and then to the fast-paced world of Manhattan in the early 1920s, when he earned a fortune as a bootlegger. In fact, it seems Jay lived several lives in the space of just half a normal lifespan. In short, to argue that Gatsby's dream was worth it, you should point to his larger-than-life conception of himself and the fact that he could have only sought happiness through striving for something greater than himself, even if that ended up being deadly in the end.

#2: In the Langston Hughes poem "A Dream Deferred," Hughes asks questions about what happens to postponed dreams. How does Fitzgerald examine this issue of deferred dreams? What do you think are the effects of postponing our dreams? How can you apply this lesson to your own life?

If you're thinking about "deferred dreams" in The Great Gatsby , the big one is obviously Gatsby's deferred dream for Daisy—nearly five years pass between his initial infatuation and his attempt in the novel to win her back, an attempt that obviously backfires. You can examine various aspects of Gatsby's dream—the flashbacks to his first memories of Daisy in Chapter 8 , the moment when they reunite in Chapter 5 , or the disastrous consequences of the confrontation of Chapter 7 —to illustrate Gatsby's deferred dream.

You could also look at George Wilson's postponed dream of going West, or Myrtle's dream of marrying a wealthy man of "breeding"—George never gets the funds to go West, and is instead mired in the Valley of Ashes, while Myrtle's attempt to achieve her dream after 12 years of marriage through an affair ends in tragedy. Apparently, dreams deferred are dreams doomed to fail.

As Nick Carraway says, "you can't repeat the past"—the novel seems to imply there is a small window for certain dreams, and when the window closes, they can no longer be attained. This is pretty pessimistic, and for the prompt's personal reflection aspect, I wouldn't say you should necessarily "apply this lesson to your own life" straightforwardly. But it is worth noting that certain opportunities are fleeting, and perhaps it's wiser to seek out newer and/or more attainable ones, rather than pining over a lost chance.

Any prompt like this one which has a section of more personal reflection gives you freedom to tie in your own experiences and point of view, so be thoughtful and think of good examples from your own life!

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#3: Explain how the novel does or does not demonstrate the death of the American Dream. Is the main theme of Gatsby indeed "the withering American Dream"? What does the novel offer about American identity?

In this prompt, another one that zeroes in on the dead or dying American Dream, you could discuss how the destruction of three lives (Gatsby, George, Myrtle) and the cynical portrayal of the old money crowd illustrates a dead, or dying American Dream . After all, if the characters who dream end up dead, and the ones who were born into life with money and privilege get to keep it without consequence, is there any room at all for the idea that less-privileged people can work their way up?

In terms of what the novel says about American identity, there are a few threads you could pick up—one is Nick's comment in Chapter 9 about the novel really being a story about (mid)westerners trying (and failing) to go East : "I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all--Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life" (9.125). This observation suggests an American identity that is determined by birthplace, and that within the American identity there are smaller, inescapable points of identification.

Furthermore, for those in the novel not born into money, the American identity seems to be about striving to end up with more wealth and status. But in terms of the portrayal of the old money set, particularly Daisy, Tom, and Jordan, the novel presents a segment of American society that is essentially aristocratic—you have to be born into it. In that regard, too, the novel presents a fractured American identity, with different lives possible based on how much money you are born with.

In short, I think the novel disrupts the idea of a unified American identity or American dream, by instead presenting a tragic, fractured, and rigid American society, one that is divided based on both geographic location and social class.

#4: Most would consider dreams to be positive motivators to achieve success, but the characters in the novel often take their dreams of ideal lives too far. Explain how characters' American Dreams cause them to have pain when they could have been content with more modest ambitions.

Gatsby is an obvious choice here—his pursuit of money and status, particularly through Daisy, leads him to ruin. There were many points when perhaps Gatsby ;could have been happy with what he achieved (especially after his apparently successful endeavors in the war, if he had remained at Oxford, or even after amassing a great amount of wealth as a bootlegger) but instead he kept striving upward, which ultimately lead to his downfall. You can flesh this argument out with the quotations in Chapters 6 and 8 about Gatsby's past, along with his tragic death.

Myrtle would be another good choice for this type of prompt. In a sense, she seems to be living her ideal life in her affair with Tom—she has a fancy NYC apartment, hosts parties, and gets to act sophisticated—but these pleasures end up gravely hurting George, and of course her association with Tom Buchanan gets her killed.

Nick, too, if he had been happy with his family's respectable fortune and his girlfriend out west, might have avoided the pain of knowing Gatsby and the general sense of despair he was left with.

You might be wondering about George—after all, isn't he someone also dreaming of a better life? However, there aren't many instances of George taking his dreams of an ideal life "too far." In fact, he struggles just to make one car sale so that he can finally move out West with Myrtle. Also, given that his current situation in the Valley of Ashes is quite bleak, it's hard to say that striving upward gave him pain.

#5: The Great Gatsby is, among other things, a sobering and even ominous commentary on the dark side of the American dream. Discuss this theme, incorporating the conflicts of East Egg vs. West Egg and old money vs. new money. What does the American dream mean to Gatsby? What did the American Dream mean to Fitzgerald? How does morality fit into achieving the American dream?

This prompt allows you to consider pretty broadly the novel's attitude toward the American Dream, with emphasis on "sobering and even ominous" commentary. Note that Fitzgerald seems to be specifically mocking the stereotypical rags to riches story here—;especially since he draws the Dan Cody narrative almost note for note from the work of someone like Horatio Alger, whose books were almost universally about rich men schooling young, entrepreneurial boys in the ways of the world. In other words, you should discuss how the Great Gatsby seems to turn the idea of the American Dream as described in the quote on its head: Gatsby does achieve a rags-to-riches rise, but it doesn't last.

All of Gatsby's hard work for Dan Cody, after all, didn't pay off since he lost the inheritance. So instead, Gatsby turned to crime after the war to quickly gain a ton of money. Especially since Gatsby finally achieves his great wealth through dubious means, the novel further undermines the classic image of someone working hard and honestly to go from rags to riches.

If you're addressing this prompt or a similar one, make sure to focus on the darker aspects of the American Dream, including the dark conclusion to the novel and Daisy and Tom's protection from any real consequences . (This would also allow you to considering morality, and how morally bankrupt the characters are.)

#6: What is the current state of the American Dream?

This is a more outward-looking prompt, that allows you to consider current events today to either be generally optimistic (the American dream is alive and well) or pessimistic (it's as dead as it is in The Great Gatsby).

You have dozens of potential current events to use as evidence for either argument, but consider especially immigration and immigration reform, mass incarceration, income inequality, education, and health care in America as good potential examples to use as you argue about the current state of the American Dream. Your writing will be especially powerful if you can point to some specific current events to support your argument.

What's Next?

In this post, we discussed how important money is to the novel's version of the American Dream. You can read even more about money and materialism in The Great Gatsby right here .

Want to indulge in a little materialism of your own? Take a look through these 15 must-have items for any Great Gatsby fan .

Get complete guides to Jay Gatsby , George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson to get even more background on the "dreamers" in the novel.

Like we discussed above, the green light is often seen as a stand-in for the idea of the American Dream. Read more about this crucial symbol here .

Need help getting to grips with other literary works? Take a spin through our analyses of The Crucible , The Cask of Amontillado , and " Do not go gentle into this good night " to see analysis in action. You might also find our explanations of point of view , rhetorical devices , imagery , and literary elements and devices helpful.

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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The Great Gatsby and the American dream

I n the New York Times earlier this year, Paul Krugman wrote of an economic effect called " The Great Gatsby curve ," a graph that measures fiscal inequality against social mobility and shows that America's marked economic inequality means it has correlatively low social mobility. In one sense this hardly seems newsworthy, but it is telling that even economists think that F Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece offers the most resonant (and economical) shorthand for the problems of social mobility, economic inequality and class antagonism that we face today. Nietzsche – whose Genealogy of Morals Fitzgerald greatly admired – called the transformation of class resentment into a moral system "ressentiment"; in America, it is increasingly called the failure of the American dream, a failure now mapped by the " Gatsby curve".

