Bachelor Thesis American Dream

Masaryk University
Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature
Štěpánka Nárovcová
The American dream and the destructive
influence of distorted values in An American
Tragedy and The Great Gatsby
Bachelor thesis
Supervisor: Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D.
2020
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and
secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………….
20 April 2020, Brno Author’s signature

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. for his
guidance, helpful advice and supportive comments that he provided me throughout my
work on this bachelor thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank my family and friends
for their support.

Anotace
Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá tématem amerického snu a hodnot ve vybraných dílech
Americká tragédie a Velký Gatsby. Práce obsahuje analýzu snahy o dosažení
amerického snu hlavních postav Clyda a Gatsbyho a zaměřuje se na hodnoty, které volí
na cestě k jeho získání. Závěrem této bakalářské práce je zjištění, že hodnoty hlavních
postav spojené s bohatstvím, láskou a morálkou jsou pokřivené a negativně ovlivňují
směr při pronásledování jejich amerického snu. Tyto hodnoty s sebou nesou
destruktivní následky a vedou nejen k selhání jejich amerického snu, ale i k jejich smrti.
Klíčová slova
Americká tragédie, Americký sen, bohatství, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, hodnoty, láska,
morálka, selhání, Theodore Dreiser, Velký Gatsby

Abstract
This bachelor thesis deals with the theme of the American dream and values in the
selected works An American Tragedy and The Great Gatsby. The thesis analyses the
pursuit of the American dream by the main characters Clyde and Gatsby and focuses on
the values chosen on their way to achieve it. The findings of this bachelor thesis suggest
that the main characters’ values of wealth, love and morality are distorted and
negatively determine the form of their chase of the American dream. These values
imply destructive consequences and lead not only to the failure of their American dream
but also to their death.
Keywords
An American Tragedy, American dream, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, morality, love, The
Great Gatsby, Theodore Dreiser, values, wealth

Table of contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................7
1. Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Theodore Dreiser ...................................................................9
2. The Roaring Twenties .......................................................................................................11
3. Definition and history of the American dream ..................................................................12
4. Plot summary .....................................................................................................................14
4.1 The Great Gatsby .........................................................................................................14
4.2 An American Tragedy .................................................................................................15
5. Background of the novels ..................................................................................................16
6. Depiction of the American Dream in the stories ...............................................................20
6.1 The Great Gatsby .........................................................................................................20
6.2 An American Tragedy .................................................................................................25
7. Values ................................................................................................................................30
7.1 Moral values ...........................................................................................................30
7.1.1 The Great Gatsby .................................................................................................30
7.1.2 An American Tragedy .......................................................................................... 34
7.2 Value of wealth.......................................................................................................40
7.2.1 The Great Gatsby .................................................................................................40
7.3 Value of love ..........................................................................................................47
7.3.1 The Great Gatsby .................................................................................................47
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................56
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................60
Introduction
‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me,
‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had
the advantages that you’ve had.’(Fitzgerald 3) (Italics added)
The idea of the very first line of the novel said by the father of Nick Carraway,
the narrator of The Great Gatsby, accompanies the whole story of Jay Gatsby as well as
Clyde Griffiths, the main character of An American Tragedy. Both characters are
influenced by poverty of their family, which makes them think more how to better
themselves. Their American dream for a brighter future gets formed more precisely
after their first encounter with wealth and women, which causes a transformation of
their values.
Although the American dream is similar in both novels since it includes wealth,
women and power, it is different from the original idea of the American dream. As
described in the theoretical part, the idea of the American dream was according to
Adams formed centuries ago in minds of European settlers who sought for a better
future in America. During the centuries, the form of the American dream changed as
well as the tools and ways to achieve it. While in the 17th century it was believed that
the American dream can be achieved by hard work, the pursuit of the American dream
in the 20th century presented by Clyde and Gatsby is less pure. Both Gatsby and Clyde
take an advantage of chances that occur in their life and thoughtlessly pursue their
dream.
Both the main characters focus on their dream too much that they ignore the
morality of their actions. Moral values together with the value of wealth and love are
closely analysed in the literary part of the bachelor thesis that brings the main finding of
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thesis. It suggests that warped values of the main characters lead to the failure of their
American dream as well as their death. It is because the American dream and values are
closely connected since the values determine the form of the pursuit of the American
dream and therefore also its achievement or failure.
As for the content, this bachelor thesis consists of 7 chapters. After the
introductory chapter, a theoretical part follows to introduce the authors of the novel, the
history of the American dream, brief plot of the stories and background of the works to
sum up the theoretical approach of the novels which should serve as a base for the
following analysis of the American dream and values. Following two literary chapters
focus on the American dream expressed in the novel, especially on its form, starting
point and its end determined by distorted values of the main characters which are
closely discussed in three subchapters.
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1. Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Theodore Dreiser
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul,
Minnesota, was an American novelist, a short story writer and representative of the Lost
Generation. He was famous for his depiction of 1920s known as the Jazz Age
(Mizener). Fitzgerald studied at Princeton which he left without any degree in 1917. At
the university, he met Ginevra King who became a model for his characters, e. g., Daisy
Fay in The Great Gatsby (1925) or Isabelle in This Side of Paradise (1920) which is an
autobiography of his days at Princeton presented by its main character Amory Blaine
(Johnson).
Soon after his studies, he joined the army and met Zelda Sayre, a daughter of a
court judge (Mizener), who did not want to marry him because he did not have enough
money. However, after the success of This Side of Paradise, they got married and the
Fitzgeralds started to live their American dream (Johnson). In 1922, Fitzgerald wrote
his second work The Beautiful and Damned (1922) – a novel about toxic wealth. Later,
after publishing The Great Gatsby (1925), his wife Zelda experienced several mental
breakdowns. Subsequently, Fitzgerald wrote a novel Tender is The Night (1934) which
was an attempt to understand Zelda’s mental problem which led, beside other reasons,
to Fitzgerald’s growing alcoholism. He died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940
(Mizener).
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist, journalist of the
naturalist school and the author of An American Tragedy which is closely linked with
his life and job-experience. He was born on 27 August 1871 in Terre Haute, the State of
Indiana (Hussman). His father was originally from Germany and his mother had
ancestors from Czechoslovakia (Loving 1). Since his family constantly sought for an
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economic stability (Riggio), his choice of themes, including poverty, chase for wealth
and success, was determined by his own experience searching for his American dream
(Hussman) as well as his quest for the right woman (Loving 4).
In 1892, Dreiser started to work as a journalist and collected material for his
later fiction (Riggio). He got inspired by works of T.H. Huxley, J. Tyndall and H.
Spencer which made him believe that people are helpless against social forces or
instincts (Hussman). At the end of 19th century, Dreiser married Sarah White and with
her support he started to write his first novel Sister Carrie (1900). Eleven years later, he
published Jennie Gerhardt, whose family was modelled on Dreiser’s one, The
Financier and The Titan with a new subject – an American financier. In 1925, he
published a novel An American Tragedy that brought him into the successful life he had
been dreaming of since his childhood. The story of the novel is based on his notes taken
while working as a journalist in New York. He reported on crimes which in his opinion
characterized American life – e. g. murders with a motive of an escape from a
relationship in order to marry another woman who is believed to bring wealth into the
murderer’s life. After this novel, he wrote just two more fictions –The Bulwark (1946)
and the Stoic, the third novel of the Trilogy of Desire, which remained unfinished since
Dreiser died of heart failure on December 28, 1945 (Riggio).
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2. The Roaring Twenties
Both works The Great Gatsby and An American Tragedy were written during the
1920s which is a decade known as The Roaring Twenties. The following chapter
summarizes basic description of this period for a better understanding of the
background of both novels.
1920s was a dynamic decade of several cultural and economic changes in the United
States characterized by consumerism, technological inventions, prosperity, leisure and
shift towards modern values (Sullivan). In these years, The United States was very rich
thanks to the First World War and other states owing this country a lot of money. At
this period, people could afford more, and their life got more comfortable. Furthermore,
many people bought items with the motto “Live now, pay tomorrow”, which meant that
they first paid only a small amount of money and the rest of it through an “installment
plan” (OĆallaghan 92). This change was caused also by the rise of production in
electrical and automobile industries, which made cars affordable for the middle class as
well, and thus people travelled further and more frequently since then (Sullivan).
