The Great Gatsby Research Paper

The American Dream in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby, since its publication in 1925, has throughout the years, become an iconic piece in American literature. It has been seen as “perhaps the most striking fictional analyses of the age of the gang barons and the social conditions that produced them” (qtd. in. Smiljanic). The Great Gatsby undoubtedly gives the reader a look into an era in America history where materialism reigns over morals and the American dream is corrupted by society’s highest figures. Jay Gatsby himself, the protagonist of the novel, illustrates the American dream and its corruption by means of his rise from poverty to a life of success and wealth. By running away from home and finding a source of liberty and metempsychosis …show more content…
West egg is distinguished from East egg not by material or riches, but rather the moral standings that it possesses. “When the early explorers first came to America, escaping the corruption of their old world in search of the promise of a new world, they traveled east to west. Now America itself is corrupted, so the characters in The Great Gatsby travel west to east – in search of wealth and sophistication – leaving the moral values and stability of the west behind.”(qtd. in. Smiljanic) East egg is based on materialism and position alone with its western counterpart representing the deteriorating values of the American dream. Nick Carraway, who lives in West egg, describes his own house as “an eye-sore. . .” with a “partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires. . .”Fitzgerald 5). Amongst the shadowing success of millionaires, the Hoi Polloi of American society is belittled and encouraged to develop facades of wealth rather than a reality of morality, family, and