Fitzgerald had much to say about the failure of this dream, and the fraudulences that sustain it – but his insights are not all contained within the economical pages of his greatest novel. Indeed, when Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby in April 1925, the phrase "American dream" as we know it did not exist. Many now assume the phrase stretches back to the nation's founding, but "the American dream" was never used to describe a shared national value system until a popular 1917 novel called Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise , which remarked that "the fashion and home magazines … have prepared thousands of Americans … for the possible rise of fortune that is the universal American dream and hope." The OED lists this as the first recorded instance of the American dream, although it's not yet the catchphrase as we know it. That meaning is clearly emerging – but only as "possible" rise of fortune; a dream, not a promise. And as of 1917, at least some Americans were evidently beginning to recognise that consumerism and mass marketing were teaching them what to want, and that rises of fortune would be measured by the acquisition of status symbols. The phrase next appeared in print in a 1923 Vanity Fair article by Walter Lippmann , "Education and the White-Collar Class" (which Fitzgerald probably read); it warned that widening access to education was creating untenable economic pressure, as young people graduated with degrees only to find that insufficient white-collar jobs awaited. Instead of limiting access to education in order to keep such jobs the exclusive domain of the upper classes (a practice America had recently begun to justify by means of a controversial new idea called "intelligence tests"), Lippmann argued that Americans must decide that skilled labour was a proper vocation for educated people. There simply weren't enough white-collar jobs to go around, but "if education could be regarded not as a step ladder to a few special vocations, but as the key to the treasure house of life, we should not even have to consider the fatal proposal that higher education be confined to a small and selected class," a decision that would mark the "failure of the American dream" of universal education.

These two incipient instances of the phrase are both, in their different ways, uncannily prophetic; but as a catchphrase, the American dream did not explode into popular culture until the 1931 publication of a book called The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams, which spoke of "the American dream of a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank, which is the greatest contribution we have made to the thought and welfare of the world. That dream or hope has been present from the start. Ever since we became an independent nation, each generation has seen an uprising of ordinary Americans to save that dream from the forces that appear to be overwhelming it."

In the early years of the great depression Adams's book sparked a great national debate about the promise of America as a place that fosters "the genuine worth of each man or woman", whose efforts should be restricted by "no barriers beyond their own natures". Two years later, a New York Times article noted: "Get-rich-quick and gambling was the bane of our life before the smash"; they were also what caused the "smash" itself in 1929. By 1933, Adams was writing in the New York Times of the way the American dream had been hijacked: "Throughout our history, the pure gold of this vision has been heavily alloyed with the dross of materialistic aims. Not only did the wage scales and our standard of living seem to promise riches to the poor immigrant, but the extent and natural wealth of the continent awaiting exploitation offered to Americans of the older stocks such opportunities for rapid fortunes that the making of money and the enjoying of what money could buy too often became our ideal of a full and satisfying life. The struggle of each against all for the dazzling prizes destroyed in some measure both our private ideals and our sense of social obligation." As the Depression deepened, books such as Who Owns America? A New Declaration of Independence were arguing that "monopoly capitalism is morally ugly as well as economically unsound," that in America "the large majority should be able – in accordance with the tenets of the 'American dream' … to count on living in an atmosphere of equality, in a world which puts relatively few barriers between man and man." Part of the problem, however, was that the dream itself was being destroyed by "the friends of big business, who dishonour the dream by saying that it has been realised" already.

The phrase the American dream was first invented, in other words, to describe a failure, not a promise: or rather, a broken promise, a dream that was continually faltering beneath the rampant monopoly capitalism that set each struggling against all; and it is no coincidence that it was first popularised during the early years of the great depression. The impending failure had been clear to Fitzgerald by the time he finished Gatsby – and the fact that in 1925 most Americans were still recklessly chasing the dream had a great deal to do with the initial commercial and critical failure of The Great Gatsby , which would not be hailed as a masterpiece until the 50s, once hindsight had revealed its prophetic truth.

On 19 October 1929, just five days before the first stock market crash and 10 days before Black Tuesday, Scott Fitzgerald published a now-forgotten story called "The Swimmers," about an American working for the ironically named Promissory Trust Bank, and his realisation that American ideals have been corrupted by money. This corruption is emblematised by sexual infidelity: as in Gatsby , Fitzgerald again used adultery to suggest a larger world of broken promises and betrayals of faith. There's a remarkable moment early in "The Swimmers" – which Fitzgerald called "the hardest story I ever wrote, too big for its space" – when an unfaithful wife, who is French, complains about the American women she sees on the Riviera:

"How would you place them?" she exclaimed. "Great ladies, bourgeoises, adventuresses - they are all the same. Look! …"

Suddenly she pointed to an American girl going into the water:

"That young lady may be a stenographer and yet be compelled to warp herself, dressing and acting as if she had all the money in the world."

"Perhaps she will have, some day."

"That's the story they are told; it happens to one, not to the ninety-nine. That's why all their faces over thirty are discontented and unhappy."

The American dream comes true for just 1%: for the other 99%, only discontent and bitterness await, ressentiment on a mass scale. More than 15 years later, the Marxist critics Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer used a similar image of the typist who believed she would be a movie star to reveal the American dream as a rigged lottery that no one wins but everyone plays. Today, almost 100 years after "The Swimmers" appeared, the Occupy movement has clenched its fist around the same angry realisation that we are all the 99%, not the 1%. More remarkable than the fact that Fitzgerald beat Adorno and Horkheimer and the Occupy movement to the punch, however, is that he saw all this before Wall Street came smashing down.

The villain of "The Swimmers" is a rich, vulgar banker who preaches an updated version of the gilded age's "gospel of wealth": "Money is power … Money made this country, built its great and glorious cities, created its industries, covered it with an iron network of railroads." The banker is wrong, the story makes clear, but his vision of America is winning. Feeling increasingly alienated, the protagonist, Marston, finds himself musing on the meanings of America, and especially its eagerness to forget history: "Americans, he liked to say, should be born with fins, and perhaps they were – perhaps money was a form of fin. In England property begot a strong place sense, but Americans, restless and with shallow roots, needed fins and wings. There was even a recurrent idea in America about an education that would leave out history and the past, that should be a sort of equipment for aerial adventure, weighed down by none of the stowaways of inheritance or tradition." The buoyancy of modern America depended on its being unanchored by history or tradition, and this is the America we have inherited. Historical amnesia is certainly liberating – so liberating that America is once again diving into free fall, unmoored by any critical or intellectual insight into its own myths, or even into the histories of the debates that we think define our moment.

Marston eventually decides that there is no place for him in the crass society symbolised by his rival, but he will not relinquish his faith in the ideals that America can represent. As Marston sails for Europe, watching America recede into his past, Fitzgerald offers a closing meditation nearly as incantatory as the famous conclusion of Gatsby: "Watching the fading city, the fading shore, from the deck of the Majestic, he had a sense of overwhelming gratitude and of gladness that America was there, that under the ugly débris of industry the rich land still pushed up, incorrigibly lavish and fertile, and that in the heart of the leaderless people the old generosities and devotions fought on, breaking out sometimes in fanaticism and excess, but indomitable and undefeated. There was a lost generation in the saddle at the moment, but it seemed to him that the men coming on, the men of the war, were better; and all his old feeling that America was a bizarre accident, a sort of historical sport, had gone forever. The best of America was the best of the world … France was a land, England was a people, but America, having about it still that quality of the idea, was harder to utter – it was the graves at Shiloh and the tired, drawn, nervous faces of its great men, and the country boys dying in the Argonne for a phrase that was empty before their bodies withered. It was a willingness of the heart."

Wall Street crashed 10 days later.

Two years after The Great Gatsby appeared, a reporter was sent to interview the famous author. Meeting "the voice and embodiment of the jazz age, its product and its beneficiary, a popular novelist, a movie scenarist, a dweller in the gilded palaces", the reporter found instead, to his distinct hilarity, that Fitzgerald was "forecasting doom, death and damnation to his generation". "He sounded", said the reporter, like "an intellectual Sampson" predicting that the Plaza Hotel's marble columns would crumble. Fitzgerald's absurd prophecy was that America would face a great "national testing" in the very near future:

"The idea that we're the greatest people in the world because we have the most money in the world is ridiculous. Wait until this wave of prosperity is over! Wait ten or fifteen years! Wait until the next war on the Pacific, or against some European combination! … The next fifteen years will show how much resistance there is in the American race."

"There has never been an American tragedy," Fitzgerald ended. "There have only been great failures."

