The Great Gatsby American Dream Analysis

A False Dream
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is rife with controversial characters and ideas, but none more so than that of the flawed “American Dream.” Americans have always felt they can cling to the idea of the American dream, exploiting even the most infinitesimal sliver of hope in search of a life of fulfillment and contentedness. The poor look to the rich and powerful as symbols of the American dream coming to fruition; proof that baseless clay can be molded into something of worth. Millions of people can imagine having this “perfect” life, but inevitably, for every one person that fulfills this dream, millions of others fall short. The American dream is an illusion that gives the poor hope of rising out of the ashes
This dumping ground is home to countless people who, unbeknownst to them, have not and will not see their dreams realized: “This is the valley of ashes - a fantastic farm… of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (27). Fitzgerald strategically places the valley of ashes in close proximity with both West and East Egg to clearly juxtapose the American dream fulfilled with the American dream unfulfilled. The valley of ashes is so close to the Eggs that the residents of the wasteland are constantly reminded of what their life could be like should they become wealthy and what society deems successful. The rich embody this last bit of hope for those who still believe in the façade that is the American dream. These people just have yet to realize that this hope is a false illusion, for no life can sprout from the ashes in this “solemn dumping ground” (28). All life here has been condemned by the very thing they believe can set them free: the American dream. The valley of ashes not only plays host to those who are hopeless, but actually accentuates this hopelessness. George Wilson is an average, honest man stuck in the valley of ashes with no foreseeable way out. If Wilson looks outside, he sees “grey land” and “spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it” (27), but if he looks down in his own home
As if George Wilson wasn’t already in a bad enough place (mentally and physically), he has just learned of his wife’s infidelity in the same day that he learns of her murder: “George Wilson rocked himself back and forth on the couch inside… The effort of answering broke the rhythm of his rocking – for a moment he was silent” (164-165). What can a man who believes he has nothing do when his wife – his source of vitality – his lifeline is murdered and exposed as unfaithful all in the same day? – For a while, all he can do is grieve and rock back and forth. His judgment is upon him as he makes the transition from the kind of man who still clings to hope to the kind of man who is broken and crushed. Wilson’s compromised world is void of all that he once cared for and his ignorance fades as he begins to put two and two together: “’I’m one of these trusting fellas and I don’t think any harm to nobody, but when I get to know a thing I know it… I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God’… Wilson stood there a long time, his face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight” (166-168). In the same breath that the cruel world takes all Wilson once loved, it gives him a new purpose. He has transformed into a