AMERICAN DREAM OTRAYED IN THE GREAT GATSBY OF F SCOTT FITZGERALD MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM ENGLISH FACULTY SUBJECT AMERICAN ENGLISH LITERATURE Through the studied chapt[.]
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM ENGLISH FACULTY SUBJECT: AMERICAN ENGLISH LITERATURE Through the studied chapters of the Great Gatsby, analyze the portrayals of the upper-class and the pursuit of their American Dream Student’s name : Nguyễn Phương Mai Class : TA46A Student ID : TA46A-015-1923 HÀ NỘI – 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS I Introduction……………………………………………………….…… -1- II Author, era….……………………………………………………….……… -1The life of author F Scott Fitzgerald…………………………….…… … -1- III The portrayals of the upper-class in The Great Gatsby…….…….…………-21 Tom and Daisy Buchanan……………………………………………………-42 Nick Carraway……………………………………………………………….-43 Jay Gatsby…………………………………………………………………….-5- IV The idea of American Dream………………………………………… …… -51 The formation of American Dream…………………………………… ……-52 The theme of American Dream in The Great Gatsby……………………… -7- V The corruption of American Dream………………………… ……………….-81 The dream of Jay Gatsby……………………………………………………… … -81.1 From James Gatz to Jay Gatsby………………………………………… …-81.2 Jay Gatsby – the biggest representative of the American Dream…….…… -91.3 The collapse of such a dream………………………………………….…….-112 Myrtle Wilson’s American Dream shattered……………………………….……123 American dream portrayed through symbolism…………………………… ….14- VI Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… -16- REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………….…… -17- I Introduction The author F Scott Fitzgerald is seen as the first modern novelist to deliver the tragic realization by a close writing manner showing in writing theme and writing techniques It is uncomplicated to see that the character Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (Scott, 1925) is the reflection of the author himself in order to express a desire to become a true American with the conception that prosperity and social status can solve every difficulty However, from experiments and failure, readers witness partly the reality and sum up the human’s bitterness in the era of loss and everything collapses Throughout the view of character Nick Carraway, people figure a fuller visualization of the character Gatsby who chasing illusions of a glorious future and determination to fulfill his wild dream Fitzgerald discovered an obsessed world which guaranteed by the thriving material value It is not only a matter of one individual but a common problem of the times The broken American dream was a famous and noticeable theme in American literature in the 20th century In some extent, in America there were people who seeking for leisurely, lavish material life but also experiencing mental chaos and the downgrade of moral values as exchanges That being said, despite being a target, a motivation for people to strive for, American dream was a tragedy of a broken, helpless human being who found no destination for himself in the world The foundation of money or love that American dreamers previously used as a fulcrum to survive and dominate society would then completely corrupted II Author, era The life of author F Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota, on September 4, 1896, to a furniture manufacturer and salesman He began writing early, scribbling in the margins of his textbooks and penning adventure stories for the school newspaper Though his grades were not good enough to grant him immediate admission into Princeton, he managed to talk the administration into accepting him on probation (Hacht, 2007) In 1917, however, he interrupted his education to join the army and wrote his first novel, which the publisher Charles Scribner's Sons praised, but rejected Fitzgerald met debutante socialite Zelda Sayre when he was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama When the war ended, Fitzgerald, who had never been sent overseas, joined the advertising business, hoping to make enough money to marry Zelda Unfortunately, Zelda called off their engagement, not wanting to settle for life on his meager salary A year later in 1919, Fitzgerald worked with an editor at Scribner to publish his first novel This Side of Paradise (1920) Propelled by the momentum of his new professional writing career, he also sold short stories to popular markets (Hacht, 2007) Inspired by Fitzgerald's newfound success, Zelda married Fitzgerald They had a tumultuous relationship that produced one daughter, Frances (whom they called "Scottie"), in 1921 Fitzgerald became an icon of the 1920s, synonymous with both the carefree wealth of the Jazz Age, personified by his masterpiece The Great Gatsby (1925), as well as the disaffected American abroad of the Lost Generation, epitomized by his earlier novel, This Side of Paradise After Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1930s, Fitzgerald's star dimmed a bit, and he found himself in Hollywood writing screenplays to pay the bills He died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four on December 21, 1940, with heart, lung, and liver disease from years of excessive drinking and smoking (Hacht, 2007) III The portrayals of the upper-class in The Great Gatsby Social class is a critical theme explored in F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby Stereotypes and themes are used along with rich details to portray the characters of the novel and their differences in social class The main characters of the novel were mostly of the upper social classes, however there are significant differences between them, particularly their behaviours. Tom and Daisy Buchanan Tom Buchanan is seen as uppermost class due to his family name and large inheritance As a member of the upper-class, Fitzgerald has engaged some stereotypes to describe this character For example, Tom is described to possess a hypocritical, snobbish, and specificially unlikable personality He believes that he can not be wrong; that everyone should settle with him, dedicated to him; and that he should always get his way Daisy Buchanan was nurtured in a traditional manner for a daughter of an exceptionally wealthy, upper class family in the early 1900s She was taught to act as though she was stupid, and to marry into a wealthy family to pursue her American dream; the dream of not having a care in the world With her marriage to Tom Buchanan, she realized this dream and live carelessly “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Fitzgerald, 170) Nick Carraway Likewise, from his family name, Nick inherited his upper-class wealth. Nick enjoyes his wealth just like Tom He says, “I bought a dozen volumes … and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew.” (Fitzgerald, 10) Contrary to Tom, Nick does not take as much for granted from possession of money He says “the house, a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month.” (Fitzgerald, 9) This indicates that, however similar the two men may be, their difference in social class is shown clearly in their lives Gatsby Jay Gatsby was formally James Gatz, born in North Dakota into a poor farming family, aspired from a young age to take advantage of the American Dream, to alter his name and advance his social status He is presented as a rich man, aspirational, and presumptuous in his early thirties Despite throwing extravagant weekly parties with many attendees, but has no friends besides him; no one knows anything about him or how he became so rich, and he does not tend to share this information with anyone When Gatsby dies, at the end of the novel, there are just two people attending his funeral, Nick Carraway and his father This indicates the shallowness that Fitzgerald found in people and how Gatsby was admired for his wealth but the way that clearly no one cared about him sincerely This presents the idea that Gatsby was only accepted by the upper class because they enjoyed his parties, but that he was never fully acknowledged by them Social class is a vital theme throughout the whole novel and is explained and discovered in a variety of ways. Even in the song sung by Klipspringer class stereotypes are portrayed, “One thing’s sure and nothing’s surer; The rich get richer and the poor get – children.” (Fitzgerald, 92) This demonstrates how wealth and class are almost unperceivably tangled and how there are stereotypes about the ability each class has to generate change and live the American dream IV The idea of American Dream The formation of American Dream The book The Great Gatsby, written by F Scott Fitzgerald is set in the context of the Jazz Age of America in the 1920’s, where the end of the World War I brought a quite long period of peace and prosperity Fitzgerald was among one of the first to define the concept "American dream" according to critic Jeffrey Louis Decker, who noticed that the term "was not put into print until 1931." In that respect, The Great Gatsby's underlying narrative marks the birth of a myth, one that shaped the definition of success for future American society So, what is American Dream? It was declared when the United States was born and became an independent nation on July 4, 1776 The Declaration of Independence (US 1776) indicated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The American Dream is actually not portrayed thoroughly by this statement but a promise that only in the United States can this idea have a chance to come true, for all those who have the courage to pursue it till the end and only in America people have equal opportunity At the end of their national anthem, Americans sing that their country is the land of the free and the home of the brave Everyone has the rights to make his or her own choice without the obstacles of their class, caste, religion or even race ethnicity That being said, life should be great, richer and be enjoyed to the fullest by everyone according to their opportunities and achievements From the time of independence, America has been seen to become a land of opportunity where good life can be accomplished no matter what social status but hard work and straight shooting Freedom of democracy is allowed thus everyone has a right to express his or her religion and moral beliefs The thought that equality was the in-thing is widespread American Dream ever since has been flourishing under the principle of freedom but nowadays, many things have changed in America It has been born from a nation of freedom and then moved to a nation of materialism From the start, one accomplished his leaving by hard-working which was considered to be an achievement of financial success but then people seem no longer look into the vision of the future which includes time, sweat and ultimate