Moreover, by the year 1920, 50% of the population moved to cities as a result of
growing urbanization (OĆallaghan 92).
Besides, this decade meant also a relaxation of the American society’s moral
codes. Before this period, women were expected to get married at a young age and stay
at home with their children. Instead, they enjoyed other activities, such as spending time
with their friends, in social clubs and at parties (Sailus), which can be seen in both
selected novels.
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3. Definition and history of the American dream
The American dream is the main theme and core of both stories. The phrase was
created at the time of the Great Depression by James Truslow Adams who defined the
term and looked closer at the history and development of the American dream in his
work The Epic of America published in 1931 (Samuel 13). Adams basically
rediscovered basic values in America among which belonged success, freedom,
opportunity and social equality, and put all of it together under a new phrase. Said
differently, he connected the strange with the familiar (Schneiderman in Adams 15) and
created an expression known worldwide.
After his book was published, the term of the American dream was used by
intellectuals, scientists as well as in academic articles or political speeches
(Schneiderman in Adams 10-12). The theme of the American dream can be found for
instance in John Dos Passos’ trilogy USA, in the novels of Thomas Wolfe, Wilber
Caldwell, John Steinbeck, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Dreiser’s An American
Tragedy as well as in cinematography and art (Shestakov). Moreover, the American
dream is so widely spread that it has been used also as a metaphor for items the
Americans value in their life (Schneiderman in Adams 9). It means for instance having
a family, successful life, job with an appealing salary and as a result of that, being
happy. Originally, it did not represent the dream of getting rich or owing a property but
primarily being free from restrictions (Samuel 14).
The roots of the American dreams are interwoven with the history of the United
States and its independency (Shestakov). Adams claims that the American dream started
to form in the 17th century in minds of European settlers who came to America in order
to escape from their bad social and economic conditions overseas. These settlers were
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mainly members of the lower- or middleclass. Some of them were coming from prisons
or cottages, never from palaces since the aristocracy remained in Europe (Adams 31-
37). They hoped for “a better and freer life” which they could not afford in their
country. Thus, the early colonists valued hard work since they saw it as the way to
achieve their American dream (14).
To summarize, the idea of the American dream in its original form was an
achievement of a better life, which became “the very structure of the American mind”
(Adams 119). It represented not only the belief that poor and rich have equal chances
and opportunities (135) but also the faith in the value of a common man (198) created in
hearts and souls of millions of people who came to America from all nations (416).
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4. Plot summary
For the following analysis of the American dreams and the values of the main
characters in the selected works, it is important to introduce the plot of the stories to be
able to recognize specific passages, relations and connections within the whole novel.
4.1 The Great Gatsby
The narrator of the book is Nick Carraway, a young man working as a bond broker in
Manhattan. He lives in a house at West Egg on Long Island across the river from his
cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan. His neighbour is a millionaire Jay
Gatsby who profits mainly from his criminal activities. Gatsby is in love with Daisy and
everything he has done and possessed is to show her that he can give her the life she
wants. Daisy loved Gatsby in the past but when he left for war, she did not wait for him
and married Tom who belongs to the same social class as she does. Later, Nick arranges
a meeting of these two after many years and it seems that Daisy is still interested in
Gatsby. However, Tom can see that something is happening between his wife and
Gatsby and gets jealous although he is also involved in an affair with Myrtle, a married
middle-class woman. Thus, Tom makes a research and reveals where Gatsby’s money
comes from. Consequently, Daisy loses her interest in Gatsby and while she is driving
home very fast, she hits Myrtle who dies short after. Tom indicates to Myrtle’s husband
that Gatsby is the one responsible for her death since it was his car that hit Myrtle. The
novel ends with the murder of Gatsby by Myrtle’s husband (Cregan-Reid). At the end,
all Gatsby’s guests forget about his hospitality, and no one comes to his funeral.
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4.2 An American Tragedy
The main character of the novel is ambitious but immature Clyde Griffiths who
grew up in a poor religious family. He is involved in their missionary work and does not
get a proper education because of him constantly skipping school. After Clyde starts to
work, he meets manipulative Hortense Briggs who persuades him to buy an expensive
coat for her. At the same time, his mother is begging him for money for his sister who is
in need, but he chooses Hortense instead. Later, when he and his friends are rushing
from a party, they hit a little girl who immediately dies. Although there are witnesses,
they flee from the crime scene. Consequently, Clyde runs to Chicago and starts to work
in another hotel under a fake name. In this luxury hotel, he meets his rich uncle who
offers him a job in his company. Thanks to his name, he gets a certain power and people
around him think that he is as rich as his uncle. Soon after that, he finds a girlfriend,
Roberta Alden, who gets pregnant with him. Yet, he already hopes for a marriage to
Sondra Finchley, a very rich young lady. Roberta as well as the unborn baby stands in
his way to achieve his dream. Therefore, he decides to murder her or more precisely, let
her drown in the middle of a lake. When the moment comes, he freezes and
unintentionally strikes Roberta with a camera when she is leaning to him to find out
what is wrong with his mood. Roberta falls into water shouting for help. However,
Clyde start to swim towards the shore letting her drown since he knows that she cannot
swim. Roberta dies and Clyde is apprehended. Although he does not admit committing
the crime, there are plenty of evidences. He is sentenced to death and executed by an
electric chair.
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5. Background of the novels
Both works reflect the society in the 1920s based either on Fitzgerald’s own
experiences or a real story in case of Dreiser. The Great Gatsby is a novel defining the
contradictions of the 1920s the generation of which was not moving only towards
financial bankruptcy caused by the Great Depression in 1930s but also into a moral
bankrupt (de Roche 37). This era influenced Fitzgerald, the same as Jay Gatsby, who
was longing for a better quality of life, position and privilege. Yet, although Fitzgerald
lived among the rich people on Summit Avenue, like Gatsby, he never belonged to them
- he was always outside of their world even though he was part of the community (43).
At the university, he met Ginevra King who was according to James L. W. West
III, an expert on Fitzgerald, the most important romance that Fitzgerald ever
experienced. When they were corresponding, Fitzgerald asked her questions about her
past and affairs trying to get more material for his characters based on her. Ginevra
inspired him to create Daisy Buchanan who also came from a rich family being not
allowed to marry a poor man. In connection with her, he wrote a quote in his diary
saying ‘“Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls”’ (Smith), which was perhaps
said by Ginevra’s father and caused the end of their relationship. This line probably led
Fitzgerald to the idea of writing The Great Gatsby. Furthermore, when Ginevra married
a rich man from the same social class (Lombardi), which is another similarity to Daisy,
Fitzgerald avoided seeing her to keep the perfect illusion of her that he used in his work
(Smith).
After Fitzgerald joined the army (in The Great Gatsby we can also see the
reference to the army and World War I) he met Zelda Sayre, a daughter of a court judge
(Mizener). Gatsby also met Daisy when he was in the army, which is evidence that
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Daisy portrayed not only Ginevra King but also Zelda Sayre. In The Great Gatsby,
Fitzgerald used Zelda’s line that she told him when she was under anaesthesia after the
birth of their daughter: ‘“That the best thing for a woman to be was a beautiful little
fool”’ (Lombardi). This statement used in the novel shows Daisy’s understanding of the
world which rewards women for being foolish rather than smart. Yet, it is the only
moment when Daisy expresses “sensitivity and self-awareness” (Prahl).
However, Zelda refused to marry Fitzgerald because of his lack of money but
after the success of The Side of Paradise, he became more affluent and Zelda agreed to
marry him (Mizener). As a follow-up to the great success of the book, the Fitzgeralds
started to enjoy their lives in New York. Their parties and behaviour powered by
alcohol soon made them symbolic of the 1920s which Fitzgerald described in his novels
(de Roche 44). Nevertheless, their extravagant lifestyle led soon into a debt. Although
they kept enjoying their lives, they started to be worried of its consequences. Like in
Gatsby’s case, wealth did not bring any happiness to Fitzgerald either (Mizener).
