The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald - John F. Callahan (essay date fall 1996)
John F. Callahan (essay date fall 1996)
SOURCE: Callahan, John F. “F. Scott Fitzgerald's Evolving American Dream: The ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ in Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon.” Twentieth Century Literature 42 (fall 1996): 374-95.
[In the following essay, Callahan examines various manifestations of the idea of the American dream as it evolved in three Fitzgerald novels.]
Since the first stirrings of the F. Scott Fitzgerald revival in the 1940s, readers have been fascinated by the oppositions in his work and character. Critics from several different generations have noted how Fitzgerald used his conflicts to explore the origins and fate of the American dream and the related idea of the nation.1 The contradictions he experienced and put into fiction heighten the implications of the dream for individual lives: the promise and possibilities, violations and corruptions of those ideals of...
[The entire page is 10186 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