It was 1927. The reporter was vastly amused.

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Critically comment on the concept of the ‘‘American Dream’’ in The Great Gatsby

Table of Contents

The novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald critically analyzes the idea of the “American Dream.” In addition to depicting the lives of its protagonists, this classic piece of American literature offers commentary on the excess and disillusionment that characterized the Roaring Twenties—a time when many people were chasing the American Dream.

The American Dream in the Roaring Twenties:

The Roaring Twenties, a period of economic prosperity and cultural transformation in the United States, is the backdrop against which “The Great Gatsby” unfolds. This era is often associated with the American Dream, a concept that embodies the idea of upward mobility, success, and the pursuit of happiness through hard work and determination. It is a dream deeply rooted in the nation’s history and ideals, promising a better life and limitless opportunities to those willing to strive for them. In the 1920s, the American Dream took on new dimensions as material wealth and excess came to the forefront.

Characters and Their Pursuit of the American Dream:

Throughout the novel, we see various characters striving for their version of the American Dream, and Fitzgerald uses their experiences to shed light on the complexities and pitfalls of this pursuit.

• Jay Gatsby : The titular character, Jay Gatsby, epitomizes the American Dream’s pursuit of success and wealth. Born into modest circumstances, he reinvents himself as a wealthy and mysterious figure, hosting extravagant parties and accumulating wealth in the hope of winning back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby’s life and fortune symbolize the possibility of self-transformation and success. However, his single-minded obsession with the past and his unrealistic pursuit of an idealized vision of love ultimately lead to his tragic downfall.
• Daisy Buchanan : Daisy is emblematic of those who achieve the material trappings of the American Dream. She is married to Tom Buchanan, a wealthy and influential man, and lives in luxury. Yet, she is also unhappy and trapped in a loveless marriage. Daisy represents the emptiness that can be found at the heart of a life driven solely by the pursuit of material success.
• Tom Buchanan : Tom, Daisy’s husband, is a symbol of the established American elite. He enjoys the privileges of inherited wealth and social status. However, he is arrogant, racist, and unfaithful. Tom’s character illustrates that the American Dream, when achieved at the expense of others, can lead to moral decay and a lack of empathy.
• Myrtle Wilson : Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, represents the lower social strata’s aspirations for the American Dream. She is married to George Wilson, a mechanic, but aspires to a life of wealth and luxury. Myrtle’s pursuit of the Dream leads her into an affair with Tom and, ultimately, to a tragic end.
• George Wilson : George, Myrtle’s husband, works tirelessly to achieve his version of the American Dream: financial success and a better life for himself and his wife. However, his pursuit is futile, and he remains trapped in the Valley of Ashes, highlighting the disparity between the Dream’s promise and the reality of economic inequality.

The Illusory Nature of the American Dream:

Fitzgerald’s portrayal of these characters and their experiences serves to critique the American Dream’s illusory nature. The novel suggests that the Dream, as pursued in the 1920s, often leads to disillusionment and moral decay rather than genuine happiness and success. The lavish parties, extravagant displays of wealth, and material excess that pervade the story are, in many ways, a facade that conceals the emptiness and corruption beneath.

• Gatsby’s Pursuit of the Past : Gatsby’s obsession with an idealized past and his relentless pursuit of Daisy, who represents that past, demonstrate the inherent flaw in his version of the American Dream. He believes that material wealth and social status alone will secure his happiness, yet he is unable to let go of his romanticized vision of the past, leading to his eventual downfall.
• The Moral Decay of the Wealthy Elite : Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who seemingly have everything the American Dream promises, are morally bankrupt. They are careless and selfish, causing harm to others without consequence. Their wealth does not lead to happiness but rather exacerbates their moral decay.
• The Hollow Pursuit of Myrtle : Myrtle’s affair with Tom and her desire for a more luxurious life ultimately lead to her tragic death. Her pursuit of the Dream is hollow, and she becomes a victim of the very desire she chases.
• The Inequality and Hopelessness of George Wilson : George Wilson’s futile pursuit of the American Dream highlights the stark economic inequality in society and the hopelessness that can result from chasing an unattainable goal.

The Green Light and the Unattainable Dream:

A recurring symbol in the novel is the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, which Gatsby gazes at longingly. The green light represents the unattainable Dream, forever just out of reach. It symbolizes the belief that success and happiness can be achieved through the pursuit of an idealized past or a materialistic future, even though they remain elusive.

Discuss the theme of disillusionment in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Analyze the use of symbolism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

How does F. Scott Fitzgerald use the concept of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s use of the green light underscores the theme that the American Dream, as it is often conceived, is an unattainable ideal. The Dream can never be fully realized because it is based on illusions, unrealistic expectations, and the pursuit of fleeting pleasures.

The Influence of Society and Culture:

Fitzgerald also critiques the society and culture of the 1920s, which encouraged the pursuit of material success and the idea that one could achieve their dreams through external markers of wealth and social status. The characters in the novel are products of this culture, where excess and ostentation were valued. This societal influence contributes to the characters’ flawed pursuit of the Dream.

The Tragic Outcome:

“The Great Gatsby” ultimately ends in tragedy. Gatsby’s death and the other characters’ unhappy fates serve as a cautionary tale about the perils of a Dream pursued with misguided values and an obsession with the past. The novel conveys the idea that the Dream, when it becomes an all-consuming force, can lead to personal and societal destruction.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is a gripping examination of the American Dream set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties. The book offers a critical analysis of the Dream’s many dimensions and deceptive nature. The book emphasizes the catastrophic outcomes, moral deterioration, and disillusionment that can result from chasing the American Dream through the characters of Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Myrtle, and George Wilson. The green light at Daisy’s dock’s end is a moving representation of the Dream’s impossibility, highlighting the contrast between the hope of achievement and the practicality of pursuing it.

Fitzgerald’s work challenges readers to reflect on the values and societal influences that shape the American Dream. It ultimately cautions against the single-minded obsession with materialism and the past, offering a somber critique of a society driven by excess and superficiality. “The Great Gatsby” remains a timeless and thought-provoking commentary on the American Dream and its often elusive and misleading promises.

What is the American Dream in “The Great Gatsby”?

The American Dream in the novel represents the pursuit of success, happiness, and upward mobility through hard work, determination, and self-improvement. In the context of the Roaring Twenties, it often involves the pursuit of material wealth and social status.

How does “The Great Gatsby” critique the American Dream?

The novel critiques the American Dream by portraying characters who, despite achieving elements of the Dream, experience disillusionment, moral decay, and tragic consequences. It highlights the illusory nature of the Dream and the dangers of obsession with materialism and the past.

What is the significance of the green light in the novel?

The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock symbolizes the unattainable nature of the American Dream. It represents the idea that success and happiness are just out of reach, emphasizing the gap between the Dream’s promise and its reality.

How does the societal and cultural context of the 1920s influence the characters’ pursuit of the American Dream?

The societal and cultural context of the 1920s, characterized by excess and materialism, influences the characters’ values and aspirations. The culture of the time encourages the pursuit of wealth and social status, which is reflected in the characters’ behavior and choices.

What is the ultimate message of “The Great Gatsby” regarding the American Dream?

The novel’s message is that an obsessive pursuit of the American Dream, particularly when driven by materialism and the idealization of the past, can lead to disillusionment, moral decay, and personal tragedy. It challenges readers to reevaluate the values and goals that underpin the Dream.

Why is “The Great Gatsby” considered a classic American novel?

“The Great Gatsby” is considered a classic American novel because it captures the spirit of the Roaring Twenties and provides a powerful critique of the American Dream and the societal values of the time. Its themes, characters, and symbolism continue to resonate with readers and offer profound insights into American society and culture.

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The Great Gatsby Quotes About the American Dream – Expert Analysis

June 25, 2023

If you ask someone to tell you what The Great Gatsby is about, there’s a good chance they’ll say – “the American Dream.” They would be correct – kinda. If you read the book in high school (or pretended to) you probably remember that the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, has “made it.” He owns a hydroplane and a cream-colored Rolls-Royce and throws lavish, booze-soaked parties at his mansion. (Or maybe you just remember the glamorous party scenes in Baz Luhrmann’s film version.) In other words, from a material standpoint, it certainly seems like Gatsby is the epitome of the American Dream. This article is going to look at some quotes in The Great Gatsby about the American Dream.

