Despite this fact, the criminal method in which Gatsby accumulates his wealth certainly calls into question the morality of the American Dream. Any acquisition of wealth is shown to be achieved via methods other than that simply working hard; indeed, hard work seems like the worst option available when it comes to amassing a fortune like that of Tom or Gatsby. The American Dream is shown to be unrealistic, and it is, therefore, simply a dream. Gatsby had to become a bootlegger in order to become rich and Tom simply inherited his wealth. Even Jordon Baker’s success as a sportswoman was garnered as a consequence of foul play: ‘there was a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round.’ In all three cases, either deceit or luck proves the necessary factors behind success. The unrealistic nature of the American Dream is crystallized through the fact that the two characters who attempt to make an honest living, namely, Nick and George Wilson, fail to do so. The irony of this is best summed up in the scene in which ‘Gatsby looked with a vacant eye through ‘Cray’s economics’’. The book is of no use to Gatsby, or indeed, anyone; in a twisted sense, Gatsby already knows all he has to about economics. For this reason, the theme of the American Dream has the importance of providing a moral critique of 1920s America.
Fitzgerald is presenting the American Dream as a search for an ideal that can never be achieved. This idea is symbolised through Gatsby’s regard for Daisy as a person of idealised perfection. Gatsby’s dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream is ruined by its objective of money and hedonic pleasure. The idea that Daisy is to Gatsby as wealth is to the American Dream is summed up in Gatsby’s remark that ‘her voice is full of money’. For this reason, the American Dream acts as a tone throughout the novel: it compliments the novel’s fabric without influencing its direction.
The American Dream, however, must not be analysed simply with respect to Gatsby; the society as a whole that Fitzgerald presents is affected by the desires of wealth and pleasure. This is shown through the parallel between the American Dream and the idea of the Jazz Age. The reckless parties housed by Gatsby are reckless due to the frivolity which the era celebrated. The light-heartedness of the era is mockingly abridged in the scene where an individual tries to drive his car despite the fact that the wheel was missing. His response to the cry ‘but the wheel’s off’ is a comical ‘no harm in trying’. Fitzgerald is making an evaluation of the socioeconomic landscape of the time. After the end of World War 1, the generation of young Americans who had fought in the war became disillusioned and the Victorian era of the earlier twentieth century was viewed upon as stuffy and even insincere. This was combined with a rapid rise of the stock market, and the resultant increase in wealth and materialism. Fitzgerald also describes the defiance of the prohibition, through the mention of cocktails, which were actually invented during the prohibition as a way of disguising the appalling taste of the illegal alcohol. Fitzgerald mentions a machine used in cocktail making that ‘could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour’; rancid alcohol is disguised by fruit just as immorality is disguised by frivolity.
Whilst a small minority are shown to live a life of pleasure, such as the advantaged lifestyle experienced by Tom and Daisy in chapter one; in chapter 2, we are shown the contrast of this lifestyle and the paucity of ‘a desolate land’. Overlooking the scene is an advertisement of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The initials ‘T.J’ are supposed to conjure allusions to Thomas Jefferson, whose desire for a fair society is ironically conflicted in both the scene and the novel. Fitzgerald makes a reference at the beginning of the second chapter to ‘the waste land’, which is a poem by T.S. Eliot. This, combined with the frequent use of the word ‘waste’, emphasises the poorness of the area. Showing these two contrasts of rich and poor in close proximity to each other, is an indication that the benefits of the American Dream are only experienced by a few. This contrast is again alluded to when Tom deridingly asks Wilson ‘like to buy it?’ (in reference to his car), and Wilson comments, ‘Big chance… but I could make some money on the other.’ Here, importance of the American Dream in relation to the novel is shown by the fact that it will never benefit everyone, and that this will result in economic and class divide.
To conclude, whilst the American Dream has no effect on the novel’s development, it is still important in that it offers a social critique within the novel, and also because it highlights how unrealistic the ideals within the dream are. There is, however, an underlying feeling that Fitzgerald is not casting blame on the individuals within the era, but is actually presenting people as less Epicurean than the epoch suggests. He is highlighting a crisis of identity brought about by the war; the American Dream is really about finding fulfilment, and about individualism. This is why the American Dream is important within the novel, because it highlights the human desire for meaning and purpose.