His “beautiful shirts…It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such beautiful shirts before”, said Daisy Buchanan. It sounds quite silly to cry over simple shirts, but it’s not the shirts, but rather what they represent. These shirts represent the simple manner of Gatsby’s wealth and his ability to try and buy Daisy’s love, through the usage of extensive articles of clothing. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things…and then returned back into their money” Nick Carroway said. By this we know that Daisy’s concern, and maybe only concern, is money. Gatsby realizes this and is motivated by it. He’s driven to extensive and sometimes illegal actions to gain acceptance and feels he must be rich and careless.
Jay Gatsby tries to recapture his past with money. He implies that he has a past at Oxford, enticing Daisy with wealth. Gatsby shows Nick a picture, a souvenir of his Oxford days, as if to imply that he was there. But, in actuality, Gatsby had only dreamed of attending a school like Oxford. The past holds something that Gatsby longs for. With a photograph, Gatsby effectively, and almost unmistakably, recreates his past. Not only does Oxford involve lies, but most of this utter recreation involves numerous obscene and unbelievable lies. This and numerous other lies prove how Jay Gatsby attempts to recapture his past through the use of enamorous mendacity. There is only one obvious reason why Gatsby tries desperately to change his past, his pursuit of a money stained Daisy. Not only does he buy numerous material items to impress her, but he tries to accumulate as much money as he can in order to physically buy her acceptance. Gatsby clearly does to simply show how much money he possesses and when Daisy realizes this, a problem occurs, crumbling Gatsby’s vision or hopes for the American dream. He innocently and ignorantly believes he can buy anything he wishes, especially Daisy. Daisy is for sale, but Gatsby doesn’t happen to have the right currency. It is clear that Gatsby has the wealth, but does not have the right type of wealth, because he comes from the wrong social class, certainly not the one Daisy is looking for. Due to the dream of attaining a higher social status for Daisy, Gatsby tries to recreate his past, even if it means putting everything else at stake, such as his fulfillment of the American dream.
Symbols of the carelessness of the people at this time were the parties Gatsby held at his house every week of the summer. Gatsby would hide in the house while the guests, most of whom weren’t even invited, would party, eat and drink till the night was over without even knowing who Gatsby was, many of them would turn up just to be reported in the local newspapers. This clearly shows the carelessness of the guests. A quote about Gatsby’s parties refers to the way the guests devour the endless supply of food and never even stop to think about who gave it to them. “Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruitier in New York-Every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his backdoor in a pyramid of pulp less halves”. This symbolizes the relatedness between the “pulp less halves” and the rather “empty” guests, who were nothing but soulless people intrigued by image and wealth, a corruption of the American dream.
Another sign of the corruption of the American dream is the way in which Gatsby makes his money. Gatsby gets his fortune through the illegal sale of alcohol or bootlegging, even though the sale of alcohol was prohibited in America during the nineteen twenties. Gatsby comes from the eastern United States where there is “new money”. There he meets Dan Cody who teaches him how to bootleg, and as Gatsby becomes richer he moves to West Egg in New York. Gatsby’s house is a rather artificial place; the mansion was originally built to impress Daisy, and this is a sign of a corrupt way of winning ones love, through money and wealth. Gatsby’s house is nicely furnished with antique ornaments; his house also has a library filled with unread books. These books and antiques are simply a way of showing off his wealth to others, not realizing that real wealthy people don’t find the need of showing off their wealth to others. Despite all of the material things he shows off and possesses it is evident that he doesn’t really care about materialism, due to the only room he ever really uses in the house, his bedroom, which happens to be empty compared to the other rooms.
The corruption of the American dream is also evident in the treatment of children. Daisy and Tom’s daughter, Pammy, is treated as an object to show off rather than a child to cherish and love. Pammy does not know her mother too well and is quite shy to go near her. Gatsby has never really known of Daisy’s child, as Daisy’s probably afraid to tell Jay about her. Daisy uses her child as a show off item, “I got dressed before luncheon”, said Pammy, eagerly turning towards Daisy. “That’s because your mother wanted to show you off”, replies Daisy. When Pammy speaks to Daisy, Daisy never really replies to her, but instead always changes the subject as though her child isn’t even at her presence. For example, when Pammy comments Jordan’s dress, Daisy ignores her and asks her what she thinks about mommy’s friends. “Aunt Jordan’s got a white dress too”, said Pammy. “How do you like mother’s friends?”, replies Daisy. Also, “where’s daddy?”, asks Pammy. “She doesn’t look like her father”, replies Daisy. Tom is actually never around; he wasn’t even there in his daughter’s birth. The truth is that Daisy never really liked Tom, she only married him because of his wealth.
The Great Gatsby is an excellent portrayal of the corruption of the American dream as more e-moral values filled the nineteen twenties scene, showing us the way American popular culture became about simply falling into the hands of money, greed, and power, even if it meant getting involved in illegal activities to get where and what you want.
Fitzgerald expresses the need for hopes and dreams to give meaning and efforts to all of mans efforts. Striving towards some ideal is the way by which a man can feel a sense of identity. Certainly, Gatsby, with his extraordinary gift of hope, set against all odds and the empty existence of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, seems to achieve nothing but a heroic greatness. It seems that Fitzgerald is right, the failure of hopes and dreams and even the American dream itself, is unavoidable, because the ideals some of us set are sometimes too fantastic or unreal to be realized. The heroic and great presentation of Gatsby is what makes him reach for the impossible, the American Dream, and to recreate his past and prove himself to be, truly, a one of a kind.