Another important experience implied in the story was Fitzgerald’s stay in Long
Island where he saw the difference between the “new money”, people who enriched
themselves during their lives, and the “old money”, people who were already born rich.
This difference and division inspired him to create the fictional neighbourhoods of West
Egg and East Egg (Lombardi). However, despite the parallel between Gatsby’s and
Fitzgerald’s life and experience, there is one difference. Fitzgerald reflected the whole
himself into Gatsby telling the readers about his own life with one change – Gatsby is
presented without an alcohol addiction, which Fitzgerald later attempted to divest of.
Due to this addiction, Fitzgerald struggled with money and never became a part of the
world of the rich (Lombardi).
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In An American Tragedy, we can find similar parallels to Dreiser’s life and
experience as well. Short after the publication of the novel, Dreiser explained in several
articles its historical background. The story is mostly based on the destiny of
Chester Gillette, who murdered his girlfriend Grace Brown since she became an
obstruction to his rise in social status, Dreiser’s own life experiences, and lastly, his
observations of the American society (Plank). Although Dreiser used Chester’s case
quite precisely, he changed little details which made Clyde look more like a victim of
the society. Yet, both men are examples of a failure of the American dream due to their
bad values. The story of Gillette is mentioned in this chapter as well in order to
understand Dreiser’s choice of themes, among which belong ambition and importance
of social classes and wealth, as well as the whole pattern of the American dream in this
work.
Dreiser chose the case of Chester Gillette mainly because of the availability in
the newspapers, which was the only way to gain the information since he started to
examine the case many years after the trial. Dreiser used the newspapers The New York
World and The New York Sun (Loving 303-306) from where he directly quoted speeches
from the trial as well as Grace Brown’s letters which contributed to a better authenticity
of his novel (Plank). Moreover, Dreiser chose Chester’s case also because it depicted
the American society which surrounded him. While he worked as a journalist, he
experienced many similar crimes connected to warped values and a murder for a higher
social status.
Nevertheless, if we examine the historical background of the story closely, we
can see that Dreiser used most of the parts of the original story precisely but the details
he changed and added are the most important. In fact, he created more characters and
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larger issues according to his pattern which should represent what was in his eyes
wrong in the American society. It was his imagination that the crucial pattern of the
story came from. One of these patterns is Clyde’s social and economic motivation to
commit the crime. Whereas Chester Gillette was very confident at the trial and
sarcastically answered to the questions given by the prosecutor (Plank), Clyde was
according to Dreiser a victim of American society and forces which he cannot control.
Similar to Clyde, also Chester took Grace for a trip to the lakes where he
planned to murder her. In Chester’s case, he stroked Grace with a tennis racket, which
makes Chester more cold-blooded than Clyde. Furthermore, he contended that Grace
committed a suicide because Chester insisted on telling her parents about her
pregnancy. In contrast, Clyde did not take any tool to do so and theoretically, he stroke
Roberta by accident. He maintained his innocence claiming that the boat capsized, and
he was too scared to help Roberta since she was kicking around herself (Loving 300).
Nevertheless, the justice was done and both men were brought before the court.
Yet, not only Chester’s but also Dreiser’s personal life became an inspiration in
this novel. Since the newspapers did not give Dreiser enough details, he started to fill in
the gaps with his own past and experience as a journalist. He was born in a poor family
with a fanatically religious father who, like Clyde’s father Asa, failed to take care of his
family (312). Thus, he sought his whole life for wealth, which determined the choice of
his themes in his novels (Hussman). According to Loving, he was, like his main
character Clyde, searching for his American dream and in his autobiography, he
admitted his fantasy of marrying into a rich family (300). He used his dream in the
novel and allowed Clyde to get very close to fulfilling it just before Roberta announced
her pregnancy and created a barrier between him and rich Sondra Finchley. In fact,
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Dreiser found himself in a similar situation because he had set himself between his wife
Helen and other women, which inspired him while writing the story. Furthermore, his
relationship to his family had its impact while writing the book as well. Dreiser
confessed his intentions to escape from family crises as well as being ashamed by them
(300-313). He reflected that attitude in the novel by having Clyde ignore that his sister
is in dire straits. Instead of helping her, he rather buys an expensive coat for a girl who
does not love him. In this passage, and many following ones, Dreiser consciously
exaggerates the barrier between the rich and the poor and the emergence of social
category (298).
6. Depiction of the American Dream in the stories
The form of the American dream as well as the way of its pursuit is individual.
Every person chooses different aims to chase and follows a different path to achieve it.
This chapter focuses on the form and pursuit of the American dream in case of Gatsby
and Clyde since the early age of their life till their death.
6.1 The Great Gatsby
The story of The Great Gatsby does not only describe the society of the 1920s, it
gives us also an insight into consumerism, corruption, values determining priorities and
psychology concerning the American dream and its failure. Adams, as already
mentioned, explains that the American dream was first seen in the 17th century in the
very clear and basic form. Members of the middle class wished for a better future and
freer life which they could not afford in their home countries. Also, the American dream
was supposed to be achieved by hard work (Adams 14-31) but as we can see in The
Great Gatsby, the idea of the original American dream has not the same idea since it
changed throughout the centuries. The American dream of 1920s displayed by
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Fitzgerald is focused on wealth, power and success. Moreover, the main character of the
novel Gatsby, who is trying to reach his dream, does not pay any attention to the moral
side of his doings and behaviour. It is a dream in which money and “material
possessions” are equal to “happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70).
A part of Gatsby’s dream is to achieve the financial and social position of the
members of the “old money” (Fahey 70). In The Great Gatsby, the society on Long
Island is divided into East and West Egg. East Egg is home of traditional wealth -
families who have been always rich, the so called “old money”. Among them belong
Tom and Daisy Buchanan born in rich families. In contrast, the society of West Egg is
full of the “newly rich” who are displaying in a quite bad taste that they have arrived at
financial level of East Egg (Fahey 70). They are “too newly rich” to have the “self-
cultivation” which the traditionally wealthy people have (Fahey 71). They differ from
them in cultural background, “sophistication” and particularly in “refinement” (71).
Gatsby belongs to the society of West Egg. Having no sense of tradition, he
simply copies the style of East Egg (Canterbery 300). Nick describes his house as “a
factual imitation of some Hôtel 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 7). However, Gatsby is sure that his
huge mansion and expensive parties full of newly rich people make him visible enough
to become a real part of the world of the wealthy, which should bring him to the
fullfilment of his American dream.
On the other hand, although he is living in wealth, he is living in a paradox as
well - he is “a man who equates quality with quantity, cost with value” (Fahey 70). In
detail, he spends money on parties which he does not enjoy, invites people who he does
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not know and does not even wish to meet or befriend. In fact, his mansion with a marble
swimming pool, which he does not use, and a huge library full of books, which he has
no knowledge about, should only show his social status and give a signal to his love,
Daisy, that he is ready to be part of her world. Nevertheless, although he thinks he has
arrived at the same level of life in which Daisy lives, the members of the “old money”
see him as a “clownish arriviste, crudely aping their ways” (70-71).
Yet, it is Daisy that embodies his inspiration and propulsion power for his
actions on his way to achieve his American dream. Since the moment he met her, he
“has lived not for himself but for his dream” (71) that was presented by Daisy and
wealth she lives in. In addition, for a poor man growing up on a farm in North Dakota
seeing his parents’ unsuccessful life, was meeting Daisy something extraordinary.
Gatsby had never been in such a mansion and was amazed how normal this home was
for Daisy – it was “as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him”
(Fitzgerald 158). However, after he left for the army, she disappeared “into her rich
house, into her rich, full life” leaving Gatsby the same “penniless young man without a
past” (Fitzgerald 159) who she met before.
Although Gatsby has been very ambitious since his early age, which confirms
also the fact that he never accepted his parents due to their poverty, the main motivation
for his ambitiousness and living the American dream is, as mentioned before, Daisy.
