The Great Gatsby, so, is a perfect example of the decay of the American Dream.

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Anna Paola Soliani

IB Oral Presentation

The 1920’s were a decade of renaissance characterized by the establishment of the "American Dream" that is, the belief that anyone can, and should, achieve material success. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, contains themes and morals that continue to be relevant today. In his novel, Fitzgerald criticizes the American Dream by describing its negative characteristics: class struggles between the rich and the poor, the superficiality of the rich, and the false relationship between money and happiness. Furthermore, the main character also serves as a metaphor for the inevitable downfall of American Dream. The Great Gatsby, so, is a perfect example of the decay of the American Dream.

        In the novel, Fitzgerald gives us a glimpse into the life of the high class during the roaring twenties through the eyes of a credible young man named Nick Carraway, who is the first person narrator. It is, in fact, through the narrator's dealings with high society that the reader is shown how modern values have transformed the American Dream's pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power and even more, how the world of high society lacks any sense of morals or consequence. The main qualities of the American Dream presented in The Great Gatsby are perseverance and hope. All of this is shown through the life of James Gatz, later called Jay Gatsby, who focused all his attention to living the dream and trying to become an American hero. Ever since he was young, Gats worked hard on becoming a great man. In fact, Mr. Gatz, his father, shows Nick his journal and declares that “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he's got about improving his mind? He was always great for that." The product of all of James Gatz's hard work is Jay Gatsby, who personifies one of the main characteristics of the American dream: everlasting hope. Gatsby’s desire to win Daisy's love is his version of the old American dream: an incredible goal and a constant search for the opportunity to reach this goal. This is shown when Gatsby is first introduced into the novel. It is late at night and we find him "with his hands in his pockets… out to determine what share was his of our local heavens." While Nick continues to watch Gatsby's movements he says:"-he [Gatsby] stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock"

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        The green light that Gatsby reaches out for symbolizes his longing for Daisy, and consequently for money. No matter how much he has he never feels complete. This green light is part of the American Dream. It symbolizes the constant searching for a way to reach a goal just of in the distance. As Nick describes it, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by  year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms farther…. And one fine morning-" Gatsby's goal gave him a purpose in ...

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