The Great Gatsby

The deterioration of the American Dream is a copious theme throughout The Great Gatsby. Beginning in the early 19th century, immigrants inundated the United States in search of the American Dream. While nearly everyone had separate ideas on how to achieve their dream, the sole ulterior motive remains the same for all: wealth. Just as society today believes they can achieve monumental wealth in the lottery, these new Americans felt they, too, could become opulent …

…him. Fitzgerald is clearly saying that the American Dream has gone awry. People are consumed by chasing the almighty dollar that they have forgotten real human values. He creates a portrait of characters in the Roaring Twenties with dysfunctional lifestyles and corrupted values and morals to show one how the American Dream no longer stood for what it once did and how it lost its place among the men and women of the Jazz Age.