success but instead they sit in their comfort waiting for it to come true Some even afraid that American values seem to start to shaky Nonetheless, Michael Hout, Professor of Sociology at New York University once said "A lot of Americans think the U.S has more social mobility than other western industrialized countries This (study using medians instead of averages that underestimate the range and show fewer stark distinctions between the top and bottom tiers) makes it abundantly clear that we have less Your circumstances at birth— specifically, what your parents for a living—are an even bigger factor in how far you get in life than we had previously realized Generations of Americans considered the United States to be a land of opportunity." (Hout, 2018) Some people believe that in the U.S the degree to which one generation's success depends on their parents' resources This opinion seems quite right in The Great Gatsby While the character Gatsby didn’t have a prosperous background, he still managed to get rich but it was an unreliable manner from the illegal business, unlike the stable rich of the “old money” whose inheritance came from their parents In the era when the book was written (1925), the US economy entered the golden age for the upper class From 1922 to 1929, stock incomes increased by 108 percent, corporate profits rose by 76 percent and wages rose by 33 percent Technological advances and increased productivity have reduced the cost of products, making the economy grow rapidly But its implications are enormous People are absorbed in enjoyment and forget their spiritual values, which leads to moral degradation All-night parties at Gatsby's place, dancing-girl, wine, smoke, jazz music,… All of this created a colorful picture and the sounds of a rich but suffocated view Moreover, these were also the time when American women thought they were liberated They smoke, seek out instantaneous relationships and even affair - all considered as "fashionable" Those things alone are enough to show how much morality has been despised The theme of American Dream in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a classic written by the American writer F Scott Fitzgerald in the years 1918 - 1929 - the period when the US entered its flourishing development The author gave this era an ornate name: The Jazz age, because the jazz songs themselves somewhat describe reality - seductive but full of confusion, catchy but selective It appears at most of the upper-class parties However, the spirit that the author wants to deliver is not the flashy before the eyes but the obsession or the dream of money, love, fame and all of its downsides After all, the only thing left is oblivion The American dream is viewed as idealism: a picture of a perfect life in which everything one could ever dream of behind a white picket fence Life behind the fence is fulfilled, peaceful, and, above all, moral Having that said, prosperity and success could be accomplished through hard work and straight shooting However, from the characters in The Great Gatsby, we can indicate that in order to reach social and financial success a person might have to sacrifice his ethics by telling lies, oppressing others, or breaking laws Besides, the book illustrates the tragic cost for the American dream In the end, both Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson lose their lives in the pursuit of success, or at least the appearance of success For them, the American dream means being able to exchange their impoverished pasts for the good life Unfortunately for them, the good life is a masquerade Jay Gatsby is a typical rich man who finds out the hard way that money and materialistic things cannot fill an individual’s need for happiness The author described the corruption of an individual’s American Dream through their blindly pursuit of wealth and materialistic belongings While the rest of the world, including Daisy, pursued overwhelming wealth, favoring the flashy and ephemeral delusions, Gatsby instead sought the American dream to bring back to Daisy Till the end, what he has earned actually never belonged to him V The corruption of American Dream The dream of Jay Gatsby Gatsby’s American dream includes his past identity, his obsession about love and his tragic death 1.1 From James Gatz to Jay Gatsby The author F Scott Fitzgerald joined the army from 1917 to 1919 following the propaganda about the ideals, glory and fairness of the military uniform His motive for becoming a soldier was initially the eagerness to develop military career However, it was soon broken by the fact that from the European battlefield to the American reality, there came major differences causing his faith collapse: the military did not eliminate his background as well as social status and those who did not belong to the upper-class were still be looked down on or despised This frustration later motivated him to create his most famous novel The Great Gatsby In the novel, originally named James Gatz, Jay Gatsby had an impoverished childhood in rural North Dakota At the age of 17, James Gatz changed his name to Jay Gatsby and also during this time he met Dan Cody, a wealthy man who he saved from a destructive storm and ended up being employed by Cody directed him to reach his potential, orientated his future by teaching him the manners of the rich on the yacht He was deeply ambitious