The Corruption Of The American Dream

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Materialism

The American dream is an ideal that has been present since

American literature’s onset. Typically, the dreamer aspires to rise from

rags to riches, while accumulating such things as love, high status,

wealth, and power on his way to the top. The dream has had variations

throughout different time periods, although it is generally based on ideas

of freedom, self-reliance, and a desire for something greater. The early

settlers’ dream of traveling out West to find land and start a family has

gradually transformed into a materialistic vision of having a big house, a

nice car, and a life of ease. In the past century, the American dream has

increasingly focused on material items as an indication of attaining

success. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started

out with no money—only a plan for achieving his dream. He is so

blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money

cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can

become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and

expensive things.

Gatsby’s dream "is a naïve dream based on the fallacious

assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness,

harmony, and beauty" (Fahey 70). His American dream has become

corrupted by the culture of wealth and opulence that surrounds him. Gatsby is a "nouveau riche," and his romantic view of wealth has not

prepared him for the self-interested, snobbish, corrupt group of people

with which he comes to associate. He throws lavish parties for countless

people, yet he has no real friends. Gatsby buys expensive things and

entertains large groups of society because of his incommunicable desire

for something greater. Nick Carraway realizes that although Gatsby is

involved in underhanded business dealings and is fixated on money, he is

a good man at heart. The last time Nick sees Gatsby alive, he tells him,

"They’re a rotten crowd…. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put

together" (Fitzgerald 162).

Gatsby’s romantic view of life may partly be to blame for his

inability to achieve his dream. Although he has made his fortune through

racketeering and conducting suspicious business deals, his heart seems

untouched by the moral evil that is around him. "He has lived not for

himself, but for his dream, for his vision of the good life inspired by the

beauty of a lovely rich girl" (Fahey 71). Gatsby’s inspiration comes from

the beautiful Daisy (Fay) Buchanan, whom he knew when he was in the

military. Daisy’s parents considered Gatsby to be an unsuitable match,

because he did not come from a good background and had little money.

Nick Carraway, the narrator, sees Daisy as the golden girl—the

quintessential rich beauty. Daisy is the symbol of all that Gatsby strives for; her voice is full of

money, as Gatsby describes it. Her voice was "full of money—that was

the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the

cymbals’ song in it" (Fitzgerald 127). She can be interpreted as a

twentieth-century siren because she ensnares men with her husky,

mysterious voice. Gatsby became so enamored by her voice that he based

all of his actions on winning Daisy over. Her voice contains the promise

of vast riches. However, Gatsby is too late to realize that money is the

only thing her voice promises. There is no compassion in Daisy, just as

there is none in cold, hard cash.

Gatsby’s idealism is so great that even though Daisy is married and

they are having an affair, he assumes that his vision will be realized as

long as she will say that she has never loved her husband, Tom. "Not

content merely to repeat the past, [Gatsby] must also eradicate the years

in which his dream lost its reality" (Bloom 78). Daisy has been the object

of Gatsby’s obsession for the past five years, and his romanticism will not

allow him to separate the past from the present. He still sees Daisy as the

golden girl he knew five years ago, and he is still set on their golden

future together.

Gatsby’s lapse in judgment is in not realizing that Daisy represents

both material success and the corruption that wealth can bring. Although

she appears to be full of sweetness and light, she is at heart self-centered and cold. Daisy is careless with people’s lives; she lets Gatsby take the

blame for her unintentional manslaughter of Myrtle Wilson. Her careless

actions eventually result in Gatsby’s death, of which she shows no

concern. She commits adultery, but she had no real intentions of leaving

her husband. After she learns of Gatsby’s shady background, she quickly

runs back into the arms of her equally self-absorbed, corrupt husband.

The Buchanans live in the wealthy and highly exclusive East Egg of

Long Island, which is the location that Gatsby probably desires. The

green light at the end of the Buchanans’ dock symbolizes Gatsby’s

yearning for wealth and power, and it also embodies Daisy as the object

of Gatsby’s desire. An obvious interpretation of the light is that the green

represents money. The green color can also represent envy—the "greeneyed monster"—because Gatsby longs to be a part of the East Egg society.