Gundle describes Jay Gatsby as a person who ‘“is not just an ambitious individual but a
man who has his dream, a dream that can be seen as the American dream of success and
personal happiness”’ (qtd in Bachelor 181). His personal happiness is connected to
Daisy and her wealth; and success is the way to get her back into his life. Therefore,
everything he has done since they last saw each other is for her since she personifies his
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American dream of being rich and successful. Yet, Nick sees in him also “hope, a
romantic readiness” (Fitzgerald 4) and love propelling his actions and motivation. Even
so, when Gatsby says about Daisy that “her voice is full of money” (128), Nick
understands what really makes Daisy attractive to Gatsby. It is Daisy’s origin,
background and social level that makes her special. In his eyes she is not just a girl he
loves, she personifies a considerable part of his American dream since he idolized her in
his memories.
Concerning the early stage of Gatsby’s attempts to change his fate, it took place
in 1907 when seventeen years old Jay Gatz changed his name to Jay Gatsby, which
should mark the end of his poverty. On the same day, he met a rich sailor Dan Cody,
who noticed that Gatsby was “quick, and extravagantly ambitious” (Fitzgerald 107).
Consequently, Gatsby was employed on his yacht for 5 years where he learnt cultivated
manners of the rich and studied how their mind operates. Later, after Cody’s death,
Gatsby was supposed to inherit 25 thousand dollars but at the end, Cody’s wife kept the
whole amount of money for herself. Gatsby was again penniless, but he learnt a lot
about the life of wealthy people, which he could use in the future.
Five years after this experience, he met and instantly left Daisy for war. When
he came back, he started to earn money in order to become rich and get Daisy back. It
was speculated that he made a fortune from bootlegging and connections with
dangerous people such as Meyer Wolfsheim. As a result of this criminal connection and
quick earnings, it took him only 3 years to buy his huge mansion in location which was
not a coincidence - he “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”
(Fitzgerald 84-85). After that, he had waited another 5 years until he finally saw Daisy
again. In fact, he hoped that Daisy would appear some day at his party, but she never
23
did, and they meet again thanks to Nick Caraway, who lives next to Gatsby’s house and
arranges their meeting. Gatsby feels like his dream is close to its fulfilling.
Finally, Gatsby invites her and Tom to his party where they both could see his
wealth. Instead of being impressed, Daisy is “appalled” by the life in West Egg
(Fitzgerald 115). It offends her that all the inhabitants of this neighbourhood took “a
shortcut from nothing to nothing” to become wealthy (115). Moreover, she cannot
understand the “simplicity” she witnesses there; in her eyes these people do not belong
to her class, the same as she feels that she does not belong among them (115). However,
Gatsby does not want to see it and keeps his hope till the very end. As mentioned
before, Daisy embodies his American dream and thus, he is ready to abandon his
morals, law or his own good when Daisy hits Myrtle with his car. It is because Gatsby’s
American dream seems “so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know
that it was already behind him” (193). Moreover, Gatsby is sure that the past can be
repeated, and his wealth can be recognized as the wealth of the originally rich people.
Yet, it is only happening in his mind.
When Daisy claims she loves Gatsby, Tom decides to reveal the illegal
background of Gatsby’s wealth. Yet, Gatsby tries to explain everything to Daisy but
“with every word she was drawing further and further into herself” (144). It is evident
that Daisy changed her mind and will stay with Tom, but Gatsby does not want to give
up or leave her, not even after the car accident causing Myrtle’s death. He feels to be so
close to Daisy, to his American dream, and therefore still hopes that she will come back
to him. He cannot see that she is further from him than she has ever been because now
she knows about his criminal background and real social status.
24
Thus, despite years of work, Gatsby’s American dream remains unfulfilled. His
belief for a love which does not exist followed by continuous disregard for morality of
his actions and overvaluing money, power and success prevent him from achievement
of his American dream. In this novel, Fitzgerald implicitly describes the rottenness of
the society. He shows people’s mentality, boundless behaviour while achieving the
American dream and their conviction that wealth will bring them infinite happiness,
power and fame. Gatsby as well as the other characters in the story is not happy with
their current state and seek after more, which besides his distorted values contributes to
the failure of his American dream.
6.2 An American Tragedy
Both Clyde and Gatsby were born into poor families which they were ashamed
of. Clyde’s parents were street preachers and because of their work, they kept moving
all over the country. As a result, Clyde as well as his siblings did not get proper
schooling since their parents “neglected to keep their children in school in any one
place” (Dreiser 12). Instead, all their children were taking part in the street preachments,
which caused Clyde even more abashment: “he wished that they need not do this any
more, or at least that he need not be a part of it” (7). The effect of this “was to cause
Clyde to think harder than ever about himself. And the principal result of his thinking
was that he must do something for himself and soon.” (24).
Seeing other boys with a car, surrounded by girls, Clyde got the impression that
in order to find a girl, he needs to have money and neat clothes as a “standard of
equipment” (26). Initially, his dream was to have money to attract his possible
girlfriend. As Chengcheng states, Clyde believed “in American dreams and in the
values promised by American society—comfort, opulence, dignity, and security” (66).
25
As a result, Clyde is seeking a job in order to earn some money. He starts to work as a
bellboy in at Hotel Green Davidson that symbolizes the start of a better life. For the first
time in his life, he relates to the comfort his life lacked. Meeting wealthy people, seeing
their easy life, he starts to perceive money as the only way to have a pleasant life. In the
American society of 1920s, it was believed that “better jobs bring more money and
possessions, hence higher social status” (Saint Jean 7), which Clyde considers as
important.
Shortly after, Clyde starts to work in another hotel in Chicago and meets his
uncle from Lycurgus who represents for him (like Cody for Gatsby) a stroke of luck and
a chance to become more successful under his mentoring. Although he is offered only
an inferior job, he feels that his name finally means something. He is finally treated with
respect: “And Clyde, noting the unusual deference paid him—a form of deference that
never in his life before had been offered him—was strangely moved by it” (Dreiser
174). Like Gatsby, he suddenly moves up the social ladder as he gets a chance to
change something about his poverty. Yet, since his social status changes all of sudden,
he reacts rather emotionally to this new perspective of his life. He cuts off the
relationship with his new friends since he feels to be socially higher than them and in
general, they do not fit in his plan to become wealthy:
What! Mix with people so far below him—a
Griffiths—in the social scale here and at the cost of endangering his
connection with that important family. Never! It was a great mistake. (Dreiser 207)
On the other hand, he appreciates the presence of Sondra Finchley (a parallel of
Daisy Buchanan) who, as a beautiful rich girl, creates a tempting combination for a man
like Clyde who has been very sensitive to money and social classes since his childhood.
She becomes another stroke of luck on Clyde’s way towards his American dream. In
26
fact, Sondra herself is amazed how quickly he was accepted in her world. He knows
how to behave and dance but as Orlov comments, it is only “a gathering of qualities
(necessary but never sufficient) for a self that he cannot possibly be” (144). Therefore,
despite these features and qualities compatible with those of rich people, he still fails to
“access real wealth and power” (Phipps 229). He responds rather sensitively to the
promises of the American dream while missing the ability to “pursue the path to profit
and status with sufficient rigour” (225). Moreover, his individuality starts to disappear
“through his attempt to personify” his American Dream (223), which happens when he
starts to meet Sondra more often. He overvalues wealth, increases the importance of it,
stops to weigh the consequences of his actions and his values start to fall.
Nevertheless, Clyde still believes in his American dream which is now
personified by Sondra, her social standing and wealth that he hopes to obtain as well.
Shortly before Sondra says that she wants to marry him and thus fulfil his American
dream, an obstruction in form of Roberta’s pregnancy occurs. Roberta insists on a
marriage otherwise she will come to Lycurgus and let everyone know how he treated
her. Consequently, Clyde connects this threat with the loss of his position in Lycurgus
and therefore a devastation of his dream: “And then destruction! Ruin! The end of all
his dreams in connection with Sondra and everything else here” (Dreiser 405).
A short time after Roberta’s threat, Clyde reads and article in the newspapers
about a tragical accident on a lake where he has just been. It gives him an impression
that it is not just a coincidence but his chance since the closing argument was that a boat
capsized and both passengers died although only the body of the lady was found. Clyde
immediately starts to contrive a plan based on this article. He chooses a path which is
critical concerning the fall of his American dream as well as his life. This moment is
27
similar to the one in The Great Gatsby when Gatsby clutches at some last hope that he
can get Daisy back and decides to carry Daisy’s guilt on his shoulders, which is not only
illegal but also brings him to his death. Phipps points out that Clyde essentially becomes
“one more element in the Great Society, a person who valorizes profiteering and
glorifies action in a vacuous and predictably destructive manner” (223). Briefly, he can
only see the profit but no consequences of such an action.