and determined to be famed and successful However, although Dan Cody intended to leave his asset to Gatsby, it ended up being taken by Cody's mistress Ella Kaye, leaving him with the knowledge and manners of the upper class, but owned no money to implement and back them up The past identity of Gatsby plays an important role in the formation of his American Dream In Chapter six, the truth about Gatsby’s past is revealed, uncovering the fact that he has not been the glorious and rich person we think he is now “James Gatz of North Dakota” is the true identity of Gatsby (Fitzgerald 98) With his “parents shiftless and unsuccessful”, young Gatz’s “imagination [has] never really accepted them as his parents at all” (98) Thus, “the Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, [springs] from his Platonic conception of himself” accompanied by his belief of him being “a son of God” (98) Although Gatsby’s ambition was to be rich, his main motivation in achieving his property was his love for Daisy Buchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville before leaving for battle in World War I in 1917 From the beginning, Daisy’s aura of luxury, grace and charm made Gatsby immediately fell in love with her, so he lied to her about his background in order to convince her that he was good enough to take care of her as well as keeping up their romance Daisy promised to wait for him during the time he left for the war, but then married Tom Buchanan in 1919 Gatsby studied at Oxford after the war in an attempt to gain an education, despised poverty and longed for wealth and sophistication but left after five months Gatsby gained his fortune through Meyer Wolfsheim, who helped him got into shady business such as bootlegging and gambling As a result, Gatsby accrued a large amount of money in just years After reaching a level of prosperity, he moved to West Egg, built an extravagant mansion and a Rolls Royce, and started throwing luxurious parties and forming a reputation, all with the ambition of meeting Daisy again Thereafter, an aspiring bond salesman named Nick Carraway, Daisy's second cousin, appeared as an element to help Gatsby come closer to his dream: Nick moved in next door just as the novel begins Through that connection Gatsby had chances to reunite with Daisy and pursue the biggest dedication in his life: winning Daisy back His acquisition of money to join the elite group, his purchase of a gaudy mansion on West Egg, and his lavish weekly parties are all merely means to that end At this point, readers can realize that the majority of what develop the character Gatsby is deception The name Jay Gatsby is portrayed as a means for Gatsby to get rid of his impoverished background Although the new name can also be viewed as an ambition to reach a better life, join the upper-class or a new manner of expressing or reinvention of himself, we cannot deny the fact that from the from the first time they met, he lied to Daisy in order to maintain the romance with her In order words, his using camouflaged self with Daisy shown his insecurity, but also made him a liar from the beginning On the other hand, despite the moral values, Gatsby attended illegal business so that his individual’s selfish desire is fulfill He intended to win Daisy back and ready to be involved in an affair with a married-woman 1.2 Jay Gatsby – the biggest representative of the American Dream Gatsby, first revealed to readers through the narrator Nick Carraway, is an extremely prosperous gentleman living in an over-the-top mansion This character is directly affected by the disillusionment of an American dream, but as an insider, he did not aware of his tragedy Fitzgerald allowed his character to become wealthy, but pursuing that rich and the passionate love by all means Gatsby's disillusionment was brought about by the society in which full of people Nick called: "a rotten crowd” and that Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch put together." Gatsby rushed to get rich to look forward to recognition by the upper class However, he would never be accepted because at that time, "new money" is considered ingloriously by the upper class The money they just have made is just an approach they use too merch into the upper class so as a consequence, they are despised Despite his great efforts, Gatsby still faced loneliness as well as helplessness in society In Gatsby's mansion in New York, he organized hundreds of high-class parties but most of his guests were tasteless and empty Gatsby was obsessed with the love in the past with Daisy, but then she married the billionaire Tom Buchanan Gatsby tried to get rich, entered the elite group and shown off his properties only to regain Daisy but in the end, he couldn’t However, his ambition was to return to that delightful moment when he put all of his hopes and dreams on Daisy back in Louisville, and also to make that past moment his present It contemporarily means putting everything to its right direction, what he couldn't accomplish the first time by winning Daisy over Gatsby's obsession with the past was made of the wish of taking control over his own life and over Daisy, as much as it was about his ideal love This search for control could be an expression of being born into a working-class family in America, with a lack of control over the direction of his own life Even after managing to get access to