Paper 1: How or Why Has The Great Gatsby Endured from 1924 into the 21st Century?
Do We Know Gatsby? Do we Want to?
If the 1920s were roaring, surely the 2020s would be hollering or yelling at a similar pitch. The year is 2025, or is it 1925? Looking at all the parallels, it is easy to get confused. The United States is in a period of extreme wealth inequality as we witness the continued growth of billionaires’ capital, influence upon the country, and opulent lifestyles, all at the cost of the 99%. Despite this, the American majority cannot seem to look away. Like the Jazz Age’s obsession with excess, modern American society remains captivated by figures whose wealth is glamorously unattainable. These celebrities and ultra-wealthy elites represent the American Dream to us and Fitzgerald. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald critiques our idolization of the American Dream, showing how its pursuit leads to moral decay, inequality, and disillusionment. The novel explores how characters like Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby embody different aspects of the American Dream and the consequences of their relentless quests for wealth and status. These themes, while rooted in the 1920s, continue to resonate in contemporary society, where the fixation on celebrity and wealth remains as pervasive as ever.
The American Dream is a concept that has continued since the founding of our nation. Our fundamental American psyche began with a need to explore, conquer, amass great wealth and success, and leave a lasting impact on one’s country and family. Because of this, the American Dream cannot be categorized with a singular definition as it is different for each American; for this analysis, however, the focus is on excess wealth and its consequences within The Great Gatsby as well as how it has continued.
Tom Buchanan embodies entitlement and corruption, using his privilege to control those around him, he has untapped access to his American Dreams—leaving him like a spoiled child with unchecked power over everyone. Tom Buchanan enters conversations by asserting his dominance over others through his wealth (Jakewalk NP). As he says, “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife,” showing that his primary concern is maintaining his superiority over others, particularly Gatsby, who has acquired his wealth through self-made means. This line illustrates Tom’s belief that the American Dream should remain reserved for those born into privilege, reinforcing his view that money and its power are the ultimate measure of worth (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 7). Throughout the novel, he has a history of infidelity and destructive behavior, so much so that he and his wife have uprooted several times to escape the chaos he created. “I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 6). Restless and spoiled from a lifetime of privilege and admiration, his boredom drives him to reckless behavior, including frequent adultery, in pursuit of an insatiable sense of contentment.
Daisy Buchanan represents the symbolic unattainable American Dream—both to Gatsby and in American culture. Her beauty and status define her worth, reinforcing the materialistic and patriarchal failures of the Dream. She acknowledges her role as a trophy, stating that the ideal woman is a “beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 1). On her wedding day, she receives an invaluable pearl necklace from Tom, symbolizing her status as a purchased bride, surrendering her autonomy in a transactional marriage. This necklace was a symbolic collar, choking and subjugating her to the control of Tom, ensuring her status as a housewife and nothing more. “He gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 4). Trapped in a gilded cage, Daisy remains bound to Tom despite her discontent. To Gatsby, she is not a person but a symbol of success. His pursuit of her is an illusion, as he ultimately realizes: “He has intended, probably, to take what he could and go—but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail” (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 8). Daisy Buchanan is not valued for her personality or dreams, but rather for her beauty, social status, and exterior representation of the American Dream, reflecting the Dream’s superficiality and selfishness.
The Buchanans’ relationship, rooted in wealth and privilege, is marked by carelessness and moral decay, as Fitzgerald writes, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy, 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 NP, Chapter 9). Similarly, Fitzgerald repeatedly uses the word “floating” to describe the couple, reinforcing their detachment from reality. Tom and Daisy gracefully float through life, untouched by consequences, while those beneath them remain unseen. One quote perfectly encapsulates this: “The cocktails floated over to us”, as if served by invisible hands (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 3). This subtle detail furthers the evidence describing how the upper class overlooks those who serve them, persisting in contemporary trends in wealth disparity (Westbrookinthewild NP). This was emblematic of their disconnection from the individuals who were affected by their careless decisions and the dehumanizing and overly materialistic decisions of the Buchanans jaded from the acquisition and continuing greed for the American Dream. Once the death and destruction of others had commenced, the Buchanans packed up and left New York unchanged. “Anybody would have said that they were conspiring together” (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 7). Despite their aversions and affairs against one another, the convenience of their relationship—maintaining a higher socioeconomic class, power, and status—was more important, showing how their flawed relationship was more for maintaining the status quo. Their relationship reflects the hollow success of the American Dream, showing that although they have everything idealized in a capitalist society, they lack genuine love and life.
