Fitzgerald questions any complacency held about the American dream in portraying that despite all his wealth and the lavishness of his external appearance Gatsby is not content, ‘he was never quite still; there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand’, he has not fulfilled his dream – to seek out and achieve his true love in Daisy. At the end of Chapter one, Gatsby’s empty life becomes evident as Nick tells of his stretching out ‘his arms towards the dark water in a curious way…he was trembling’ - this longing and yearning for Daisy’s love has utterly consumed Gatsby, as he ‘glanced seaward’ every night towards ‘a single green light’ - Daisy’s home in the distance. Gatsby is consumed by his love for Daisy, and this is where his desire for wealth and impressive possessions comes from, because he longs to awe Daisy. Once he has attained her exclusive world ofgreat wealth, he believes he has, ‘real right to touch her hand’.
It is this American dream, that is Gatsby’s dream of a better world, which has caused him to move into a world where the line between illusion and reality is very blurred. His life is superficial and he has begun to create the dream for himself, Nick describes him signing a formal invitation in ‘a majestic hand’, portraying his false self-presentation. Jay Gatsby. We discover, is merely an invention, his real name being James Gatz, this conveys his attempt to reinvent himself in order to attract Daisy and in order to make his own world. His entire behaviour is an act, ‘Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on the knee of his caramel-colored suit’. Anyone ‘prominent’ or ‘well-to-do’ can see that Gatsby’s wealth and personality is a façade. Those who attend his party know so little about him that they resort to inventing fantastical stories, ‘ One time he killed a man who had found out that he was the nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil’. And it is this false information about Gatsby which circulates around the guests at his parties.
Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s character to portray how tragic this American dream can become; despite a party full of guests, Gatsby has no true friends, (none of those at his party attend his funeral at the end of the novel) and this emphasises the loneliness of the wealthy in America during this time. It appears that to all Gatsby’s only defining feature, other than wealth, is that he was, ‘an Oxford man’. Ironically this is only true to a certain extent, as Gatsby himself reveals in Chapter Seven he, ‘only stayed five months’ and therefore ‘can’t really call myself an Oxford man’. The guests at Gatsby’s party are merely using him for his wealth and location, ‘[Gatsby]’ I’m delighted that you dropped in!’ As though they cared!’, it seems that everyone can see that Gatsby is received ‘without gratitude’, including himself, ‘[Gatsby] I don’t want you to get the wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear.’
Fitzgerald reveals that Gatsby’s wealth is not earned honestly, but because he is a ‘bootlegger’. Alcohol was a fundamental part of the American society at that time, at Gatsby’s party there is, ‘gins and liquors so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know’ and whilst with Tom and Myrtle, Nick gets very drunk and his narration is distorted. This drinking as part of American culture and ideal conveys the superficial society in which Gatsby and Nick are living, and emphaisise the true failings in the society.
Tom Buchanan is another character Fitzgerald uses to portray the failings of this American dream. He is described as a ‘hard’ man, he is a racist, next time they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white!’. Tom abuses his wealth by having a mistress, and being very obvious about it. Myrtle herself wants to live a life congruent with this American dream, and feels that through Tom she can, yet their relationship is based on lies, as Caroline reveals that Myrtle thinks, ‘It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart, she’s a catholic- they don’t believe in divorce’, when it transpires that ‘Daisy was not a Catholic’. Fitzgerald is thus portraying the shallowness of the American society, and that money brings power. Myrtle wants to share in this consumer power, she wants to assert authority. When her nose is broken by Tom, (showing his true violent and aggressive nature) Myrtle seems most concerned about her furniture and if it will be damaged by blood-stains. The image of the dog, wandering, ‘faintly’ around their flat portrays the materialism and the moral blindness that is an image throughout the novel, as a failing of the American ideal. Myrtle wants to be part of this, to enjoy the power and status of a rich lifestyle. Fitzgerald enables us to feel great pity for Myrtle as she has failed to see the virtues in having power, but instead longs for wealth and control.
The mansions of East and west Egg, and the contrasting valley of ashes are both worlds of success and failure in American capitalist society. This society in which wealth creates glamour, which in turn masks an underlying moral inadequacy, shown at all levels of status, from Myrtle’s enjoying, ‘The Town Tattle’ – a gossip magazine, to Gatsby who is summed up by Kathleen Parkinson as having an, ‘essential insubstantiality in life which becomes extremely evident’.
