What Is The Internal Conflict In The Great Gatsby

In the novel The Great Gatsby, money is the superior component of a "successful" person. Gatsby and other characters express their materialism and desire to be wealthy, while characters such as George Wilson seem to be content living moderately. Throughout the story, Gatsby’s main internal conflict is his motive to be seen as “old money”, despite starting from the bottom of the social chain.
The American dream is obliquely defined in the novel as acquiring wealth, power, success, and a high social status. While Gatsby obtains these traits, his success is downplayed by the East Egg characters. For example, when Daisy and Tom attend one of Gatsby’s parties which are widely attended, they are disgusted at how intoxicated everyone is and how they
To make Gatsby look even worse, Tom reveals that Gatsby earns his money illegally. Readers can infer from this that nor Gatsby or Nick did not come from a wealthy background. Because of this, people who reside in West Egg are inferior to those of East Egg.
Though Gatsby started from having nothing and continued to be put down even through his success, he had everything he could possibly want with the exception of Daisy. As a youth, Gatsby set long and short term goals and had the determination and integrity to reach them as an adult. Dan Cody plays a huge role in Gatsby’s climb to success, wealth and achievement because he shows him the ways of the rich and involves him in an illegal practice. Without the guidance of Dan Cody, Gatsby would not have the knowledge of how to move up the social class.
In sum, Gatsby meets Fitzgerald’s ideal of achieving the American dream. It is the judgement of the upper East Egg class that would lead a reader to believe otherwise. Gatsby proves that it is possible to move up and down the class system no matter a person’s initial background. In this way, the American dream is similar today as it was in the story’s