Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald and the American Dream
The life in the roaring twenties was the life of parties and social gatherings, full of entertainment, laughter, and simplicity of heart without a care in the world. Like Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote, "Dream are true while they last" in The Higher Pantheism, and Tennyson's such thought was evident in the novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's piece can be related to Tennyson's view in that the people of the twenties were living in their dreams -the American dream of success and happiness - wanting to believe that that was their true life, their true identity. The hopeful-sybarites desired it badly enough to avoid facing reality, therefore their failure in achieving their ultimate goal of material success was unavoidable. Through the many unsuccessful attempts at achieving the American dream for the characters of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys his message that the failure of American dream is inevitable not only because reality cannot equate itself with the false ideals of the American dream, but also because people believe in it too much without even realizing their intentions. The American democracy is supposed to be based on equality among the people, but the truth is that social discrimination prevails nonet
Myrtle Wilson, a wife of a lower-class mechanic, strives to gain a higher status with Tom Buchanan, Daisy's wealthy, unfaithful husband from a prominent family, by having an affair with him. Tom introduces Myrtle as "[his] girl" to Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story and also Daisy Buchanan's second cousin, and invites him into the apartment where Tom and Myrtle led double lives in. Myrtle's strong attachment towards the American dream forced her to become a different person; scorning her own class and becoming corrupt like the rich. Fitzgerald describes her as a character whose personality changes along with her milieu, just like the time she "changed her costume and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room". Nick notices the change in her personality immediately after she changed he clothes: "the intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage (where they first met) was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air". People of the twenties lived partying, without worrying over life, enjoying every moment they could. They were living in dream, hungry for success, wealth and high-social status. Their American dreams failed, like Fitzgerald emphasized in his novel The Great Gatsby, because they were too engrossed in their dream world, not allowing enough time for reality to catch up with them. Fitzgerald saw this in the lives around him, including his own opinions and views on the American dream into the novel. His thoughts were that American dream is bound to fail if the people became too attached to their American dream and fail to see their mistake in living in complete abandon as many did in the roaring twenties. The American democracy, supposedly based on equality among people, became a mockery for the social/class discriminations
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Approximate Word count = 1397
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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