Before we get too far into how the book presents the American Dream, let’s take a moment to review the plot. Our narrator is Nick Carraway, a 29-year-old veteran who has just arrived in New York to learn the bond business. Nick rents a tiny house next to Gatsby’s mansion and ends up being invited to one of his parties. The reader soon learns that before he shipped out for WWI, Gatsby had met and fallen in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy.

The Great Gatsby – Quotes About the American Dream (Continued)

Unfortunately, Daisy got married (to the brutish Tom Buchanan) while Gatsby was fighting overseas. Gatsby asks Nick to arrange a meet-cute with Daisy, who is torn between her love for her husband and her love for Gatsby. In a series of unfortunate events, Daisy ends up accidentally killing Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle’s husband blames Gatsby, goes to his mansion, and shoots him in his swimming pool. He then turns the gun on himself. Drama! (If you’re interested in other themes in The Great Gatsby , check out this article. )

Now that we remember the plot, let’s talk a little about what we mean when we say the “American Dream.”

What is the American Dream?

In her article for The Guardian ,  Sarah Churchwell explains how the American Dream has changed over time. As Churchwell points out, F. Scott Fitzgerald most likely encountered the term “American Dream” in a 1925 Vanity Fair article discussing the value of education. The author of this article, Walter Lippmann , argued that access to college should not be exclusive to the upper classes. In other words, individual potential should not be limited by one’s social class. (This concern with social class is clearly present in The Great Gatsby .)  

However, it was only in the early 1930s that the term “American Dream” became widely known. After the stock market crash of 1929 and the economic depression that followed, there was much discussion in America about what constituted a good life. The idea of an explicit American Dream was offered by Eric Truslow Adams as a response to the economic hardship of the 1930s. For our discussion, it is important to note that Adams’s definition of the American Dream is not connected to material wealth. That is, while every American deserves “a better, richer and happier life,” Adams complains that “the pure gold of this vision has been heavily alloyed with the dross of materialistic aims.”

Quotes – The Great Gatsby and the American Dream (Continued)

It is precisely this intersection of class mobility and materialism that animates The Great Gatsby ’s treatment of the American Dream. The novel is concerned both with the intrinsic worth of every individual, but also with the American tendency to conflate “the good life” with materialism. Let’s look at some quotes that illustrate this tension.

How Does Gatsby Represent the American Dream?

It turns out that Jay Gatsby hasn’t been entirely honest with Nick. While he initially presents himself as a moneyed “Oxford man,” we eventually find out that Jay Gatsby was born Jay Gatz to poor farmers in North Dakota. We also find out that Gatsby has made his millions through less than legal means. All this aside, it’s important to remember that the sole reason Gatsby has accumulated such obscene wealth is to win back Daisy’s love. Recall the first time Nick sees Gatsby walking near the beach:

“But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.”

Of course, this green light is the light at the end of Daisy’s dock just across the bay. So, while it’s tempting to say that Gatsby’s American Dream is just about money, it’s more than that. Gatsby’s dream is to win back Daisy – money is just a means to this end. Remember, when Gatsby first wooed Daisy five years before, he allowed her “[to] believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself—that he was fully able to take care of her.” In other words, Gatsby’s American Dream is not money per se. R ather, he dreams of becoming the kind of (rich) person that Daisy could marry. Clearly, part of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby is a dream of class mobility. (All my quotes come from The Project Gutenberg eBook .)

When is a kiss more than a kiss? 

It’s worth looking back at the first time Gatsby kisses Daisy to understand the origin of Gatsby’s American dream. He meets Daisy five years before the events of the novel while stationed in Louisville, Kentucky. We read that,

“His heart beat faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch, she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”

There’s a lot to say about this quote, but what strikes me as particularly important is the contrast between the abstract (“unutterable visions” / “mind of God’) and the concrete (“perishable breath” and “the incarnation”). Some might say that Gatsby is simply overcome by Daisy’s kiss, but I think it’s more than that. This is the moment when the myriad possibilities of Gatsby’s vision for his future collapse into the contingent commitment to loving this particular (rich) person. Gatsby has chosen a finite particular from among the infinitely possible. This is the beginning of Gatsby’s striving – not for money, but for the possibility of becoming something he is not. In some ways, Jay Gatzby is born – “incarnated” – at this moment.

Dreamer or tryhard? 

While Gatsby gets the money, he lacks the habits, manners, and mores of Old Money families. Tom Buchanan mocks Gatsby’s pink suit and his misreading of social cues. Even Nick notes that Gatsby’s “elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.” Whatever his aspirations, Gatsby will only ever be a nouveau riche tryhard.

At the same time, Gatsby isn’t the only character in the book who is frustrated by circumstances. Even Tom Buchanan seems like he’s looking for something he can never quite find. We read,

“Why [Tom and Daisy] came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together…I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game.”

Though the Buchanans are obscenely rich, Tom too is striving after an “irrecoverable” something from his past – something that lies forever out of reach. Like Gatsby, Tom seems to be searching for some vague original identity that he didn’t notice until it was suddenly gone.

Daisy also seems to live in a state of dissatisfaction and disillusionment. When Nick first visits the Buchanan house, he finds out that Tom has been cheating on Daisy. Later that evening, Nick shares a moment alone with Daisy. She tells Nick that when her daughter was born three years prior, she told the doctor that “the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” In contrast to this ideal fool, Daisy declares that she has “been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.” She then adds, with “thrilling scorn,” “God, I’m sophisticated!” In other words, Daisy’s “sophisticated” allows her a cynical understanding of how empty her life actually is. However, it’s unclear to her (and to the reader) what would give her a more fulfilling life.

What’s at the heart of the American Dream? 

At its most basic, The Great Gatsby ’s presents the American Dream as a striving after something that has been irretrievably lost. There is a moment in the book that shows what is at the heart of this striving. About midway through the novel, Nick is talking to Gatsby after one of his parties. Daisy and Tom left hours before and Gatsby is concerned that Daisy didn’t have a good time. Nick says that “I wouldn’t ask too much of her [Daisy]…You can’t repeat the past,” to which Gatsby incredulously responds, “‘Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can’!” This is Gatsby’s dream in a nutshell – he wants to literally recreate the past. Everything he has done – the lying, the wealth, the parties – all of it is Gatsby’s attempt to change the course of events that led him to this present. Nick elaborates on Gatsby’s desire,

He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…

We can finally see what’s really at stake in the novel’s presentation of the American Dream. While the American Dream is certainly related to social mobility and materialism, it is, at its most basic, a desire to be – to become oneself – outside the influence of contingency. Gatsby’s life was buffeted by forces beyond his control. Born into poverty, and shipped off to war, he was unable to make good on the promise he made to himself when he kissed Daisy. Ultimately, the American dream is an individual’s desire to disconnect the present from the past – to fashion an identity outside of history.

All the characters in The Great Gatsby labor under this desire. Gatsby recreates himself for Daisy, Tom is looking for some lost football game, Daisy mourns her cynical sophistication, and George and Myrtle Wilson dream of going west. Which just leaves Nick Carroway…

Nick Carraway and the American Dream

Where does this leave our narrator, Nick Carraway? How does he understand the striving at the heart of the American dream? The final paragraph of the novel gives us some insight. Nick has decided to leave New York. Before he goes, he stops by Gatsby’s mansion one last time. He lies down on the beach and thinks of Gatsby dreaming about the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. We read that,

“[Gatsby’s] dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further… And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

This is a perfect distillation of the striving at the heart of the novel’s treatment of the American dream. Nick understands perfectly how Gatsby’s grasping at his dream was always an attempt to recapture what must remain lost. Even more ironic is the fact that the more we struggle toward the “orgastic future,” the more we are carried back to the lost desires and dreams of our past.

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Themes in The Great Gatsby

The major themes in The Great Gatsby are: money & wealth, social class, American dream, love & marriage, gender.

Welcome to The Great Gatsby themes page prepared by our editorial team!

• 🗽 The American Dream
• 👬 Social Class
• 🗺️ Navigation

🎓 References

🗽 the american dream in the great gatsby, what is the american dream in the great gatsby.

It may seem like this story is all about tragic love, but in The Great Gatsby, the American dream is the central theme . Every scene and every character is connected to the idea of the American dream’s corruption. It is not about a better life anymore but about getting richer and richer.

