Camille Yang. Mr. Engle. English 3. 20 April 2017. Distortion

Camille Yang Mr. Engle English 3 20 April 2017 Distortion of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby The novel The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald is a tragedy. It tells the story of Jay Gatsby, who was pursuing his love and the American Dream, finally reunited with his first love, Daisy Buchanan and was hoping to be with her once again. However, the harsh reality made his misty dream come to an end. Through analyzing Gatsby’s lifestyle, his obsession of Daisy, and his social status, the essay is going to reveal that the American Dream which once has brought opportunities and wealth to the American people, most of the times could just exist in dreamers’ fantasy, just like pretty fairy tales. The concept of the American Dream has changed†¦show more content†¦So feel extremely disappointed, and barren spiritually. And thus people started to get into the blind pursuit of material pleasure. In the early 1920s, businesses were also prevailing, and a new Jazz Age was born. The U.S. at this time, becomes a place where everyone is yearning for money, and people become tools for making money. The purity of the American Dream, which was originally regards to hardship and self-success was gone forever. Despite it is this flourishing but void time period that provides Gatsby with the extreme wealth he has built, and it seems that he is finally going to bring home the bacon and accomplish his fabulous life with Daisy. It still leads him to the grave at the end. Gatsby s way to fall can be traced to dreaming, waking, failing, and finally lost in despair. In this respect, the life experience of Gatsby and the experience of America in the first decades of this century are strikingly similar. America was also once a lively land with people who have passion and great dreams. However, it is now replaced by modernization. The most typical example is The Valley of Ashes, where the workers keep their noses to the grindstone but still live a harsh life. The author describes as â€Å"A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who mov e dimly and already crumbling through the