a great amount of money, Gatsby still searched for control over his life one way or another Perhaps he assumed that by winning over Daisy, he can finally achieve each of the dreams he ever imagined at as a young man His faith for his American Dream drove him to chase after glory as well as making him obsessed with his insatiable desire towards the future As his relentless desire demonstrated, Gatsby had an incredible ability to transform his wishes and dreams into reality; at the beginning of the novel, his appearing to the reader made us thought that he just desired to appear to the world This talent for selfinvention is what gives Gatsby his quality of “greatness”: indeed, the title “The Great Gatsby” is resemble to such vaudeville magicians as “The Great Houdini” and “The Great Blackstone,” suggesting that the persona of Jay Gatsby is a masterful illusion (Auger, 2015) Readers can indicate that all of Gatsby acts were to achieve just one purpose: he determined by all means that getting rich is a must to win his dream girl back Gatsby continued to throw lavish parties with the hope of getting attention from Daisy but failed It was not accomplished until he met Nick Carraway that he made a plan to ask Nick to invite Daisy to Nick's house for a small tea party without exposing to anyone about Gatsby’s attending As expected, Gatsby was reunited with his dream girl He then showed Daisy his huge possession, and after a moment of surprise, the two quickly cultivated affection There’s a fact that Jay Gatsby’s American Dream is not typical wanting of wealth and success as so many others, instead it is a dream of reclaiming a lost love Gatsby surrounded himself by luxurious parties and strangers so-called friends who took advantage of his wealth and fame He did all of this with a purpose of not for himself but for a foolish love formed in the past with Daisy He did not make money through honest work but by shady backdoor deals that he made with other criminals However, 10 through all of this, Gatsby still managed to be a good person at heart as can be seen by the last time Nick sees Gatsby alive, Nick tells him that “They’re a rotten crowd You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 162) The American Dream is associated with all other aspects of Gatsby’s life Gatsby and Daisy first met when he was just a penniless guy with low social status; low selfesteem and thought that Daisy would tire to wait for him He considered his social position as the main obstacle standing between the two of them Following up, Gatsby came up with the ideas on money that it was the only way to win back love and achieve his dream He finally managed to achieve the wealth segment but that did not bring back Daisy Not giving up, he tried all ways to win her heart, even making ridiculous purchases like an extravagant mansion to try and show her that he had climbed the social ladder At the end of the story, Gatsby was ready to plead guilty to protect Daisy, knowing that he would have to purchase his lavish life, social position as well as all things he ever possessed 1.3 The collapse of such a dream Admittedly, Daisy was the Holy Grail of Gatsby life, she was his first motivation and all of his acts from the beginning were to prove that he deserved her Unfortunate for Gatsby, his lover not only represented much more than just his dream girl but she was also the embodiment of the corruption that was present in having all the wealth and materialistic things that someone could want Daisy was aware that she was a beautiful charming creation so she used it to the best of her ability to secure her lavish lifestyle: “Her voice was “full of money-that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals” song in it” (Fitzgerald 127) It can be seen that Daisy was a very cold person with the lack of compassion for others just as cold hard cash lacks the same (Wulick, 2020) Despite all of this Gatsby did not let her go with the fact that she is married to another man Letting Daisy go would mean giving up his dream and by that his whole life would have been wasted and meaningless in his eyes Furthering details that shown Daisy’s heart of cold and selfish is the event of when daisy hit Myrtle with Gatsby’s car She was willing to flee so far as to let Gatsby take the blame for the death of a person In addition, this insult when Daisy finds out about Gatsby’s organized crime, she immediately came back to her cheating corrupted husband Gatsby didn’t give up on her all the way up to the point when he was shot and killed in his swimming pool On the other hand, Tom and Daisy’s marriage is also telling us about the corruption of the American Dream Despite the fact that they have everything they could possibly want or imagine of but still, they are unhappy They keep searching for something more in different places they have traveled to France and drifted “here and there 11 unrestfully wherever people were rich and played polo together” (Fitzgerald 11) Tom seemed very uninterested in his own life He missed his old college football days with all the excitement and praise so he coped with this boredom by cheating on his wife with Myrtle Tom is lost to his above-average life because of his obsessive behavior towards always having more than anyone else He was described as someone who was so successful so young that anything else that he did throughout his life would