The Role of The American Dream in the Novel

The American dream was born when Europeans began to move west to America, seeking a better life . As Nick pictures it in Chapter 9 , for the first settlers, it was all about discovery . They wanted freedom, happiness, and equality. 

However, during the Jazz Age, it turned upside down. Money has become the goal instead of an instrument. After the war, the stock market rocketed up to the point when anyone could become wealthy. That is when the new rich of the 1920s appeared. With time, the greed for money overrode the old dream of free and happy family life. The novel pictures this transition perfectly. Swarms of people moving east to New York represent the American dream’s corruption in The Great Gatsby . Nick Carraway can be counted as one of them since he moved to New York City hoping to start a career in the bond business.

Gatsby has already reached success in terms of making money . However, his dream is controversial. He is completely consumed by the materialistic idea of getting as rich as possible, but love for Daisy motivates him. This uncorrupted dream is what makes Gatsby different from other characters who are empty inside. Nevertheless, he is using faulty means to conquer Daisy. Gatsby thinks that money is an easy and fast solution to everything, but that is where he is wrong. Moreover, he connects with the criminals .

Initially, hard work and belief were the tools that would lead anyone to the American dream, which is one of the main themes. Gatsby is not the only character in the novel who tries to cheat. Myrtle seems to have fallen for the idea of a wealthy life too . She sees the way to it through Tom Buchanan. At the end of the story, she ends up dead, as well as Gatsby. Their failure symbolizes the danger of taking a shortcut on the way to the American Dream.

One of the symbols representing the hopelessness of materialism is the Valley of Ashes . Just like other characters of the novel, people who live there believe that money will make them happy. Fitzgerald hit the nail on the head because if people try to look for the source of abundance outside, it leads them to frustration.

Quotes about the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

“If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 8

“Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind? He was always great for that.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 8

“…I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 8

♂️ Gender in The Great Gatsby

Women in the great gatsby.

Women in The Great Gatsby represent the struggle to change the usual perception of gender roles. Each female character in the novel has a different approach to gender inequality at that time. None of them seem to take radical measures, but their behavior is noticeable. Women’s rights issue is one of the major themes in The Great Gatsby .

Feminism in The Great Gatsby

The gender roles in The Great Gatsby are represented just according to the way it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Most families, except for old money, follow the unspoken rules. Men work and build careers, while women go out and spend money . Men also show their superiority, often getting physical with their wives.

In the novel, men are described by their social status and their place of work. However, the role of women in The Great Gatsby comes down to being pretty and obedient wives. It is very well shown by Daisy when she said that “the best thing a girl can be in this world” is to be “ a beautiful little fool ” so that men would use her. Essentially, that is what Daisy does – she pretends to be clueless to stay with Tom. Judging by her cynical statements, she seems to be quite intelligent, but she needs to remain submissive to save her status. Betraying Gatsby, she chose to marry Tom, whose stable wealth guarantees a careless life. Unfortunately, it appeared that her husband is a misogynistic , controlling man, for whom women are just possessions.

Moreover, he gets physical whenever he feels the urge to show his power. It happened with both Daisy and Myrtle Wilson, his mistress. Now, Daisy is doomed to play the role of a meek wife because it is her choice. Myrtle and Daisy are just common examples of how women had to behave in the 1920s .

Unlike Daisy, Jordan chooses not to surrender to life circumstances and represents feminism in The Great Gatsby . She is a new woman, a so-called flapper , which means that she is independent and free to wear bold, colorful make-up and clothing. Jordan has a career, her own point of view, and doesn’t seem interested in becoming a mere wife. Moreover, she doesn’t limit her choice of partner to males. She challenges patriarchy by taking control of her own life and not depending on men. However, according to Nick, Jordan doesn’t possess the level of femininity other ladies in the novel have. He mentions that her body type resembles a manly athlete, even though she is charming. All in all, Jordan Baker is a representative of a feminist movement of the time .

Quotes on the Role of Women in The Great Gatsby

“‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’” The Great Gatsby , chapter 1

“She was incurably dishonest… Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply—I was casually sorry, and then I forgot.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 3

“Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 8

👬 Social Class in The Great Gatsbysocial

Every character belongs to a specific social class in The Great Gatsby . The differences between the classes are drastic, but they help create a precise image of the 1920s. Fitzgerald also highlights division inside the social classes, which also appears to be a critical theme in The Great Gatsby .

Social Inequality in the Novel

There are three social classes in The Great Gatsby : old money , new money , and no money . Although old money and nouveau riche may have the same amount of gold in their banks, they are still distinct. Aristocratic old families from East Egg, represented by the Buchanans, simply cannot accept people who just got rich as not only they lack manners, but they may be a threat. Therefore, the new rich, such as Gatsby, have to stay in West Egg while struggling to make enough connections to be accepted in the elite social class. On the other hand, Myrtle and George Wilson belong to no money – the lowest class – just like other people living in the Valley of Ashes.

Power and privilege are divided according to social position. It is especially noticeable by the submissive acting of Wilson when Tom comes by his garage. Wilson knows that money equals power, and it is the reason why Myrtle is so eager to get into the elite club.

What is more, Myrtle’s attitude toward her husband brings up a relation between status and love. She mentions that she thought her husband was of better “breeding” when they met, but he turned out to be poor hence unworthy. And, eventually, Gatsby fails to get Daisy back because it is not the wealth that she is into. Daisy rejects Gatsby due to his social background. Someone who comes from a low-income family is no match for an aristocrat like her.

Finally, higher social classes can afford to cover up their missteps , just like it happens with Tom and Daisy. Just like Gatsby, as a very prominent persona, escapes the penalty on the road to New York City, Daisy quickly forgets that she killed a person and simply leaves the city. It is also possible that Tom paid Myrtle’s sister to stay quiet about his affair since she never dropped a word about it.

Racism in The Great Gatsby

Not only does Tom feel privileged, but his attitude underlines the issue of racism in The Great Gatsby and the society of the 1920s as a whole. Tom appears to be incredibly racist, and it comes up when he comments on the book called “ The Rise of the Coloured Empires .” He is afraid that the white race “will be utterly submerged.”

The Great Gatsby: Social Class Quotes

“Have you read ‘The Rise of the Coloured Empires’ by this man Goddard?.. Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 1

“He’s an Oggsford man… He went to Oggsford College in England. You know Oggsford College?.. It’s one of the most famous colleges in the world.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 4

“An Oxford man!.. Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit… Oxford, New Mexico, or something like that.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 7

🤑 Wealth in The Great Gatsby

The money question also makes it to the list of the major themes in The Great Gatsby . Not only does it include the amount but also the way people get their finances. Essentially, for all the characters in The Great Gatsby , wealth becomes the only goal , and materialism corrupts the American Dream.

Money in The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby , materialism takes over people’s minds, and they celebrate nothing else but their ability to get more possessions. Poor characters think that the hunger inside will go away as soon as they get wealthy. But it only takes one glimpse to understand that excessively rich people like Tom stay hollow – money doesn’t fix it.

It all comes down to money in The Great Gatsby . The Roaring Twenties have brought the idea that wealth is universal salvation. Tom keeps a mistress, and Gatsby is trying to get love from Daisy, while she only wants security and status. All of them use money as an instrument to achieve their goals. But it goes further as none of them notices the hollowness of the material side of their lives. Gatsby’s flashy parties are one of the symbols of wastefulness and carelessness in the novel. People are trapped in the vicious cycle of consumerism , and they don’t see any other aim than just spending money. It underlines the influence of money as the central theme in The Great Gatsby . Also, materialism is tightly connected to the American Dream’s corruption since it is easy to quit the dream when there is easy money on the table.

Old Money vs. New Money in The Great Gatsby

For the lower class, money is the same everywhere but not for the elite . Old aristocratic families of East Egg hate on the West Egg newcomers since they got rich just right after the war. These two Long Island areas symbolize the clash of old money vs. new money in The Great Gatsby .

The main reason for such a division in the upper class is that aristocrats do not welcome the new rich . The new money vs. old money battle has been going on since the end of the war. Then, people could build up their fortunes thanks to the thriving economy. However, the way from rags to riches does not suggest making social connections. Hence, they have decided to compensate for it with overly ostentatious houses and outfits. Of course, families who have been rich for decades stick to their old traditions, so they only see vulgarity and lack of style in the new money class. But the aristocratic grace and manners appear to be a mask that old money people wear to hide arrogance and hypocrisy.

