The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic reflection on America in the 1920s, in particular the dissolution of the American dream in an era of unexampled luckiness and material excess. Nick Carraway, the narrator, is one of the few people privileged enough to move into West Egg while having a middle class status. Nick immediately portrays his dislike for the wealthy and spends the majority of the novel divided between acceptance and demoralized view. Gatsby aims to be respected and approved by the people he deems to be his peers by constantly lying and adding to his extravagant lifestyle. His rise into the American dream is damaged with corruption. Gatsby was born into a poor family and struggled his way to becoming rich by using prohibition and bootlegging. Gatsby is uncomfortable by his status of new found wealth that he lies to people claiming “My family all died and I came into a great bit of money...after that I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe.”(70) This is a great example of the death of the American dream in the novel because it portrays the aspect of “rags to riches” of the American dream as something which brings …show more content…
Fitzgerald proves to the audience why he believes in the death of the American dream. The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic reflection on America in the 1920s, the dissolving of the American dream in an era of new fortune and genuine excess. The story of the forbidden love between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, helps emphasize the theme which is to educate and entertain the readers about what it truly means to be American. This existing theme in the novel reaches out to more than just living the “American dream”, it exemplifies the true meaning of being a surviving human being, and not just a human,