just not measure up Gatsby died with his version of the American Dream, he has lived a life of ambition and at some points he had already reached success but the one time he tried to get the one thing that still eluded him Daisy represents something that the Gatsby lost in the hand of the destiny In his mind, all that is left for him to complete his version of the American Dream is to win the heart of a girl who he loved from the past He lost her when he went to the war and despite her families’ reservations to their relationship; they still managed to enjoy something that was beautiful and strong When he lost her to Tom, he restructured his dream into what Tom offered her that he didn’t have To that end, everything fell down when Gatsby’s dream vanishes forever into George Wilson’s gun shot, resonating his death Nick has said that “Gatsby has paid a high price for living too long with a single dream”, indicating that Gatsby’s grand vision of Daisy and his future with her has fallen apart and eventually costs Gatsby his own life Like the majority of American, Jay Gatsby had the faith in American Dream It has become somewhat of a confused concept and the tricky part is that it means many of different things to different people In the most general sense, the American Dream is about opportunity People have their own goals and visions, and the American Dream is about allowing for those desires to appear then come true When Gatsby finally met Daisy again, it seems that prosperity could indeed gain anything, but unfortunately, the promise of American Dream has deserted him once again Despite all his effort to win Daisy over, she still refused to leave her husband Thus, it is the obsession towards the American Dream that leads to the tragic end of Gatsby However, it would seem that Nick Carraway, our narrator, is the only person that was not corrupted in the story His concept of the American Dream was that of family and home Nick portrayed the opposite of Gatsby in their visions of the American Dream although that was not always the case seeing as though they both came from similar backgrounds Nick moved to the east after World War I and soon found out that the people there were heartless and cruel Nick is also a good prospect of what Gatsby could have become if he had not been destroyed by his hopeless love for Daisy To sum up, The Great Gatsby is a perfect illustration of the corruptive nature of money and humanity on individuals American Dream Myrtle Wilson’s American Dream shattered 12 One could argue that Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a study in the struggle to achieve the American Dream Myrtle found her life with her husband George too common and humble She believed that similar to Gatsby, the possessing of a large amount of money will give her a new identity and, subsequently, a new status in society She felt powerless when being Mrs George Wilson, as if her life was in need of repairing just like the cars in her husband's shop But as Tom Buchanan's lover in the city, she saw endless possibility in the material things; she can dispose a dress easily and acquired another without a second thought She can change whenever she liked, traveling from George's rags to Tom's prosperity on an afternoon train Their craving for money and social status was due to the believe that happiness would follow; misery and destruction, however, were all their wishes achieve In effect, Gatsby's and Myrtle's deaths show a dark side to striving to achieve the American dream The social criticism embedded in the depiction of the vibrant Myrtle become clearer in the Callahan’s exploration in his paper “F Scott Fitzgerald's Evolving American Dream: The ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ in Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon” He asks: “What if we were to read Gatsby […] as projections of that sometime struggle, sometime alliance between property and the pursuit of happiness?” (Callahan, 1996) This question is related to the character Myrtle that allows us to consider her accumulation, such as the apartment in the downtown, where “… crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continuously over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles” (Fitzgerald 35) and reflect the conception that, for Myrtle, a poor working-class man’s wife, happiness may be in the possession of material things The affair with Tom allows her to escape the presumably gloomy life with George The critique of the consumer hysteria at the time is heightened by the fact that she lives in the Valley of Ashes, inhabited by “… ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 29), and thus knows the cost of extravagant living Myrtle’s belief that the material world she is allowed a taste of through Tom’s company equals happiness, and that this happiness stems not necessarily from personal fulfilment but rather the accumulation of goods is in many ways’ representative of the era (Lindberg, 2014) Myrtle Wilson died because of her dream of a more materialistic and sophisticated existence This ending was foreshadowed early in the novel when Myrtle had gone with Tom and Nick to New York When she arrives in the city, Myrtle's physical change reflects her social aspirations: “She had changed her dress to a brown figured muslin which stretched tight over her rather wide hips… At the news-stand she bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving picture magazine, and in the station drug store, some cold cream and a small flask of perfume Upstairs in the solemn echoing 13 drive she let four taxi cabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with grey upholstery.” Later, in the apartment that Tom and Myrtle use for their trysts, Nick notes: “Mrs Wilson … was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream-colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur.” Even though she is not one of the main characters in novel, her attendance is a key factor in the general flow of the plot and in the understanding the society of consumerism in 1920s and, the most important, for her continuous pursue of the American Dream (Hodo, 2017) Myrtle American Dream is to achieve material wealth that would be enough to satisfy the needs which cannot be completed by her husband’s ability In order to fulfil that dream she did whatever it took without thinking about how much she damaged other people’s lives, especially George’s, her husband She married him not because she loved him but her only driving force in life is money and wealth She looked down on him when realizing that he did not rich George was not a rich man; in order to marry Myrtle, he borrowed his wedding suit to a friend In the book, she said “The only crazy I was when I married him I knew right away I made a mistake He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never told me about it, and the man came after it one says when he was out…” She called herself crazy for involving in a marriage with a person that could not even afford his wedding costume and viewed it as a big mistake It is understandable that her only purpose in life is the material world and she did not appreciate the struggles of George to be with her Myrtle involved herself into immoral actions in order to achieve her biggest dream because she held a great desire to have a luxury life It is this dream of becoming rich or taking the taste of the wealthy material world and luxurious lifestyle that pushed her to start an affair with Tom due to the fact that Tom was a representative of the society that she wants to be a part of Even though being mistreated by Tom, Myrtle still compromised Therefore, her American Dream of having a better life and being financially successful brings the decay of her character George and Myrtle Wilson passed their lives on attempts to escape from the struggles of the low class to the comfort of the upper class They tried a lot and used the “few” chances life gave to them up to death Nevertheless, they could be neither like Buchanans nor like Gatsby American dream portrayed through symbolism F Scott Fitzgerald is recognized for his symbolic writing as he uses symbolism in The Great Gatsby to represents an accurate reflection of the American life in the 1920’s The characters of his book namely Jay Gatsby, Myrtle and George Wilson are the best symbols that pursuing the dream until the end of their life and failed in its success because they overvalued materialism and money instead of its pure ideals Thus, the 14 novel is focused on the existence and death of the American dream (Hindus, 1968) It represents characters that are interested in materialistic life and never get interested in working hard It also reflects the contribution and involvement of the characters in the novel to the failure and downfall of the American Dream Despite the depiction of the socio-cultural and economic conditions of 1920s and the same conditions that push and provoke his characters, he provides the reader with an insight on the psychology of each of them and “the interior motives which they use to justify their behavior and actions.” The Dream that everyone seeks in Great Gatsby is being corrupted by his or her immoral lives and actions One of the reasons why Gatsby loves Daisy may be her aristocracy origin He was not able to understand that money is not enough to win Daisy’s love On the other hand, Tom is as wealthy as Jay but he uses a careful and fine way to show off his fortune Gatsby tried to have everything for show such as: the big house, the beautiful swimming pool and the generous parties Donaldson (2001) comments upon this: “The outsized house, together with the lavish parties and the garish clothing, the automobiles and the aquaplane, represent his attempt to establish himself as somebody, or at least not nobody.” The sizes of the houses described in the novel are the main element that indicates the status of someone The partygoers were striving for the American dream but they couldn’t realize that Gatsby who had all this fortune has not achieved yet the real American dream The lives of the characters, especially Gatsby, depict the culture of excessive consumerism and extravagantly wealthy living They, the people like Gatsby that had come from the bottom part of the society, needed to settle their position and newly gained status in the society In addition, they attempted to gain the respect that the “old rich” already had achieved that far and the necessary esteem that characterizes the rich people through the means of displaying their wealth and fortunes and through the purchases Besides, the Buchanans family may be the best representation of the American dream but they are people without dreams, social values and goals in their life Everyone is amazed by