The Great Gatsby: Quotes about Money

“His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach… For instance he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 1

“After that I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe – Paris, Venice, Rome – collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, painting a little, things for myself only, and trying to forget something very sad that had happened to me long ago.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 4

“‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…. High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl…” The Great Gatsby , chapter 7

💘 Love in The Great Gatsby

Love & marriage in the novel.

Love is the last of the major themes in The Great Gatsby . Fitzgerald’s novel is far from an idealized romance , and the awkward attempts of the main characters to have a romantic relationship only point to the instability of love. Even though love is overdriven by wealth in The Great Gatsby , it affects the development of the characters.

Love in The Great Gatsby

The two married couples in the novel are definitely an excellent example of corrupted love in The Great Gatsby . Both Daisy and Myrtle got married with the hope of getting a stable budget . However, neither of them experience love and support, which are usually the essentials in every healthy marriage. Myrtle’s union turned out to be a disappointment since George Wilson lied about his status wearing a borrowed suit for their wedding. Daisy, on the other hand, got what she wanted – social status and financial security. Still, she has to obey Tom and suffer from his hypocrisy. It may also refer to another theme of The Great Gatsby – wealth and money.

Nick tries to pursue a somewhat normal relationship with Jordan. Throughout the novel, there is not much description of the time they spend together. However, according to Nick’s feelings, it seems like he is closer to her than anybody else. In the end, Jordan and Nick have quite an unpleasant break-up. During the Jazz Age, people were more likely to have casual relationships for fun rather than looking into love and marriage. It seems like the “ tender curiosity ” is the closest that characters can get to real love. Even Gatsby’s feelings toward Daisy appear to be just an illusion.

The Great Gatsby: Quotes about Love

“He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn’t keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head… I told him I’d have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn’t hardly know I wasn’t getting into a subway train.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 2

“I thought I’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband. If he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say ‘Where’s Tom gone?’ and wear the most abstracted expression until she saw him coming in the door.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 4

“She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw. He was astounded. His mouth opened a little and he looked at Gatsby and then back at Daisy as if he had just recognized her as some one he knew a long time ago.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 7

Jay Gatsby & Daisy Buchanan

Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is the focus of the novel . It all started in Louisville, and they had a beautiful love, which could have lasted forever. Even after being separated for years, Gatsby’s love has stayed loyal to Daisy. But she got cold-hearted pretty quickly and chose money over love.

Gatsby has gone through a very long and hard way from rags to riches and hasn’t forgotten the purpose of this journey. When they finally reunite, it seems like their love has been reborn. Gatsby is glowing with happiness, just like nothing happened, hardly keeping his eyes dry. It must have been the happiest Nick saw him. Daisy, on the other hand, looks quite confused. She might not even remember everything from their little romance in Louisville. A world full of dreams and illusions is where Gatsby lives. For him, everything has finally come back to how it was. A reality check probably wouldn’t hurt him. However, Daisy has a real family to attend to . She has a hard time choosing between Tom and Gatsby. Finally, she admits that she also loved Tom and betrays Gatsby once again. The latter, though, refuses to believe that he failed and decides to wait until Daisy changes her mind. But she is quick to erase any memory of him after the accident. Eventually, he would have realized that she could not live up to his expectations, just as Nick has suspected.

Gatsby and Daisy used to have a perfect relationship but only for a brief moment. To build a strong union of loving people, they would need to stop looking through rose-colored glasses. Both partners need to see and accept the real identity of their partner. Gatsby, however, has had some surreal expectations towards Daisy.

What Does Daisy Represent to Gatsby?

To Gatsby, Daisy represents total perfection – an idol of beauty, intelligence, and grace. And even though, in reality, she is far from this image, it is not all he sees in her. Since she was born in a wealthy family, she portrays the “golden girl” whose appearance radiates extreme wealth. Hence, Gatsby only sees her status in her.

Gatsby & Daisy Quotes

“He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated three years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 6

“‘Gatsby sprang to his feet, vivid with excitement. ‘She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried. ‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me!’” The Great Gatsby , chapter 7

“I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport. I even hoped for a while that she’d throw me over, but she didn’t, because she was in love with me too.” The Great Gatsby , chapter 8

Daisy & Tom Buchanan

Another failed relationship is the union of Daisy and Tom . They have been married for three years and got a house at East Egg. They also have a child together, a lovely little girl named Pammy. According to Jordan, Daisy was even in love with Tom. It may have only been the result of her excitement after the whole three months of honeymoon. However, her feelings faded with all the burdens of family life. Besides, Tom has started cheating as soon as they came back from the honeymoon.

It is incredible how Tom and Daisy Buchanan are the only couple that survived throughout the novel. There are so many reasons for them to break it up, but they remain inseparable and even seem to have gotten closer at the end. Daisy loving Gatsby, Tom cheating and abusing her, and the murder of Myrtle were not enough for them to separate.

It may not be obvious, but what keeps Daisy and Tom together is their mutual desire to keep the privileges of the upper class . Initially, Tom was approved by Daisy’s family as a suitable match. Their marriage guarantees the stability of their status. That is why Daisy chose Tom over Gatsby once again.

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Analysis of How The American Dream is Portrayed in The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby: Fitzgerald’s American Dream and the Roaring Twenties

“The Great Gatsby,” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925, is a quintessential novel of the Jazz Age, capturing the spirit and excesses of the Roaring Twenties. The novel is celebrated for its exploration of the American Dream, its depiction of the era’s lavish lifestyles, and its poignant critique of the American upper class.

Plot Overview:

The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and World War I veteran who moves to Long Island’s North Shore and becomes a bond salesman in New York City. He rents a small house in West Egg, adjacent to the opulent mansion of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a millionaire known for hosting extravagant parties. The novel unfolds as Nick becomes entangled in the complex relationships and social dynamics of his affluent neighbors, including his cousin Daisy Buchanan, her husband Tom, and, eventually, Gatsby himself.

• The American Dream: “The Great Gatsby” is often seen as a critique of the American Dream, which is portrayed as corrupt and unattainable. Gatsby’s pursuit of wealth and status, especially his obsession with Daisy, symbolizes the broader societal pursuit of material success and the hollowness that often accompanies it.
• Decadence and Idealism: The novel contrasts the decadence and moral decay of the 1920s with the idealism and romantic aspirations of its characters, particularly Gatsby.
• Class and Social Stratification: Fitzgerald explores the distinctions between different social classes, notably between the newly rich (like Gatsby) and the established aristocracy (represented by Daisy and Tom Buchanan).
• Love and Disillusionment: The novel delves into the complexities of love and desire, ultimately leading to disillusionment. Gatsby’s idealized love for Daisy is central to this theme.

Character Analysis:

• Jay Gatsby: A complex and enigmatic figure, Gatsby is both a romantic idealist and a representation of 1920s materialism and excess. His mysterious past and his obsessive pursuit of Daisy contribute to his tragic downfall.
• Daisy Buchanan: Daisy embodies the allure and superficiality of the upper class. Her indecisiveness and materialism reflect the moral ambiguity of the era.
• Tom Buchanan: Tom represents the arrogance and brutishness of the old money elite. His affair with Myrtle Wilson and his disdain for Gatsby highlight the class prejudices of the time.
• Nick Carraway: As the narrator, Nick serves as both a participant in and observer of the story. His reflections on the events and characters provide a moral framework for the novel.

Style and Narrative Technique:

Fitzgerald’s writing is noted for its poetic and vivid prose, symbolic imagery, and the effective use of Nick’s narrative perspective. The novel’s restrained yet powerful storytelling captures the mood and tone of the Jazz Age.

Depiction of the Roaring Twenties:

“The Great Gatsby” vividly portrays the opulence, hedonism, and cultural dynamism of the 1920s, a time of dramatic social and economic change. The lavish parties, jazz music, and bootlegged liquor epitomize the excesses of the era.

Impact and Legacy:

“The Great Gatsby” is widely regarded as a masterpiece of American literature and a critical examination of the American Dream. Its themes, characters, and depiction of the Roaring Twenties have made it a timeless work, resonating with readers across generations.