The murder of Roberta, or more precisely letting her drown, causes Clyde’s
downfall: “Charged with murder! Roberta dead! And Sondra dead—to him! And the
Griffiths! And his uncle! And his mother!” (Dreiser 540). Clyde is sentenced to death
and finally sees the consequences of his actions. In fact, he values his American dream
over law, love, morality or life of Roberta Alden. Yet, Phipps indicates that Clyde’s
problem “is not that he is a cold-blooded opportunist trying to live the American Dream,
but rather that he is not cold-blooded or opportunistic enough to fulfil the American
Dream” (231), which indicates that his behaviour should be even worse in order to
achieve the American dream. However, according to Dreiser and his experience
working as a journalist, the standard result of the American dream is only “a personal
disaster, not a socioeconomic success” (Phipps 230).
Like Gatsby’s dream, also Clyde’s dream started to form already in his
childhood when he had to take part in the street preaching organized by his poor parents
and developed during the years in Lycurgus to his final form – a marriage to wealthy
Sondra Finchley. Whereas the American dream was connected to love in The Great
Gatsby, Clyde was interested in Sondra mainly due to her wealth which he mentions
more frequently than affection for her.
28
Finally, at the end of the book, there is Clyde’s nephew Russell, not even 4 years
old, being a part of the sermon in the same poor conditions as Clyde was. By this
closing part, Dreiser possibly indicates that Clyde’s pursuit of the American dream as
well as his destiny can be easily repeated due to the influence of the family background
and society in particular. It is not only Clyde’s personality and his distorted values but
mainly the influence of the society of which Clyde is a victim since its values shaped
his.
29
7. Values
Values and their form play a crucial role in both stories since they influence the
main characters while making decisions. The main characters value wealth over any
other aspects while moral values and value of love remain ignored. Moreover, we can
see a parallel in the fall of values and the fall of the American dream since these two
phenomena are closely connected and depend on each other throughout the whole
novel.
7.1 Moral values
Moral values generally help us to distinguish what is right and wrong. The main
characters of the novels experience a gradual fall in their moral values throughout the
whole story, which determines their priorities on their way to achieve their American
dream. Distorted moral values can be considered as directly related to the fall of the
main characters since they chose an immoral way to achieve their dream which proves
fatal for them.
7.1.1 The Great Gatsby
In the story, Gatsby seems to have “shifting identities” depending on the person
who is speaking about him. Most of the opinions are unreal and create a negative,
almost fantastical picture of him (Lathbury 46):
Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.
A thrill passed over all of us. The three Mr. Mumbles
bent forward and listened eagerly.
‘I don’t think it’s so much THAT,’ argued Lucille skeptically;
‘it’s more that he was a German spy during the war. (Fitzgerald 48)
He later recounts his life story to Nick and a reader can see that none of the stories told
by his guests is true. Gatsby focuses mainly on improvement of his social status by
30
earning money in order to get closer to Daisy and her social stand. In other words, he
attempts “to buy into a tradition instead of accepting one” (Lathbury 54).
In order to earn money very quickly and equal Daisy on the financial side, he
gets involved in illegal bootlegging working for Meyer Wolfsheim who represents the
criminal element of the story. Gatsby perceives only the result of the work, which is
money, but not the morality of bootlegging as such. Throughout the story, he makes
several mysterious phone calls with “Chicago” on the wire (Fitzgerald 177) and it is
obvious that although he has a residence and money he needs, he would not leave his
job but rather stay a criminal. Although he did not choose Wolfsheim and his
bootlegging business because of himself but for Daisy, it does not make his moral
values less warped. In fact, he breaks the law as well as the whole idea of the Great
Prohibition which should have decreased criminality and alcoholism. In addition, we
can see the connection of values and the American dream here as well. The fact that he
values wealth over law and morality is in Daisy’s eyes unacceptable and Gatsby
suddenly loses his chance to get her back and fulfil his American dream.
Nevertheless, Gatsby does not see anything wrong about it and tries to fight
Tom’s accusations about him being a criminal. He is denying everything and defending
himself, but Daisy is not listening. She instantly forgets everything positive she saw
about Gatsby because she cannot keep relationship with criminals or lower class. This
passage also emphasises the fact that Gatsby does not have enough morality to respect
an idea of a marriage since the very first moment he learnt about it. All the years he
naively thinks that Daisy would divest herself of a long-lasting marriage including their
2-year-old daughter Pammy. Moreover, he does not know whether Daisy still loves him,
he is just obsessed by his vision of a perfect life consisting of wealth, power and a lady
31
improving his social stand. Yet, as Voegeli suggests, Gatsby is loyal to his “heart’s
desire” but acts naively as though the world has “ineluctable realities” which can be
ignored.
In order to get to Daisy, he uses Nick and makes him organize a meeting with
Daisy in his house. He tells him the story of his life and calls him an “old sport”
(Fitzgerald 52) to create an artificially friendly atmosphere between them. This fact
indicates that Gatsby is not interested in having real friends. He is focused only on his
dream and ignores people around him and therefore his behaviour to them as well as to
Nick is rather superficial. In other words, he is using people for his own purposes,
which is another sign of distortion of his values in order to achieve the American dream.
Additionally, after Gatsby sees that Daisy is still interested in him, he starts
manipulating her as well. He compels her to tell her husband that she is leaving him, but
she hesitates and repeats the words with visible reluctance: “‘Daisy’s leaving you.’ -
‘Nonsense.’ - ‘I am, though,’ she said with a visible effort” (Fitzgerald 142). Daisy is
not sure if she agrees with the words she is saying, and Tom can easily see that she has
been manipulated by Gatsby and tries to win her back. Yet, Gatsby foolishly believes
that she will be still attracted in him despite his manipulation and inappropriate
demonstration of his possessions.
Nevertheless, for Nick is Gatsby’s love the item which “redeems” him from his
wrongdoing (Voegeli). Due to his love, he can see also his good part, but he is the only
one who does: “I found myself on Gatsby’s side, and alone” (Fitzgerald 175). Thus,
although Gatsby’s moral principles are not proper, Nick still thinks of him better than of
any other character of the story: “‘They’re a rotten crowd,’ I shouted across the lawn.
‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together’” (164). It is because Nick can see
32
the “intensity of his longing”, which makes him according to Nick’s judgement a better
person and soon he thinks of Daisy as “unworthy Gatsby’s devotion” (Voegeli). Yet, it
is possible that also Nick has been manipulated by Gatsby and his charming gestures
and therefore he ignores his mistakes.
Another sign of Gatsby’s morality shaped by his longing for his American
dream can be seen when Myrtle is killed. Gatsby expresses no grief addressed to Myrtle
or her mourning husband. He is interested only in Daisy’s mental state and managing
the guilt:
‘Did you see any trouble on the road?’ he asked after a minute.
‘Yes.’
He hesitated.
‘Was she killed?’
‘Yes.’
‘I thought so; I told Daisy I thought so. It’s better that the
shock should all come at once. She stood it pretty well.’ (153)
Although a human being is killed, Gatsby only cares about Daisy: “he spoke as if
Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered” (Fitzgerald 153). On top of that, he
plans to take her guilt only on himself since he does not want to leave or better - let the
justice be done. He feels to be so close to his dream that he does not want to loose it. He
would rather sacrifice his morals, his freedom, literally anything for Daisy and his
American dream, but he is the only one who cannot see that it has already been lost.
Nick advises him to flee to another city and hide but Gatsby would not listen to that.
There is no chance he would leave Daisy because he is “clutching at some last hope”
(158).