Tom’s life as far as he is “a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax; His family were enormously wealthy — even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach — but now he’d left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away” The representations of parties, automobiles and houses resulted in the failure of Gatsby’s dream (Hodo, 2017) That being said, the sizes of the houses are the main element that indicates the status of someone The twenties were the years when the cars, as a new technology, characterized the high-class Americans They not consider the cars as a way of transportation but as a possibility to exhibit their fortune to the society The role of automobiles seems to be related with the failure of the 15 American dream because of Gatsby’s ideas to prevail Daisy’s love through the luxury life The cars display their negative side in the culture of 1920 as well and so far, they lead the characters toward the demise of the American dream, namely the death of Myrtle Wilson besides George Wilson and Gatsby’s death which also associated with the car VI Conclusion Through the story of Jay Gatsby, readers witness the fallacious nature of American dream such as the past identity that one could discard, obsession about the joy that can be reach (or cannot find) and the death or the tragedy that living the dream may bring The novel is set in the period that Fitzgerald called the "Jazz Age," emphasizing the life of pure luxury and indulgence but also a dangerous, romantic myth The impact of American Dream on Gatsby’s life is depicted by Fitzgerald’s clever use of Gatsby’s obsession towards his love in the past - Daisy and his tragic death in the twist The novel successfully demonstrates how the dream cannot be successful because of the way it is misunderstood by the society and people’s materialism view of modern life However, it introduces hope and persistence as the most important characteristics of the American dream From experiments and failure, readers witness the reality and sum up the human’s bitterness in the era of loss and everything collapses Throughout the view of character Nick Carraway, people figure a fuller visualization of the character Gatsby who chasing illusions about a glorious future and determination to fulfill his wild dream Fitzgerald discovered an obsessed world which guaranteed by the thriving material value It is not only a matter of one individual but a common problem of the times To sum up, in America there were people who seeking for leisurely, lavish material life but also experiencing mental chaos and the downgrade of moral values in exchange: it was the illegal business of Jay Gatsby, adultery of Myrtle, Daisy, Tom and Gatsby and the homicide of George Wilson That having said, despite being a target, a motivation for people to strive for, American dream was a tragedy of a broken, helpless human being who found no destination for himself in the world The foundation of money or love that American dreamers previously used as a fulcrum to survive and dominate society would then completely corrupted 16 REFERENCES Auger, C A ( 2015) Representations of Gatsby: Ninety Years of Retrospective Florida Callahan, J F (1996) F Scott Fitzgerald's Evolving American Dream: The "Pursuit of Happiness" in Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon Duke University Press , 380 Civil War Culture (2011, March 21) Retrieved May 2, 2020, from HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/civil-war-culture Flappers (2018, 6) Retrieved 18, 2020, from HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/flappers Hacht, E A (2007) "The Great Gatsby." Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream, Detroit Hindus, M (1968) F Scott Fitzgerald: An Introduction and Interpretation New York Hodo, Z (2017) The Failure of the American Dream in “The Great Gatsby”Fitzgerald European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies Hout, M (2018) Americans’ occupational status reflects the status of both of their parents Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Lindberg, L (2014) The American Dream as a Means of Social Criticism in The Great Gatsby Moos-Pick, M (Composer) (2012) Riverwalk Jazz Collection Stanford, California, United States of America Scott, F F (1925) The great Gatsby New York : C Scribner's sons Steward, E (1931) Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S Government Printing Office West, S L (2003) Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Infobase Publishing Wulick, A (2020, 13) Best Analysis: Love and Relationships in The Great Gatsby Retrieved 18, 2020, from PrepScholar: https://blog.prepscholar.com/the-greatgatsby-theme-love-relationships Donaldson, S (2001) The Southern Review, Platinium Peridicals 17 18 ... …… -51 The formation of American Dream? ??………………………………… ……-52 The theme of American Dream in The Great Gatsby……………………… -7- V The corruption of American Dream? ??……………………… ……………….-81 The dream of Jay... national anthem, Americans sing that their country is the land of the free and the home of the brave Everyone has the rights to make his or her own choice without the obstacles of their class, caste,... and involvement of the characters in the novel to the failure and downfall of the American Dream Despite the depiction of the socio-cultural and economic conditions of 1920s and the same conditions