Symbolism and Imagery:

Fitzgerald uses potent symbols to deepen the novel’s thematic impact. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock represents Gatsby’s unattainable dreams and the elusive nature of the American Dream. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg on the billboard in the Valley of Ashes symbolize the moral decay beneath the surface of society and the loss of spiritual values in pursuit of material wealth.

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Narrative Irony and Moral Judgment:

“The Great Gatsby” is rich in narrative irony, particularly in how it presents the American Dream. Gatsby’s tragic story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of idealizing material success and romantic aspirations. Nick Carraway’s moral judgments and disillusionment provide a critical lens through which the events and characters of the novel are assessed.

The Role of Wealth and Materialism:

Wealth and materialism are central themes, with the novel scrutinizing how they impact individual values and relationships. The characters’ lavish lifestyles are juxtaposed with their emotional emptiness and moral bankruptcy, highlighting the corrupting influence of wealth.

Social Critique:

The novel offers a sharp critique of 1920s American society, particularly the recklessness and moral ambiguity of the upper class. Fitzgerald paints a bleak picture of the era’s social elite, characterized by superficiality, cynicism, and a lack of empathy.

The Jazz Age and Cultural Change:

As a definitive novel of the Jazz Age, “The Great Gatsby” captures the cultural transformations of the 1920s, including the changing social mores, the rise of jazz music, and the increasing prominence of the automobile. These elements are woven into the fabric of the narrative, reflecting the dynamism and the moral complexities of the time.

Fitzgerald’s Personal Experiences:

The novel is often considered semi-autobiographical, reflecting Fitzgerald’s own experiences and observations of society during the 1920s. His portrayal of the era’s extravagance and the disillusionment that followed is informed by his personal familiarity with the highs and lows of the period.

Influence on Literature and Culture:

“The Great Gatsby” has had a profound influence on American literature and culture. Its themes and imagery have permeated popular culture, and it has inspired numerous adaptations in film, theater, and other media.

Relevance Today:

The novel’s exploration of themes such as the pursuit of happiness, the corruption of the American Dream, and the impact of societal expectations remains relevant in contemporary society. “The Great Gatsby” continues to be a powerful commentary on the human condition, exploring the universal quest for meaning and fulfillment in a world often dominated by superficial values.

Conclusion:

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” stands as a timeless literary masterpiece, offering a penetrating critique of the American Dream and the moral landscape of the Roaring Twenties. Its exploration of themes such as ambition, love, and disillusionment, combined with its striking symbolism and elegant prose, make it an enduring work of American literature. The novel’s depiction of the complexities and contradictions of human nature continues to resonate, making it an essential work for understanding the cultural and societal dynamics of its time.

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The Great Gatsby

By f. scott fitzgerald.

'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an unforgettable novel of wealth and love. It chronicles the "Jazz Age," post World War I in the United States.

About the Book

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925 in New York City. It is considered to be Fitzgerald’s best and most famous novel . It depicts the lives of characters entangled in the New York City social scene , in dangerous love affairs, and endless wealth. Narrated by Nick Carraway, a man whose life mirrored Fitzgerald’s own, he takes the reader into the mysterious world of Jay Gatsby . Gatsby, a new multi-millionaire who seemingly lives the American dream, is consumed with the desire to reclaim a lost relationship.

Key Facts about  The Great Gatsby

• Title:   The Great Gatsby
• When/where written: Paris and the US in 1924
• Published: 1925
• Literary Period: Modernism
• Genre:  Novel
• Point-of-View:  First-person
• Setting: New York City in 1922
• Climax:  Gatsby and Tom fight over Daisy
• Antagonist:  Tom Buchanan, Greed

F. Scott Fitzgerald and  The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s  The Great Gatsby  is a modernist masterpiece . But, when it was published the author had no idea of its importance or how tied it would become to his own literary legacy. Fitzgerald, like the novel’s narrator, Nick, was born in Minnesota. He moved to New York to pursue fame and fortune, like Jay Gatsby. Perhaps also seeking inspiration in his personal experiences, Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, refused to marry him unless he could support her. This mirrors Gatsby’s experience with Daisy in the novel, ending in her marrying Tom Buchanan, a cruel man but one with more than enough money for her to live the kind of life she wanted. The Fitzgeralds were wealthy, but as debt crept upon them, Fitzgerald’s health worsened, and he suffered from mental illness. He died from a heart attack in 1940, with his wife passing away a few years later. Today, scholars consider  The Great Gatsby,  as well as Fitzgerald’s other novels, as a means for the writer to confront his feelings about (what he coined as) “The Jazz Age.” The period after World War I is well documented in  The Great Gatsby .  Fitzgerald was initially interested in the outrageous lifestyles of the wealthy in New York City, engaging in such a lifestyle himself. But, just as Nick Carraway discovered, things weren’t quite as bright and shining as they seemed.

Books Related to  The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby  is one of the best representatives of modernist fiction after the First World War. It was a period of emptiness and disillusionment that was for many such as the characters in this novel , filled with irrelevancies. He depicted lost people, depression, reality, and various types of corruption. As did other writers like James Joyce with his masterpiece Ulysses.  Hemingway’s works are also often compared to Fitzgerald’s. These include books like The Sun Also Rises.  Other books readers might find comparable to  The Great Gatsby  include  The Age of Innocence  by Edith Wharton,  To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee, and Fitzgerlad’s 1922 novel,  The Beautiful and the Damned.  The latter was published right before  The Great Gatsby  and tells the story of a socialite and heir to a massive fortune. Fitzgerald explores his marriage, military service, and the couple’s troubles.  This Side of Paradise  by F. Scott Fitzgerald is another novel in which readers can find themes comparable to those in  The Great Gatsby.  It was Fitzgerald’s first novel and follows several American youths after World War I.

The Lasting Impact of The Great Gatsby

When The Great Gatsby  was published in 1925, it sold around 21,000 copies, a number far lower than Fitzgerald’s previous novels. Today, the novel has sold over 25 million copies and has been translated into numerous languages. It’s a staple of classrooms all over the world. Today, the novel is said to embody the American spirit and convey the atmosphere of an incredibly important time in the history of the country . For some, this novel is the best representative of the American spirit and Fitzgerald’s “Jazz Age .” Despite the decades that have passed, the novel is still relevant today. It features complex characters with problems school-age readers and those simply reading for pleasure can relate to.

The Great Gatsby Review ⭐

‘The Great Gatsby’ tells a very human story of wealth, dreams, and failure. F. Scott Fitzgerald takes the reader into the heart of the Jazz Age, in New York City, and into the world of Jay Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby Historical Context 🍾

‘The Great Gatsby’ is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best-known novel. It encapsulates the Jazz Age of the United States in the 1920s.

The Great Gatsby Themes and Analysis 🍾

Within ‘The Great Gatsby,’ F. Scott Fitzgerald taps into several important themes. These include the American dream, and its decline, as well as wealth, class, and love.

The Great Gatsby Quotes 💬

Throughout ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader can find a wide variety of beautiful and thoughtful quotes.

The Great Gatsby Summary 🍾

‘The Great Gatsby’ is generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. It represents a cultural period in the United States that’s now referred to as the Jazz Age.

The Great Gatsby Characters 🍾

‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald is filled with interesting and morally bankrupt characters, such as Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Ewing Klipspringer.

It'll change your perspective on books forever.

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The American dream in The Great Gatsby

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The paper explores the corrupted idea of the American Dream in one of the greatest novels written on the topic, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Even though the pursuance of the American Dream stems from the idea of hard work and success that is pure, truthful, and just, Jay Gatsby's approach in achieving it leads to his demise. His relationships with other characters, particularly Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan, were tainted because of the morally corrupted notion of the American Dream. This paper textually analyzes The Great Gatsby and explores that how Gatsby runs after a dream (Daisy) that he cannot achieve even after becoming financially wealthy, and how the corrupt ideals of the American Dream become the reason that he cannot fulfill his own dreams.

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Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences , 2021, 4(9); doi: 10.25236/AJHSS.2021.040920 .

