The Great Gatsby

Death of the American Dream

In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, all the characters are, in one way or another, attempting to achieve a state of happiness in their lives. The main characters are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class, which struggles to attain a higher position. Though the major players seek only to change their lives for the better, the idealism and spiritualism of the American Dream is eventually crushed beneath the harsh reality of life, leaving their lives without any meaning or purpose.

Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich socialite couple, seem to have everything they could possibly desire; however, though their lives are full of material possessions, they are unsatisfied and seek to change their circumstances. Tom, the arrogant ex-football player, drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(Fitzgerald pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) in order to have something to talk about. Though he appears happily married to Daisy, Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and keeps an apartment with her in New York. Tom's basic nature of unrest prevents him from being satisfied with the life he leads, and so he creates another life for himself with Myrtle. Daisy Buchanan is an empty figure, a woman with neither strong desires nor convictions. Even before her loyalty to either Tom or Gatsby is put to the test, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself. She knows that Tom has a mistress on the side, yet hesitates to leave him even when she learns of Gatsby's devotion to her. Daisy professes her love to Gatsby, yet cannot bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except at Gatsby's insistence. Even then, once Tom pleads with her to stay, Daisy quickly changes her mind and ultimately leaves Gatsby for a life of comfort and security. The Buchanans are the ultimate examples of wealth and prosperity, the embodiment of the rich life of the American Dream, yet their lives are empty, unfulfilled, and without purpose.

Though Myrtle Wilson makes an attempt to escape her own class and pursue happiness with the richer set, her efforts ultimately produce no results, and she dies, a victim of the very group she sought to join. Myrtle tries to join Tom's class by entering into an affair with him and taking on his way of living, but in doing so, she becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She loses all sense of morality and is scornful of people of her own class. Her constant clothing changes signify her dissatisfaction with her life - she changes personalities every time she changes her dress: "with the influence of the dress her whole personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality... was converted into impressive hauteur"(pg. 35). She treats the elevator boy in her apartment building with disdain: "Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. 'These people! You have to keep after them all the time.'"(pg. 36). It is evident that although American democracy and principles are based on the concept of equality among people, social discrimination does still exist, and the divisions between classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle strives for a new life for herself, yet she is corrupted by the supposedly 'better' group and finally falls victim to it.

Jay Gatsby's idealistic view of Daisy Buchanan creates a conflict for him once he is confronted by the reality. Over the course of five years, Gatsby has built Daisy up in his mind to be the perfect woman, someone that the actual Daisy could never