Who Is George Wilson's Death In The Great Gatsby

The roaring 20’s was a period of growth, fun, partying, music and entertainment. The 20’s was the birth of new inventions and excitement, is was seen as the golden age of our time. Most people living in America during this time believed in achieving success through what we know as the American Dream, the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays how people in the 20’s believed and followed the American Dream, but it also shows how it dies. Jay Gatsby, the rich main character in the novel is shot by George Wilson, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop. After shooting Gatsby, George Wilson, the symbol of the ordinary man who is trying to accomplish his own American Dream, commits suicide. The death of both the rich and poor man who are trying to achieve their goals help us symbolize the death of the old American Dream. …show more content…
In New York, Jay is the the most popular and is talked about by everyone. He’s the one who throws the most spectacular parties. He lives in a beautiful mansion with fancy cars in the driveway, groomed green gardens and walkways. His closet is filled with the fanciest suits and stunning coloured shirts. His house was referred to “a colossal affair… a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.“ (Fitzgerald, 5). Other characters in the novel that live this wealthy life are Daisy and Tom. Tom was wealthy, he was classified in a higher class than Gatsby, “For instance he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest.” (6). All these characters seem to value the material side of life and are trying to strive for wealth, acceptance and