A Corrupted Dream

The American dream is perceived in many different ways, and it varies from decade to decade. At one point, the American dream was freedom, and at another point in time it was to live a better, happier, and richer life. The dream is a promise of prosperity, and it was an inspiration for immigrants to move, and for Americans to continue working hard. Although it sounds like an idealistic dream conceived of hope and of success, it drastically changed during the roaring 20’s, and what seemed to be the dream at one time, was no longer the life Americans desired. In the story, “The Great Gatsby” F. Scott Fitzgerald narrates the live of Nick Carraway during a time in which the dream switched from values to materials, and Americans strived towards making money and gaining as many possessions as possible. Because of this change of heart and values, the country seemed to have almost changed over night, and classes were divided by wealth.

As the change was made, Americans seemed almost crazed over money and power, and the more you had of both, the more important you were. The Author of the book shows this throughout the story very subtlety at some points, and very blatantly at others, but nonetheless, one of the main messages of the book was that Americans were engulfed in this craze, and it was corrupting people by the minute. The way Fitzgerald displays this idea in the book almost disgusts the reader by showing the disregard that the rich had for the poor at the time. In the story, women no longer lust for men because of looks or charm, but because of possessions, and men judge each other by their wealth. To show the extent of the discrimination in the book, Fitzgerald writes about two separate parts of a town, where the people with wealthy families live on one side, while the people with new money live on the other side. Citizens of each side choose to judge each other just by the process in which they made their money, and by which side they lived on. In the book, one of the characters named Tom Buchanan refers to the his side of town saying, “I would never live anywhere else” merely because of the reputation that his side of the town has.

Another repercussion of the change of the dream is the way women choose men. In the book, a character named Myrtle cheats on her average husband with Tom merely for possessions. When they are together in the book, she always seems to only care about Toms possessions, and she is constantly asking him to buy her things. Also, Tom’s wife daisy seems more interested in Gatsby than she is in her own husband, but as you read on, she seems more interested in Gatsby’s house and items than she is in the man himself. As the story gets closer to an end, you start to get a feel for why the time was so corrupt. Everyone seems to judge one another, and money is power. Throughout the book, Tom acts as though he is untouchable because of his wealth. In his mind, much like the mind of every man at the time, he thinks that because of his money, not a single soul can come between him and anything he desires, and no man can tell him what is right or wrong. Even the cops at the time were involved in this corruption, as displayed in a scene in the book in which Gatsby is pulled over. As the cop approaches his car, he simply flashes a card, and the cop immediately apologizes, and Gatsby turns to Nick, who is in shock and says, “I did a favor for the police chief a long time ago, and now he sends me a Christmas card each year”.

To conclude, this story is one of love, desire, and hopelessness, but one of the main topics is power. Although not much has changed since then, the values of the characters in the book, as well as in this time period revolved around money and power, and it took quite some time for people to catch on and realize this. Fitzgerald is very poignant in the way that he displays this, and he leaves the reader thinking about their values, as well as what the American dream is today. Even though the characters had some good intentions, the story leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth, and you come to realize how good people can turn around completely when money is brought into the picture.