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The Great Gatsby | The American Dream
This essay looks at Fitzgerald's critique of Jay Gatsby’s particular vision of the 1920s American Dream; what Fitzgerald seems to be criticizing is not the American Dream itself but the corruption of the American Dream.
The ideal of the American Dream is based on the fantasy that an individual can achieve success regardless of family history, race, or religion simply by working hard enough. Frequently, “success” is equated with the fortune that the independent, self-reliant individual can win. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald examines and critiques Jay Gatsby’s particular vision of the 1920s American Dream. Though Fitzgerald himself is associated with the excesses of the “Roaring Twenties,” he is also an astute social critic whose novel does more to detail society’s...
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- The Great Gatsby: Introduction
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- The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography
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- The Great Gatsby: Ten Important Quotations
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The Great Gatsby: Essays and Criticism
- Three Themes in The Great Gatsby
- Major and Minor Characters in The Great Gatsby
- Critique of American Upper Class Values
- The Paradoxical Role of Women
- Fitzgerald's Use of the Color Green
- The American Dream
- Romance and Cynicism in The Great Gatsby
- A Modernist Masterwork
- Fitzgerald's Distinctly American Style of Writing
- The Jazz Age
- The Theme of Time in The Great Gatsby
- Jordan Baker, a Soldier in the Culture War
- George and Myrtle Wilson
- Major Characters, Time, Ambiguity and Tragedy
- The Greatness of Gatsby
- A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
- The Great Gatsby: Suggested Essay Topics
- The Great Gatsby: Sample Essay Outlines
- The Great Gatsby: Compare and Contrast
- The Great Gatsby: Topics for Further Study
- The Great Gatsby: Media Adaptations
- The Great Gatsby: What Do I Read Next?
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- Copyright
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