Jay Gatsby is the ultimate dreamer, placing his faith in the illusion of a relationship with Daisy. Gatsby’s empire was built off illegal bootlegging, further emphasizing the corruption associated with pursuing excessive wealth, and selling his innocence for a place in society. His pursuit for perfection in appearances was a front to impress Daisy, his taken lover who he claimed had a “voice full of money” (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 7). To him, she represented a happy ending, emblematic of success, wealth, and integration into society. Unfortunately, Gatsby’s naivety leaves him dead and helpless, alone at his funeral, while the Buchanans can escape any consequences for their sins. The fleeting admiration amongst his peers was for nothing but his fabricated wealth, which left him without anything actual. This is a point Fitzgerald makes, emphasizing the inevitability of the class structure—the old aristocracy maintaining power, while the nouveau riche falls into helpless endings; Gatsby’s downfall is symbolic of the American Dream itself. His death underscores the emptiness and futility of pursuing the American Dream, as he is only remembered by Nick as a “poor son-of-a-bitch” (Fitzgerald NP, Chapter 9). Gatsby’s downfall and the Buchanans’ immunity from consequence reveal a system in which wealth not only dictates fate but also distorts innate values, despite personal intervention; a theme that persists today.
So where is the American Dream today? Is it the pursuit of happiness or capital? In examining the characters of The Great Gatsby, we can draw a direct parallel to modern society, where the obsession with wealth and celebrity often overshadows more meaningful pursuits. Just as the Buchanans’ wealth shapes their actions, we too live in a world where the richest are often idolized, and the pursuit of personal gain eclipses other values. Our fascination with the novel and its content indicates our continual obsession and desire to climb the socioeconomic ladder. In that sense, we are like Gatsby, but we also can take warnings from characters like the Buchanans that extreme success does not come without a toll. This is a point Fitzgerald made to warn us about the dangers of flying too close to the sun, losing ourselves in our obsession with something unattainable; though we have not learned this yet though as our society still idolizes the wealthy to an unhealthy degree. In both The Great Gatsby and modern society, behind every dazzling party and extravagant display lies a profound emptiness that neither money nor status can fill alone. Fitzgerald’s novel is a timeless reflection of the pitfalls of the American Dream: its promise of happiness through wealth and status is ultimately hollow, leading to disillusionment and despair. Fitzgerald perceived this and sought to warn society, stating that “An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward” (Fitzgerald NP). His message remains as relevant today as it was in 1925, 100 years later.
Paper One Cover Letter
I wanted to write about the ongoing fascination with the aesthetic appeal of the novel because I, too, was blinded by it. At first, while reading the book, I could only remember the characters’ decadent wealth as admirable and interesting. Of course, this is a point of interest, as Fitzgerald intended, but I found myself overlooking the true meaning and criticism embedded in his writing. Instead of celebrating the novel’s depiction of wealth and the Roaring 20s aesthetic, I wanted to explore the deeper implications of why millions of contemporary readers are so attracted to these themes. Is it something in our human nature that draws us toward the sparkling? Is it something capitalism has implanted in us? Or is it something we are missing from the novel itself? Have we learned the lessons Fitzgerald sought to teach us, or are we still as greedy and immoral as the characters in the story?
I considered several initial ideas for my essay, and although I enjoyed the theme I chose, I struggled to find evidence to support my claims and to structure my argument effectively. By incorporating quotations from the novel and insights from my peers, I integrated evidence to support my claims and further develop my hypothesis. Additionally, I expanded my thesis to include the concept of the American Dream in the novel and how society’s continual attention to the wealthy and powerful as a goal and the ongoing effects of creating an idol of an immoral person or cause.
I would say that the most helpful assignments were the blog posts and the free writes. I enjoyed the blog posts because they allowed me to experiment with different subjects, explore new material, and consider how I might expand those ideas into an essay format. The free writing helped me get ideas on paper with a low-stakes approach to developing an argument. Much of what I wrote in these exercises ended up in my essay. I also appreciated the essay-related conferences and feedback on areas for improvement. I used this feedback to flesh out my argument and support it more effectively.
By my first draft, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, including an introduction and basic structure without evidence or ACE paragraphs. By the second draft, I had gathered evidence to incorporate into my writing, and by the third draft, I had finalized my conclusion and edited my work. I admit that breaking the drafting process into three separate steps threw me off at times, making it difficult to know what to focus on at each stage and having significant differences in the quality of draft. However, I have learned from this process that there is always room for improvement and that using the ACE writing structure helps strengthen my arguments. In the future, I would work better with fewer structured due dates and draft sections, allowing myself more flexibility to develop my ideas naturally.
From this initial essay, I concluded that our obsession with wealth and celebrities is symptomatic of the American capitalist system’s interconnection with the American Dream. A critique Fitzgerald explores through his character development and his portrayal of the inevitable moral decay that results from the pursuit of never-ending vices such as extreme wealth and impossible love.
Leave a Reply