Frances Scott Key Fitzgerald is widely known for his literary classic, The Great Gatsby; a critical novel about the historical “Roaring Twenties”, which took place after World War I. The American dream was originally about freedom, equality and opportunity; through this novel, Fitzgerald declares that the American dream was corrupted during the “roaring twenties” era through the pursuit of wealth and class; which lead to moral decay in society. Therefore, the American dream did not ruin Jay Gatsby, the corruption of wealth and class, which lead to moral decay, influenced him to his demise and the incompletion to his American Dream.
The American Dream didn’t ruin Jay Gatsby, the corruption of the American Dream is what ruined him; one of the major corruptions was wealth, this corruption of wealth. According to Parisha Changizi and Parvin Ghasemi at Shiraz University , the attainment of wealth had changed people’s point of view on happiness, the pursuit of happiness transformed to the pursuit of wealth. The only person in Fitzgerald’s novel that did not have the obsession of wealth was the narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick could see that everyone around him was in love with the power of money; he can even sense it in his own cousin, Daisy when he makes the comment of “her voice was full of money” (Fitzgerald 127). Materialism was a large impact on the corruption of wealth, Gatsby being the most materialistic. Gatsby believed that his possessions were equivalent to all the happiness, harmony and beauty in the world (Changizi and Ghasemi).The corruption of wealth helped ruin Jay Gatsby by blinding him from the all negative aspects money; which would be materialism, and blinding him of ...
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Changizi, Parisha, and Parvin Ghasemi. "Degeneration Ofthe American Dreamin F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." Degeneration of American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby 2.2 (2012): 62-65. Www.rejournals.com. Shiraz University, Iran., Feb. 2012. Web. 27 May 2014.
Curumno. "F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby (Chapter I)." Poetry Genius. N.p., 2013. Web. 27 May 2014.
Dixon, Richard. "Materialism – Corruption of the American Dream." Wessex Scene. Sam Everard, 12 Feb. 2012. Web. 21 May 2014.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
Moss, Robert F. " Ross Macdonald’s Marked Copy of The Portable F. Scott Fitzgerald:A Study of Influence." Macdonald / The Portable F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina., 03 Dec. 2003. Web. 21 May 2014.
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