The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The Death of the American Dream in the Great Gatsby
World War I brought out the deepest, darkest, most malignant tendencies of human nature. Young men died in the thousands on the battlefield, martyrs of a wanton cause. 1920’s American society mirrored the Great War’s atmosphere of excess. The newly wealthy class, in onslaught, threw lavish parties and indulged in sexual promiscuity as exorbitance became the new state religion. Traditional values, including that of the American Dream, seemed to crumble; no longer did hard work, ambition, and hope guarantee success, whether wealth or happiness. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the zeitgeist of this era, characterized by wealth and meaningless. In the novel, Midwesterner Nick
On Nick's first journey to New York City by train with Tom, the two stop off at a shoddy repair garage to meet Tom's mistress, Myrtle Wilson. She lives with her humble husband George, owner of the garage, and successfully hides the affair from him. As she comes down the stairs, Nick awes at her appearance, "Her face...contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering" (30). Myrtle’s best trait, perhaps the trait Tom is most attracted to, is her vitality, her singular desire to live and rise to prominence. She determines to climb the social ladder and possesses the enthusiasm necessary to make the dream reality. The word “smouldering,” however, indirectly foreshadows the death of her dream, and its banishment to the Valley of Ashes, the graveyard for burnt up dreams. Displaying her superiority as the eminent Tom Buchanan’s mistress, Myrtle contrasts her vitality with the precariousness of her dream, its ability to extinguish her desires. George Wilson, Myrtle's husband, attempts to realize the American Dream in a different way. All he wants is for his wife to love him, but this dream is quite far from reality. When he learns of his wife's secret lover, he suffers a severe mental breakdown. His neighbor, Michaelis,
Several months after Gatsby's funeral, Nick decides to leave New York and goes to see Jordan, who explains how she felt when Nick rejected her, "I don't give a damn about you now but it was a new experience for me and I felt a little dizzy for a while" (186). It seems as though Jordan had once harbored feelings for Nick, but once he is out of her life, she instantly stops caring. She does not work at rekindling romance with Nick because she knows another handsome man will assuredly seek her love. Later, Nick runs into Tom in a jewelry store. They start talking, and Tom admits his part in Gatsby's death: "What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him" (187). Seeking revenge and attempting to humiliate Gatsby, Tom told George that Gatsby was the owner of the car that killed Myrtle. Through this act, Tom condemned an innocent man to death. However, Tom is detached from the whole affair and never has to suffer the consequences of his actions. Disgusted with the Buchanan's, Nick surmises, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then returned back into their money...and let other people clean up the mess they had made," (188). Tom and Daisy never have to realize the American dream. Because of their vast wealth and good name, everything is handed to them and they never work for