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Nidhi Shil
Ms Thomas
American Literature
6th October 2017
The American Nightmare
The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald appears to be about a tragic
love story set in the 1920’s which was the prime period of the American dream. However the
expectations of the American dream were deeply deceiving and those who got caught up in it
often ended up regretting it, instance Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Tom Buchanan. The
identities and relationships of the characters represent the hopes and the downfall of the
American dream.
Jay Gatsby represents the belief which people had in the American dream and the
struggle they had to go through in order to achieve it. The American dream created an illusion
that being wealthy meant you were desirable and that everybody would want to associate with
you. Gatsby is a victim to this illusion. He believes that money, a big house and grand parties
will be enough to win the love of Daisy and get her to leave her husband. When Gatsby was a
soldier he could not have cared less about money and materialistic things. However once he
discovered that Daisy was married to Tom, Gatsby made it his mission to outdo him. Gatsby is
constantly chasing this dream however it is continuously out of his grasp. This is represented by
the green light which “burns all night” (118) at the end of Daisy’s dock. The fact that the light
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burns all night symbolises Gatsby’s drive and determination to win Daisy hasn’t been
extinguished. His passion for her is continuously burning. Gatsby goes to drastic lengths in an
attempt to win Daisy, he partakes in illegal bootlegging to acquire his fortune which caused a
“foul dust to float in the wake of his dreams” (2). The illusion of the American dream killed the
innocence of Gatsby’s dream. He was so obsessed with achieving it that he got himself caught up
in corruption and criminal activity. Throughout the novel Fitzgerald uses delayed character
revelation in relation to Gatsby to emphasise how the American dream slowly creeped up on
people and then slowly began to crumble. In the end Gatsby’s passion, grit and persistence whilst
chasing the American dream ultimately got him killed.
Daisy Buchanan represents the exterior innocence and the interior corrupti...