The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is an American classic that tells the crazy, party-centric lives of the rich and the degrading American dream. Fitzgerald uses this novel to explain his opinion on the American dream and the aristocracy of the 1920’s. He believed the dream to be crumbling into complete ruin from material greed. He also criticized many aspects of the upper class, some of which were excessive partying and general lack of proper etiquette within the newly rich individuals. Lastly, Fitzgerald used this particular set of characters to explain to the reader his opinions on wealthy Americans during. The book as a whole is meant to explain Fitzgerald’s true opinions and criticize the rich during the “roaring twenties”.

The American dream was a major point of Fitzgerald’s book. He uses his story to demonstrate the entirety of the American Dream declining through the 1920’s. Fitzgerald shows poor and crumbling moral and social values of the era. He also displays a heavy amount of greed, cynicism, and an empty pursuit of pleasure brought along by a corrupted American dream. Fitzgerald’s characters are designed to embody all of the poor traits of the corrupt. One of his characters, Jay Gatsby, is a major example of a corrupted American dream through his parties filled with reckless enjoyment and hollow feelings. He also writes Nick, the narrator, as someone who is able to explain to the reader that the original American dream was to pursue true happiness, however the desire to be wealthy and relaxed social values led the American dream to ruin. The desire for money and material objects during this decade overcame the need for a sensible lifestyle.

The purpose of The Great Gatsby as a whole wasn’t to explain the downfall of the American dream, but rather it was to criticize the upper class during the 1920’s. Fitzgerald was not particularly comfortable with the lack of restraint towards obtaining material possessions. He was also bothered by the lack of morality within the upper class. He explained this to the reader through the narrator Nick; since the character was similar to himself, he could write how he felt without having to alter his writing too much to fit the character. Within the novel, he segregates the old and new halves of the aristocracy: West Egg is filled with the newly rich like Gatsby, while East Egg is filled with the old fashioned, established rich, like