The fact that the green light can be seen across the bay, "minute and far

away" from Gatsby’s mansion, symbolizes that it—Daisy or wealth—is out

of his reach, even though he can still see a glimpse of it.

Daisy and Tom’s marriage is further proof of the collapse of the

American dream. Although they belong to the elitist West Egg social

group and have extreme wealth, they are unhappy. Tom is first described

as "one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at

twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax" (Fitzgerald

11). Tom and Daisy are both in unsatisfied with life and are searching for something better. They have traveled to France and drifted "here and

there unrestfully wherever people were rich and played polo together"

(Fitzgerald 11). They are unhappy and bored with life. Tom seems to be

searching for the excitement that he found in playing football in college,

and he finds an outlet for his dissatisfaction by cheating on his wife with

Myrtle. Once again, Gatsby does not see that attaining wealth and power

does not equal happiness.

The Buchanans’ marriage is full of lies and infidelities, yet they are

united through their corruption. After Tom has discovered Daisy’s

infidelity and Myrtle has been killed, their callous selfishness is revealed

when they are reunited over fried chicken and two bottles of ale. "They

instinctively seek out each other because each recognizes the other’s

strength in the corrupt spiritual element they inhabit" (Bewley 46). After

Myrtle and Gatsby are both killed, neither one of the Buchanans sends

their regards or seem remorseful. In fact, they go on a short vacation,

which is an indication of the lack of compassion they have toward others.

Nick perceives Tom and Daisy as they really are, heartless and careless.

"They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their

money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them

together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made"

(Fitzgerald 188). Tom and Daisy’s actions are an indication of the

detrimental and emotionally numbing effects that wealth can have on someone. They focus too much on appearance and things of monetary

value, while ignoring people’s feelings and lives.

Jordan Baker’s plans are also negatively impacted by the corruptive

qualities of wealth. Although Nick is attracted to Jordan’s bored, jaunty,

careless air at first, he finally understands that it conveys her profound

disregard for other people’s feelings. Jordan supports Daisy having an

affair, because "Daisy ought to have something in her life" (Fitzgerald 85).

She sees Gatsby as something, not someone. Jordan also has a reputation

for being dishonest and for being a gossip. She was involved in a golf

tournament scandal in which she was accused of moving her golf ball to

her advantage. Jordan belongs to the elitist East Egg social group because

of her careless, dishonest ways. She serves as a hint as to the true nature

of the people from East Egg. Jordan may also be an indication of the

types of people that Gatsby entertains, since she attends his parties. She

is similar to many of his partygoers in that she exploits his hospitality yet

never shows any genuine kindness toward him.

It is very telling that Gatsby’s house is full of people throughout the

entire summer, yet when Gatsby dies, no one attends his funeral except

Nick and Gatsby’s father. The shallow acquaintances of Gatsby were

never his true friends—the only used him for his lavish generosity. The

countless people who attend his parties, ride on his hydroplane and in his

car, and drink his alcohol are nowhere to be seen when the time comes to pay their respects for him. The only guest who calls Gatsby’s home is

Klipspringer, who lived in Gatsby’s mansion for a period of time.

However, he only calls to inquire about a pair of shoes that he has

misplaced. The corrupt atmosphere in which Gatsby has lived blights his

dream of success.

Nick is an atypical attendee of Gatsby’s parties, because he is the

only one who shows compassion for Gatsby. Nick knows the truth about

Gatsby—his humble background, his dishonest business dealings, and his

aspirations for success. Nevertheless, Nick recognizes that although

Gatsby has become immersed in a world of materialism and corruption,

he is still a good man. Perhaps because he and Gatsby both come from

the Midwest, they do not truly belong with the shallow company of East

Egg and West Egg. Nick serves as an objective view of the superficial

world that surrounds him in Long Island.