This wrong decision and ignoring the law as well as the morality of his final
decision to protect Daisy, even if it is against the law, lead to Gatsby’s death. It is
33
visible that Gatsby is determined to sacrifice his morality to achieve his American
dream since the day he learnt that Daisy is married, and he needs to do everything to get
her back. Yet, he cannot see that he is basically sacrificing his own personality by his
wrong choice of moral values starting with bootlegging, finishing with covering Daisy’s
car accident. In fact, Gatsby understands Daisy’s love as well as his love for her
incorrectly. His love is rather platonic and unreal and therefore his moral sacrifice
comes unrewarded. In general, Gatsby chooses wrong moral values which determine his
doings such as criminal activities, the attempt to break Daisy’s marriage and finally –
taking Daisy’s guilt on his shoulders. All these decisions bring him in his eyes closer to
his American dream of a successful life with a rich woman by his side but in reality,
they bring him closer to his death and failure of his American dream.
7.1.2 An American Tragedy
Clyde’s moral values, similar to Gatsby, also develop throughout the story due
to different experiences and stages of his life. At the beginning of the novel, Clyde is
described as a decent, innocent, ordinary boy with a lot of ambitions. Yet, after his first
encounter with money, his personality has started to change. The impact of money on
his personality can be first seen when his mother asks him for money for unknown
reasons. Clyde follows her one day and finds out that his sister Esta got pregnant and
she needs money to survive. “How sorry he was that he had followed his mother, for
then he might not have known” (Dreiser 92) and his mother would not have asked for
more money. Although she is clearly desperate about the situation of her daughter,
Clyde thinks more about himself and his chance to impress the girl who he likes,
Hortense Briggs:
34
For here was fifty dollars in his pocket at the
moment, with Hortense on the one hand and his mother and sister on the
other, and the money would solve his mother’s problem as fully as it would
Hortense’s, and more respectably (113)
Clyde does not need to think long about his preferences and gives her mother 5 dollars
with an excuse of having no money at that moment. It is an ironical situation because
when Clyde needs to finance his additional trial at the end of the novel, his mother
sacrifices almost everything to collect the money.
However, when Clyde moves to Lycurgus and starts to work for his rich uncle,
his social status suddenly changes and despite his persisting poverty, he feels more
powerful. Consequently, his moral values start to fall rapidly. Not only that he rejects
his friends who are lower on social ladder, but he also forces his girlfriend Roberta to
have a more intimate relationship with him: “For with what qualms—what protests on
the part of Roberta; what determination, yet not without a sense of evil—seduction—
betrayal, on the part of Clyde” (292). It is visible that Clyde does not have enough
courtesy to respect Roberta’s reasons and concerns. As a result of a significant pressure
from his side, Roberta agrees, which is seen as the first step to Clyde’s downfall
because after few months, Roberta announces her pregnancy.
Another development in his morality on his way to achieve his American dream
can be seen when Clyde becomes aware of the chance to marry Sondra Finchley. At this
period, he focuses on his American dream too much that he starts to break standard
moral values. Too much focus on the American dream changes both Gatsby’s and
Clyde’s personalities since they he stops to see what is right and morally acceptable. As
a result, Clyde does not find enough courage and judiciousness to tell Roberta the truth,
stop seeing her and using her body for his pleasure. Yet, the narrator claims that “there
35
was about Clyde at times a certain strain of tenderness, evoked by experiences,
disappointments, and hardships in his own life” (Dreiser 454). His tenderness makes
him feels sorry that he cannot provide any more care for Roberta because of his new
interest in Sondra: “At other times it caused him to feel that indeed he was a sly and
shameless and cruel person who had taken undue advantage of a girl” (361).
Nevertheless, these feelings disappear when danger occurs in form of a baby and
marriage:
The truth was that in this crisis he was as interesting an illustration of the
enormous handicaps imposed by ignorance, youth, poverty and fear
as one could have found (376)
Phipps makes it clear that these “handicaps” are Clyde’s “emotional shortcomings”
among which belong ignorance, fear and “limitations imposed on him by a stratified
society” that imply his poverty (Phipps 226). This devastating combination biases his
understanding of the “connections between his desires and the actions” since he
considers the fulfilment of his dream the most necessary (226). Although Roberta offers
him a friendly option of a temporal marriage, Clyde rejects it and thinks about ways to
get out of this situation without losing his name.
When he sees an article in the newspapers which brings him to an idea of
drowning Roberta in one of the lakes which he visited with Sondra, he does not
consider any moral side of this action. As Phipps writes: “Clyde’s distorted perception
of the connections between subjectivity, action, and tangible consequences also is
evinced when he first develops his plan to murder Roberta” (Phipps 226). In brief,
Clyde loses his reason during the pursuit of his American dreams, he can see neither the
consequences, neither the morality of his actions. In addition, Phipps states that
“Clyde’s perspective of the American Dream excises considerations of morality: instead
36
of a dichotomy between good and evil, there is simply a choice between one evil and
another evil.” (226). Firstly, he tries to kill the baby with pills which made Roberta feel
very sick, then he makes her to go to the doctor to ask for an illegal interruption. When
nothing works, he is considering fleeing with Sondra and finally, he comes up with
killing Roberta. In fact, Clyde’s actions consist mainly of evil, which is a consequence
of the fall in his values, which started to manifest itself after Clyde’s arrival in
Lycurgus.
As mentioned before, Clyde can only see what he can get as a result of the
murder, not the real consequences or morality of such a criminal offence. He compares
these two women to make clear that he needs to choose Sondra because she has a lot to
offer compared to Roberta who is only asking for help: “The difference between the
attitudes of these two girls—Sondra with everything offering all—asking nothing of
him; Roberta, with nothing, asking all” (Dreiser 461). Indeed, he does not seem to be
aware of the fact that he was the one who caused Roberta’s distress. Even while plotting
the murder, he stays cold and thinks only of the result. He has not been considering any
obstructions or punishment yet:
… he and Roberta were in a small boat somewhere and it should capsize at the
very time, say, of this dreadful complication which was so harassing him?
What an escape? What a relief from a gigantic and by now really destroying
problem! Just an accidental, unpremeditated drowning—and then the glorious future
which would be his! (428-429)
His “warped perspective” on morality is the most visible when he is trying to assure
himself that killing Roberta will set him free (Phipps 226). He can see a “choice
between an evil which threatened to destroy him (and against his deepest opposition)
37
and a second evil which, however it might disgust or sear or terrify, still provided for
freedom and success and love” (Dreiser 452).
After Roberta dies, he assures himself that he did not kill her: “after all, he had
not really killed her. No, no. Thank God for that. He had not” (Dreiser 481). In fact, he
does not fulfil his plan of capsizing the boat. He freezes and instead of that, he strikes
Roberta unintentionally with his camera, which makes her lose her balance and she falls
into the lake. As Cassuto & Clare state, Clyde “lacks the emotional equipment to be a
hard-boiled murderer”, contrarily, he is “too sentimental to act selfishly but too hard-
boiled to act unselfishly” (205) and therefore his initial plan to murder her is de facto
done by an accident. Yet, he does not help her out of water and keeps swimming
towards the shore letting Roberta drown. Indeed, his moral values are different from
those at the beginning of the novel before he set his American dream personified by
Sondra.
He does not find enough humbleness to accept that he made a mistake which he
needs to expiate and rather thinks of an escape from the prison: “might one be able to
break out of such a jail as this, maybe, and run away?” (Dreiser 613). In general, he
expected that it will end up differently:
At once he felt sick, weak. He had never imagined that it was going to be like this;
that he was going to suffer so. He had imagined that it was all going to be different.
(523)
Additionally, he allows the lawyers defend him and call him “mental as well as a moral
coward” (Dreiser 652) to make it clear why he did not help Roberta to get to the shore.
He sees his mother seeking for money, help and solution although he is clearly guilty.
Yet, he claims that he is not and lies at the court in front of Roberta’s family:
“No! No! I never did plot to kill her, or any one,” protested Clyde (676)
38
“You swear that it was an accident—unpremeditated and
undesigned by you?”
“I do,” lied Clyde (686)
All these are signs of Clyde’s warped values. He planned everything cold-
bloodedly and although he did not murder her as such, Roberta died. Therefore, despite
his lawyers’ defence and lies, Clyde is sentenced to death. Yet, he still believes in his
innocence and justifies his actions by Roberta’s torturing him and the passion for
Sondra:
they had not been tortured as he had by Roberta with her determination
that he marry her and thus ruin his whole life. They had not burned
with that unquenchable passion for the Sondra of his beautiful dream
as he had. (780)
Yet, after Clyde spends his last weeks of his life with the Reverend McMillan, who
gives him strength and prayers, it seems that Clyde changes and finds the matter of God
as his parents did. He confesses to the Reverend that he indeed planned to kill Roberta
to redeem from his sins before he dies on the electric chair.
