The Disillusion Of The American Dream

Francis Scott Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the great Amrican writers in the twentieth century.His works are evocative of the Jazz Age during which time America had been experiencing an economic boom and significant changes in lifestyle, but the moral values started seeing a steady decline at the same time.The Great Gatsby,published in 1925,is widely considered to be F.Scott Fitzergerald's greatest novel.It is also considered a seminal work on the fallibility of the American Dream.The term "American Dream" was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America.America was described as a Dream of a Land with new opportunities and equal chances for everyone.The American Dream is the firmly held belief that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their goals and become rich and prosperous if they only work hard enough.The original idea of the American Dream is about moral values and the pursuit of happiness.But the pursuit of happiness was soon turned into the pursuit of wealth and ultimately to greed.In the 1920s,the American Dream was nothing but an idea of materialistic wealth and objective pleasures.The Great Gatsby presents realistic image of the American life in the 1920s.In this period,jazz music blossomed,the flapper redefined modern womanhood.The era was further distinguished by several inventions and discoveries of far-reaching importance,unprecedented industrial growth and accelerated consumer demand and aspirations.The Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity,a break with traditions.Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology.The novel is about an unsuccessful love story of a man named Gatsby who tries to win back his wartime lover-Daisy and recreate his idolized version of their affair. Gatsby and Daisy has a brief love affair before World War I.However,Daisy marries Tom Buchanan,a rich but boring man of social position.Gatsby loses Daisy because he has no money,but he is still in love with her.So he tries everything to get Daisy back.He makes a lot of money with illegal business and begins to implement his plans, step by step,to "buy" Daisy's love.Assuming that he can buy Daisy's love by exhibiting his wealth,Gatsby becomes committed into using his money to impress Daisy.Though Gatsby makes a great effort for his American Dream,in the end his dream fails completely since the woman he loves is a corrupt product of modern society.One day,Daisy,driving Gatsby's car,hits and kills Tom's mistress,Myrtle Wilson.When Gatsby helps Daisy to escape from the accident successfully and is mistakenly murdered by the husband of Tom's mistress,his American Dream is broken. There is nothing left to him after his death,his wealth no longer means anything,and Daisy does not come back to him,either.Fitzgerald explored the theme of love in relation to money in the novel.Gatsby makes a great effort for his dream.He erroneously believes that money can buy him love and happiness.So he lives his whole life in pursuit of wealth and power.Gatsby believes he can win Daisy back by the possessions he owns.But he obtains nothing from his money and his dream is totally lost.The Great Gatsby is a chronicle of the failure of the American Dream.The rise and fall of Jay Gatsby parallels the rise and fall of the American Dream.The author compares the theme of American dream with Gatsby's dream of getting Daisy back. When Gatsby ultimately loses his dream,the American Dream finally becomes a disillusion.