Nick’s personality is deeply rooted in ideals of the Midwest and of

his family. Nick comes to the East because he is feeling restless upon his

return from World War I. However, he comes to realize that the East is

full of heartless and shallow people. This atmosphere does not fit well

with Nick’s honest and sincere character. His Midwest background has

given him a comparison for judging the glitz and materialism that

surrounds him. Nick’s American dream is based on his experiences of

warm home life and friendly faces. He fondly recalls memories of taking the train home from college with friendly faces and jingling sleigh bells to

keep him company. "It is the counterpoint to Gatsby’s sustaining dream,

which it frames and interprets, a dream of aspiration that moves Gatsby

to follow it to imagined glory and unforeseen defeat" (Fahey 79). Nick’s

dream is closer to the original American dream, which was focused more

around family than wealth and an unending quest for success. Nick

represents the opposite path that Gatsby could have taken from the

Midwest. Gatsby still possesses the principles of the Midwest, but his

values have become blurred by the bright lights and the sparkle of Daisy’s

golden glow.

Although Nick describes the towns beyond the Ohio River as boring

and sprawled, it is obvious that Fitzgerald’s novel is a commentary on the

distortion of the traditional American dream as a result of the East. "The

lure of the East represents a profound displacement of the American

dream, a turning back upon itself of the historic pilgrimage towards the

frontier which had, in fact, created and sustained that dream" (Bloom 75).

While the geographic locations of the East and the Midwest play

broad roles in shaping the novel’s view on values and money, the

microcosms of East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes further

emphasize the socioeconomic disparity between classes. East Eggers are

at the top of the social ladder, while the inhabitants of West Egg cannot

seem to reach them. This brings to surface the differences between "old money" and "new money." Gatsby cannot accomplish his dream partly

because of the superior claims that old moneyed families have over newly

wealthy individuals. This directly relates to Gatsby being able to see the

green light on the Buchanan’s dock but not being able to reach it. The

working-class, depressing area dubbed the "Valley of Ashes" reinforces

the idea that corruption surrounds the wealthy. The Valley of Ashes is

where Tom acts out his infidelities. It is also the location for Daisy’s

killing of Myrtle. Tom and Daisy respectively use and harm members of

this class with no remorse.

On the surface, Fitzgerald’s novel may appear to be just a shallow

novel about the jazz, parties, and glitz that he experienced in the early

twentieth century. After closer examination, however, it is apparent that

The Great Gatsby is a profound social commentary on the corrupt and

disillusioning effects that materialism can have on members of society.

The have-nots yearn to be like the haves, yet those who already have

wealth and status are unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives. On the

whole, the elitist group in the novel displays characteristics of being

bored, disenchanted, and unmotivated. For example, the Buchanans drift

from one place to the next, with no real plan or goal in mind. Jordan

Baker has a constant bored, unaffected look upon her face. These people

are the "haves," but Fitzgerald makes the reader question whether what

they possess is really worth having. Gatsby has devoted his life to belonging to this exclusive group, but it becomes obvious that he never

will belong because of his disreputable background. It should also be

noted that Gatsby’s romantic idealism does not fit in with this group; no

matter how far up the social ladder he climbed, he would never really fit

in. The great irony seems to be that the people who have the means,

monetary or socially, to grasp their dreams do not have the motivation or

the will.

The drifting, careless, shallow people who comprise the social

group of East Egg and West Egg are representative of the corruption that

materialism can bring. Gatsby is surrounded by this materialism and

discontent, which serves to tarnish his dream of success. His rags-toriches dream turns into a dark nightmare that leads to his untimely

downfall. His romantic idealism has not prepared him for the corrupt

world in which he enters. Gatsby is surrounded by proof of the

unhappiness that "success" can bring, as seen especially through Tom and

Daisy. Their marriage is full of lies and deceit, and they are both

searching for something greater than what they already have. Gatsby is

so blinded by his dream that he does not see that money cannot buy love

or happiness. Fitzgerald effectively offers a powerful critique of a

materialist