However, although Clyde comes from a religious family, he has completely
ignored the Ten Commandments as well as basic moral principles. According to Phipps,
Clyde’s beliefs have been “grotesquely distorted” (221) since he has set out on his
journey towards his American dream. It is obvious that he thinks only about himself and
his own good since the very beginning when his sister Esta needed money to survive. In
general, almost none of Clyde’s actions in the story is moral. He thinks mainly of his
own good and profiting from people. Yet, when he sees no profit anymore, like in the
case of his friends Dillard and Rita or his girlfriend Roberta, he cuts them off.
According to Orlov he believes ‘“an Aladdin world”’ which is full of magic and moral
responsibly goes aside (qtd in Brennan 382). Therefore, his desire for a ‘“fantasy-self”’
39
(Orlov qtd in Brennan 381) brings up “his own nature, with tragic consequences”
(Brennan).
Yet, despite his warped morals, improper behaviour and a crime, he still naively
believes in a better future for himself. He has chased success and the American dream
“without considering how it was won” (Chengcheng 66), which proves fatal for him.
Like Gatsby, he ignores law, crime or other people’s freedom. Even though Gatsby did
not kill anybody like Clyde, both end up death because Gatsby decides to go against law
by covering Myrtle’s death caused by Daisy.
7.2 Value of wealth
Wealth plays a crucial role in the selected novels. Both main characters value
wealth very highly, which makes them ignore other aspects and values of their life.
Whereas Clyde explicitly conveys that a marriage to Sondra would mean a direct link to
her wealth and social status, Gatsby does not express it directly, but it is Daisy’s wealth
that makes her attractive for him and therefore he wishes to marry her.
Clyde and Gatsby share a specific sensitivity to money as well as the ambition to
become rich. Since his childhood, Gatsby has disdained the lack of success of his poor
parents. As a result, he has always wished to reach a higher position in the society. A
“specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career” (Fitzgerald 104) takes part
in the year 1907 when he was “chosen for mentoring by rich, powerful, childless” man
named Cody (Froehlich 211). The time spent with him helped Gatsby to catch the
manners of rich people and understand their mental processes. Gatsby uses this
knowledge later when he moves to Long Island and tries to convince Daisy about his
wealth and social stand.
40
Since his early age, he has considered himself as “a son of God” (Fitzgerald
105), which he has kept till the very end of his American dream that first started to form
when he met Daisy Buchanan:
His dream gets more shaped when he first meets young Daisy. She shows him the world
of wealth and he is convinced that this is the kind of life he would like to attain.
[H]e had never been in such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of
breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there (158)
As the quotation indicates, Daisy’s house is for Gatsby very unusual and makes her look
in his eyes even more attractive. Yet, it is not just meeting Daisy, getting to know her
and her background, it is also his first closer encounter with real wealth. As indicated, it
is her money that increases her value. Daisy is connected to wealth the same as wealth
is connected to her and in Gatsby’s mind, these two aspects are inseparable. This
perception indicates that in order to reach Daisy, he needs wealth and vice versa - to be
truly wealthy, he needs to marry Daisy. In fact, Daisy gives him an idea how a wealthy
life can look like and since then, Gatsby has followed this paragon.
Soon also Nick finds out that Gatsby does not love only Daisy as a person but
also the fact that she is wealthier than him:
‘She’s got an indiscreet voice,’ I remarked. ‘It’s full of—
—‘
I hesitated.
‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly.
That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of
money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell
in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…. High in a
white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl…. (Fitzgerald 128)
41
As we can see, although Gatsby claims to love Daisy, wealth is the item which makes
her interesting enough to love. Indeed, Gatsby’s value of wealth is very high in his list
of values considering that he can even hear money in Daisy’s voice. Moreover, he
knows that a relationship with her, a member of the “old money”, would bring him to
the world of the “old rich” where he cannot get on his own because although he is
wealthy, he still lacks of many of their original features, such as “self-cultivation,
sophistication, and refinement” which are typical for the traditionally rich inhabitants of
East Egg (Fahey 70).
Back in the 1919 when Gatsby returned from war, he had neither money, nor
Daisy who got married in the meantime. However, Gatsby was determined to win her
back and Wolfsheim, Gatsby’s second mentor, gave him a new start. After 3 years
Gatsby possessed a huge mansion and a big fortune thanks to illegal bootlegging. Yet,
in spite of the description of his father that Gatsby is a man who is “earnest,
hardworking, ambitious, and determined to succeed” (Froehlich 217), the way he
achieved all his money did not mean any hard work as such. In fact, Gatsby experienced
a simple stroke of luck by meeting Cody and Wolfsheim who helped him to move
towards his dream.
Nonetheless, Gatsby’s wealth, even though he does not see it, gives a grotesque
impression rather than admiration. He lives in an enormous house that he barely can use
only on his own, dresses up in pink suits and drives a yellow car - such combination
shows that he belongs to West Egg rather than to East Egg. Said differently, it
demonstrates that he has acquired his wealth lately and was not born into a rich family.
His material possessions as well as his actions, such as organizing big parties, are
nothing but tools to display his wealth. He is neither interested in his guests, parties, nor
42
the expensive house equipment itself. On the other hand, Nick admires that Gatsby uses
his wealth for higher motives (getting Daisy back) expressing “exceptional sensitivity”
in contrast to Tom who spends his fortune on lower motives (buying attention of his
mistresses), which proves his “negligible concern” for people around him (Voegeli).
All in all, Gatsby has put so much effort to obtain this social position, sacrificed
his own personality and erased his past. Despite all these efforts and money, he can
never be a part of the rich world and get Daisy back - the same as without Daisy he
would not get into the same social class as she is. It is a pitfall which brings Gatsby
closer to his fall and his American dream ends in failure. Generally, wealth is very high
on Gatsby’s system of values; it is part of his American dream as well as a necessary
feature of him to impress Daisy. Gatsby’s love for wealth clouds his individuality and
that causes him to follow a wrong path in order to achieve his American dream filled
with wealth and success.
Clyde’s family also lived in similarly extreme poverty to Gatsby. The origin of
their shortage of money is according to Clyde’s uncle Samuel Griffiths the fact that his
father bequeathed most of his money to him and another brother assigning nothing “but
a petty thousand” to Clyde’s father Asa (Dreiser 155). Yet, the profession of Clyde’s
parents does not help their financial situation either since they work as street preachers,
which does not yield much: “Yet the family was always “hard up,” never very well
clothed, and deprived of many comforts and pleasures” (7). Accordingly, Clyde
disdains his parents’ profession as he does not see anything practical in it since it does
not bring any money into their household:
43
During all this time Clyde was saying to himself that he did not wish to do
this any more, that he and his parents looked foolish and less than normal
—“cheap” was the word he would have used if he could have brought himself
to express his full measure of resentment at being compelled to participate in
this way (10)
As he is suffering from this extreme poverty, he is “constantly thinking of how
he might better himself” (11), which brings him to his first jobs and salary. He is
convinced that a good appearance, neat dress and money are the only way to find a
girlfriend. Accordingly, his ambition brings him to the job in the hotel Green-Davidson
which is the most luxury place he has been to: “he gazed about in awe and amazement”
when he entered (29). It is his first encounter with rich people and money in general:
“He felt as if he could squeal or laugh out loud. Why, thirty-five cents—and for a little
service like that” (41).
Spending more time with people of his age, he starts to imitate those who seem
to be socially higher or more successful. In fact, he has been “haunted by the desire to
make himself as attractive looking as any other well-dressed boy” (50). Orlov claims he
is basically “imitating other people and then mistaking the roles he is playing for his
genuine individual nature or status” (120). Like Gatsby, he learns to behave in company
of rich people, which gives him an advantage. It comes into use in Chicago where he
encounters his uncle who he has always wished to meet:
The one thing that really interested him in connection with his parents was
the existence somewhere in the east—in a small city called Lycurgus, near
Utica he understood—of an uncle, a brother of his father’s, who was plainly
different from all this. That uncle—Samuel Griffiths by name—was rich. (Dreiser 14)
44
Thanks to him, Clyde starts to work in his company producing shirts in Lycurgus. Yet,
despite his high salary and nice clothes which make a false sign that he is as rich as his
family, he does not feel that this job will help him to become truly rich.
