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The American Dream - As Seen in 'The Great Gatsby'
It may seem that Gatsby gets what he wants, accomplishes his goal, due to his money itself, but, what we have to realize is that corruption comes from the misuse of money. Using money for show and not accomplishing any worthy success embodies him. Jay Gatsby is eventually murdered, and for what? Having enough virtue and honest money?
The representation of settings and symbols hold punctuating meaning and foresight to the failure of America’s ‘Pursuit.’ East Egg is a section of New York, where Tom and Daisy live. People who inhabit this neighborhood are those who have had wealth for a long time and are comfortable with it. They are secure with their money and have no need to show it. Another setting of wealth, West Egg, is where Nick and Gatsby live. Those who live in West Egg can be seen as “new money” and seem to flaunt their wealth in gaudy and tasteless ways. Each of these settings reflects and determines the values of the people who live and work there. Opposite from East and West Egg is the location of the ‘Valley of Ashes.’ The Valley of Ashes is like the city dump, the side of town where ashes are dumped. This unseeingly hole is the symbolic dwelling place of those victims of the rich, and in some cases, those who may have easily been the result of their personal corruption while trying to achieve the American Dream. The final dominant symbol is one of a glowing green light. At night, Gatsby is said to have stood outside on the end of his dock, gazing across the water towards a glowing green light, which was hanging off the dock of Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s house. Jay Gatsby’s dream is of the perfection that he is whimsically dreaming to obtain, with the gaining of Daisy’s love. As Gatsby gazes on, his dream lives. The corruption in all of this wishful thinking is that love is real, and can be gained with nothing short of fate.
In looking at the characters, ‘Great Gatsby,’ and prevalent symbols, the failure and corruption of the fanisized ‘American Dream’ unfolds. The characters of Tom, Daisy, and Nick hold views of conformity and judgment. Those who are wrapped up in the money scene seen to desire everything but what they have and can buy, on the other hand, those who hope to someday have the lavish goods these people possess, think twice of their dream because of it’s wicked effect. Jay Gatsby can be seen as the dream itself. He is on the outside, a powerful man of new money, yet to those who truly knew what he did, he was the corruption of money. The symbols of this story also draw the readers to the realization that money does not perfect everything. Money can turn people to corrupt things, turn value to extremes; people began to take nothing for granite. The ‘American Dream,’ the dream of [next page]