Death Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Death of Hope The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ends with Gatsby’s death and Nick’s return to the Midwest. The author is illustrating throughout the novel the society’s views of the American Dream in the 1920s as the best way of life, but often it is not true and very few people end up living the dream. Fitzgerald exhibits this in The Great Gatsby through the downfall of the unhappy, yet wealthy, and through the lessons learned by the people surrounding them.
The American society is corrupt and overvalues wealth, which leads to false beliefs that money brings happiness. Fitzgerald illustrates the significance of money as a symbol of success through Gatsby’s struggle to overcome his lack of class and education in his pursuit for Daisy.
He is wearing pink suits. Gatsby’s wealth gives him access to many things, but he will never be considered by the aristocracy one of their own. Oxford is not only about the education you earn, but learning how to behave as a member of the upper class. Daisy stays with Tom in the end, which shows that she will not abandon her class status regardless of her feelings for Gatsby, and will not sacrifice her life of privilege. Gatsby’s wealth gives him access to many things, but he will never be considered by the aristocracy one of their own. All the money Gatsby has acquired cannot bring him at Daisy’s social level and cannot buy him happiness. Fitzgerald shows how Gatsby chases the American dream and his ambition makes him wealthy, but his dream does not come true in the end. Furthermore, Fitzgerald’s message regarding morals, values and ethics describes Daisy’s and Tom’s loveless relationship regardless of their wealth. Nick says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (179). Tom and
Fitzgerald’s message regarding corruption shows that Gatsby is determined to become rich, even though is through illegal activities. When Nick asked about his fortune, Gatsby says, "‘I thought you inherited your money.’ ‘I did, old sport,’ he said automatically, ‘but I lost most of it in the big panic – the panic of the war.’…‘Oh, I've been in several things,’ he corrected himself. ‘I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I'm not in either one now’" (103). Gatsby is involved in criminal activities and bootlegging to acquire his wealth. This is what is called new money. Fitzgerald exemplifies the materialism through symbols and colours. The bay separates the West Egg and the East Egg. The West Egg represents the newly rich like Gatsby, who lack social class and are avid to increase their fortune, and the East Egg the traditional upper class. As Nick describes it, the West Egg is, “well, the less fashionable of the two” and “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” (5). Moreover, the colour yellow or gold resembles wealth and beauty, but also death. It is illustrated by Gatsby’s car, his tie, the buttons on Daisy’s dress the flowers smelling like pale gold, as Nick described them, “the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate” (90). It is shown to indicate the lavish lifestyle and the wealth. Death is