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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