An analysis of Gatsby's American Dream in the Great Gatsby from the perspective of Lukacs

Yuan Jiajia

Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 610041, China

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The Great Gatsby is one of greatest works of the American writer Fitzgerald.The novel reflects the flashy and restless America in the 1920s and it depicts that the protagonist Gatsby attempts to obtain material wealth through illegal means in order to recover the relations with his former lover Daisy, while the selfishness and shallowness of Daisy gives him a fatal blow ,and Gatsby's American Dream is shattered into pieces in the end. The author uses Gatsby's pursuit of the American Dream and the tragedy of the American Dream to mirror the cruelty of the society at that time, which also shows Gatsby's inevitable tragic ending under such indifferent social background. This paper tries to explain Gatsby's American dream from Lukacs' point of view, so that readers can understand Gatsby's tragedy from the perspective of social reality.

The Great Gatsby; The American Dream; Lukacs

Cite This Paper

Yuan Jiajia. An analysis of Gatsby's American Dream in the Great Gatsby from the perspective of Lukacs. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2021) Vol. 4, Issue 9: 131-135. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2021.040920.

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[2] Cowley, Malcolm. Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age. New York:Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996. 

[3] F. Scott. Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Reach Press, 2004. 

[4] Georgy Lukács. Essays on Realism [M]. MIT Press, 1980. 

[5] Gong,Lijuan. An Analysis of Themes and Techniques in The Great Gatsby from the Perspective of Western Marxist Criticism.Tianjin University of Finance and Ecomomics, 2009 

[6] Moyra Haslett. Marxist Literary and Cultural Theories[M]. ST. Martin’s Press, 2000. 

[7] Na, Renhua. The Great Gatsby and the Disillusionment of American Dream [J]. Journal of Chinese, Foreign Language Education and Teaching,2009,(2):67.

[8] Poupard, Dennis&James, E.Person,ed. “Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism”. Detroit & London: Gale Research Inc.1984. 

[9] Qi, Liang. Introduction to Western Culture[M].Huacheng Publishing House,2000.

[10] Wang,Shu. A Reading of Gatsby’s Disillusioned American Dream from the Perspective of Consumerism. Central South University, 2009 

[11] Wu, Jianguo.Fitzgerald study[M].Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2002.

[12] Zhang,Lilong. The Evolution and Collapse of The American Dream -- A Review of the Great Gatsby [J]. Foreign Literature studies,1998,2.

[13] Zhu,Gang.Western Literary Criticism Theory in the 20th Century[M].Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2002.

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Essay: Analysis of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

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Many people believe that money is the answer to all problems, that money equals happiness. The American Dream, to start with nothing and through hard work and determination achieve wealth and happiness. This is evident in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Jay Gatsby certainly believes in the American Dream and that wealth can buy him happiness. Gatsby looks up to the American dream and follows it so he can be the picture perfect man that every girl desires. He runs into trouble when his plan is spoiled while falling in love with a wealthy girl named Daisy. Gatsby was however not wealthy and could not acquire Daisey while being poor. Gatsby would then pursue wealth to revive his relationship with Daisy. Fitzgerald critiques the American Dream by showing Gatsby’s fatal flaw, throughout the novel there are many symbols that show Gatsby’s love for Daisy and how he thinks his wealth and status will attract her back. Gatsby’s home really shows his love for her with his over the top approach. Everything from decorations, clothes, location, and parties are all directed towards Daisy in hope he will gain her back through his status. Gatsby is an example of what the Amercian Dream represents (Hearne) through the people’s view. Although it may seem like Gatsby has it all, his real desire is to win back the girl he loves, Daisy. Through Fitzgerald’s eyes the American Dream is unattainable. Even though they become close, none of the characters in Fitzgerald’s book achieve their American Dream. In “The Great Gatsby”, there are many different types of symbolism shown in the book. One author states that most of Fitzgerald’s plot was “achieved through motif and symbol” (Barbarese). As a symbol, the green light provides Gatsby with hope in reviving his relationship with Daisy as she lives just across the bay. “Gatsby believed in the green light” (Fitzgerald 189) giving us an example how Gatsby believes his American Dream is still attainable with Daisey. The main theme for people in east and west egg is how they are seen, they are very materialistic. “Striving for wealth has become a way for Americans to ease their consciences, while one’s morality is often measured by the ability to acquire material possessions” (Pidgeon). It is shown in the book when Benny McClenahan “always arrived with four girls,” (Fitzgerald 67). The Great Gatsby is regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups but in the end each group has its own problems to contend with. Leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating social classes old money, new money, and no money Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the characters running throughout every strata of society. The first and most obvious group Fitzgerald attacks is the rich. However, for Fitzgerald placing the rich all in one group together would be a bad idea. The rich seem to be unified by their money, but they are actually split up into two different groups of rich people. There is old money and there is new money. Gatsby is part of “new money” it shows that he doesn’t know how to handle money when he “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay,” (Fitzgerald 83). However, Fitzgerald reveals this is not the case. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald presents the two distinct types of wealthy people. First, there are people like the Buchanans and Jordan Baker who were born into wealth. Their families have had money for many generations, hence they are “old money.” As portrayed in the novel, the “old money” people don’t have to work and they spend their time amusing themselves. Daisy, Tom, Jordan, and the distinct social class they represent are perhaps the story’s most elitist group, imposing distinctions on the other people of wealth based not so much on how much money one has but where that money came from and when it was acquired. For the “old money” people the fact that Gatsby has only just recently acquired his money is reason enough to dislike him. In their way of thinking, he can’t possibly have the same taste they have. Not only does he work for a living, but he comes from a low-class background which in their opinion means he cannot possibly be like them. In many ways the social elite are right. The “new money” people cannot be like them and in many ways that works in their favor those in society’s highest are not nice people at all. They are judgmental and superficial failing to look at the essence of the people around them. Instead they live their lives in such a way as to perpetuate their sense of superiority however unrealistic that may be. The people with newly acquired wealth though aren’t necessarily much better. Think of Gatsby’s partygoers. They attend his parties drink his liquor and eat his food never once taking the time to even meet their host. When Gatsby dies, all the people who frequented his house every week mysteriously became busy elsewhere abandoning Gatsby when he could no longer do anything for them. One would like to think the newly wealthy would be more sensitive to the world around them after all it was only recently they were without money and most doors were closed to them. As Fitzgerald shows however their concerns are largely living for the moment steeped in partying and other forms of excess. Just as he did with people of money Fitzgerald uses the people with no money to convey a strong message. Nick although he comes from a family with a bit of wealth doesn’t have nearly the capital of Gatsby or Tom. In the end though, he shows himself to be an honorable and principled man which is more than Tom exhibits. Myrtle though is another story, she comes from the middle class at best. She is trapped as are so many others in the valley of ashes and spends her days trying to make it out. In fact, her desire to move up the social hierarchy leads her to her affair with Tom and she is decidedly pleased with the arrangement. Because of the misery pervading her life Myrtle has distanced herself from her moral obligations and has no difficulty cheating on her husband when it means that she gets to lead the lifestyle she wants if only for a little while. What she doesn’t realize however is that Tom and his friends will never accept her into their circle. Myrtle is no more than a toy to Tom and to those he represents. Tom is living his American dream while he has Myrtle and Daisy at the same time. With the death of Myrtle, Tom cries as he loses a part of his American Dream. Fitzgerald has an eye and in The Great Gatsby presents a harsh picture of the world he sees around him. The 1920s marked a time of great post war economic growth and Fitzgerald captures the frenzy of the society well. Although of course Fitzgerald could have no way of foreseeing the stock market crash of 1929 the world he presents in The Great Gatsby seems clearly to be headed for disaster. They have assumed skewed worldviews mistakenly believing their survival lies in stratification and reinforcing social boundaries. They erroneously place their faith in superficial external means while neglecting to cultivate the compassion and sensitivity that in fact separate humans from the animals. The American Dream is now dying down, becoming more of a desire than an actual goal. “The pursuit of wealth came to have a meaning transcended the mere desire to be more comfortable” (Pidgeon). As people soon realized, “America has great potential and promise, but no guarantees” (Hearne). Many Americans have chased their dream, just like Tom, Myrtle, Gatsby and others in the book, only in the end to come up short. In some cases they do reach their goal, for instance Gatsby did work his way out of poverty just as he planned, but he wanted more. He needed to have Daisey to finish his dream. Tom needed Myrtle for his American dream consisting of multiple women. Ultimately, Fitzgerald never lets his characters fully grasps their American Dream.

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