Yet, later after his arrival, he meets young and rich Sondra Finchley who
astonishes Clyde by her wealth. Just as Gatsby used to dream about Daisy, also Clyde is
wondering “where Sondra in her imaginary high social world might be” (308) till he
finally gets a chance to meet her again. He sees her as a direct and the only way to the
wealthy life he has started to long for. In fact, before he moved to Lycurgus, he only
wanted to better himself financially in order to find a girlfriend and spend money on
her. Yet, his attitude changes when he comes to Lycurgus since his family name gives
him an advantage and a chance to change his social status.
Unlike Gatsby who expresses certain affection for Daisy, Clyde mainly mentions
Sondra’s social stand, wealth and other superficial features. He never praises her
personality or qualities, which suggests that her wealth is the only attribute that matters:
“Sondra, Twelfth Lake, society, wealth, her love and beauty. He grew not a little wild in
thinking of it all” (413). This promise of a wealthy life clouds Clyde’s mind and makes
him murder Roberta, who happens to become an obstruction. After the murder, he feels
relieved that Roberta is gone and celebrates his open door to Sondra’s wealth and
world: “A clear path! A marvelous future! Her beauty! Her love! Her wealth!” (520).
Soon he finds out that he chose a wrong path to become rich, which cannot be
redressed. As he finds himself in the prison, he immediately loses all his hopes about a
relationship with Sondra. In contrast to him, Gatsby keeps his optimism although
everything is ruined. This difference indicates contrasting stands of these two main
characters. Whereas Gatsby sees Daisy as a part of his dream connected to wealth,
45
Clyde perceives Sondra only as a tool to better himself as he always intended. Indeed,
he thinks of wealth extremely highly, which makes him ignore people around him, their
personalities and freedom to live. He cares only about his clear way to wealth although
it includes a murder with inevitable consequences. His upcoming fall is compared by
Phipps to “a stockbroker who buys capitalist ideology and ends up ruined, or a soldier
who follows orders and ends up dead” (223). In reality, Clyde simply believes in an
ultimate fulfilment of his American dream without any consequences following his
actions.
Another ironic fact is, that he is sentenced by a society that “believes in absolute
justice”, which causes him being executed by an electric chair, but he lives in a society
in which wealth has “created a double standard justice”, which caused him to pursue
wealth in this specific way (Lehan 190). In fact, Clyde’s American dream and fate were
inevitable in a society that appreciates wealth over any other values. Also Orlov states
that “many in America have dreams of wealth aroused in them by the social
environment” (113), which is another sign that not only Clyde but also the whole
society of that period thought of wealth as highly as he did. Moreover, Matthiessen
states that Dreiser’s central idea of naming the tragedy as “American” was because of
the “overwhelming lure of money” in the American society (qtd in Phipps 222) which
influenced not only Clyde but also many other young men who appeared in the
newspapers as murderers for money and a higher social status.
All aspects considered, Clyde values wealth even higher that Gatsby does. He
does not need money to impress a woman like Gatsby does, he simply wants to be rich
and successful. He dreams of cars and clothes of his cousin Gilbert, walks around the
rich neighbourhood and wonders what the wealthy people are doing. Indeed, wealth
46
occurs to be the most important item of Clyde’s life as well as the only way to make his
life pleasant. Moreover, while making decisions, he is considering only wealth and
profiting of particular actions. He forgets about his principles and his conscience
replaces an imagination of money which he should acquire after the marriage to Sondra
Finchley. Like in Gatsby’s case, also Clyde’s American dream seems to be very close to
its fulfilment but because he starts to focus on wealth too much, he fails to see the
consequences of the murder as well as his foolish getaway from the crime scene.
7.3 Value of love
Although the main characters long for a marriage to the women they chose, they
do not value love as highly as wealth. In fact, love is only a background that covers the
original aim of the main characters to become truly wealthy and get a respected social
status. They try to justify their actions by their love for the chosen women but in fact, it
is love for wealth that clouds their minds.
Both Gatsby and Clyde are young and inexperienced in relationships in general.
In contrast to Clyde who considers love as minor, Gatsby regards his love for Daisy as
very important. His love, either to wealth or Daisy as a holder of wealth, is crucial for
his actions. The commencement of Gatsby’s greatest love dates back to 1917 when he
met 9 years younger Daisy Fay after he came to Louisville as a soldier. Comically, his
love got more intense after he left to war and did not see Daisy anymore. He
remembered Daisy mainly from his imagination to which he devoted everything
(Lathbury 49). Yet, after he came back from war, his life became distorted since he
47
found himself in “new world, material without being real” hunting money and a better
social position (Fitzgerald 172).
Later, Gatsby built a house just across the bay from Daisy’s house and every day
he saw the green light of her docks which he associated with Daisy and his hope to be
with her again. Nonetheless, the “romantic and fantastic nature” of Gatsby’s love seems
to be inane considering that it takes him 5 years to finally see Daisy again (Lathbury
49). Yet, although a person with such power could have found many easier ways to
meet, he arranges his meeting with her through Daisy’s friend Jordan and her cousin
Nick. Lathbury claims that it is because after all the years his love “becomes more
important than the object of it” (49). Said differently, it is because his love for Daisy,
who he idealized in his thoughts, is rather platonic and therefore the real object of it
went aside over the years when he did not see her.
Although Gatsby is eager to see Daisy again, readers cannot see many moments
when either of them expresses the love expected. Based on Lathbury, it is because
Gatsby’s way to show his love to Daisy is expressed by showing his wealth and
possessions to her (45). After he finally invited Daisy to his mansion, “he revalued
everything in his house according to the measure of the response it drew from her well-
loved eyes” (Fitzgerald 91). Indeed, his love to Daisy is inseparably connected to
money. It is visible for instance in his description of her voice as “full of money”, which
he says with a loving tone. This statement is typical of a person who is very sensitive to
money (Lathbury 51).
However, Gatsby stubbornly believes that past can be repeated, and everything
can be fixed because he wants to. He does not seem to admit the option that Daisy
might not be interested in changing the life that she has now:
48
‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ I ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the past.’
‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he [Gatsby] cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’
He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow
of his house, just out of reach of his hand. (Fitzgerald 118).
Yet, he tries to force her to leave Tom and her old life. It is the sort of manipulation
typical for Gatsby because Daisy barely notices it. In the following paragraph we can
see Gatsby’s attempt to enforce love from Daisy:
She looked at him blindly. ‘Why,—how could I love
him—possibly?’
‘You never loved him.’
She hesitated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me with a sort
of appeal, as though she realized at last what she was doing—
and as though she had never, all along, intended doing
anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late.
‘I never loved him,’ she said, with perceptible reluctance. (Fitzgerald 141)
Nevertheless, although Gatsby is sure about his love to Daisy, her feelings are not so
intense. In fact, she admits having loved both Gatsby and Tom. In 1919 she decided to
marry Tom although she was not sure and almost changed her mind after she had
received a letter from Gatsby. Later, in 1922 when Gatsby comes back in visibly better
social conditions, she chooses Tom again because compared to Gatsby, he belongs to
her world and social class. In other words, she chooses comfort, money and social status
over Gatsby who sacrificed his own personality for her.
Despite the clarity of her statement that she is choosing Tom again, and a murder
of Myrtle with his car, which puts him in danger, Gatsby keeps his hope and does not
want to leave Daisy: “He couldn’t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was
going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free”
49
(Fitzgerald 158). Accordingly, it is visible how much Daisy means to Gatsby and how
little he means to her. He is waiting for a call, but she is already prepared to flee with
Tom and start a new life leaving Gatsby and her crime behind. She neither comes to his
funeral, nor sends flowers to express her grief after Gatsby’s death. It is like Gatsby
never existed. Yet, he revalued everything in his life and sacrificed his own
individuality for a woman who does not love him.
After all, Gatsby’s love is only an illusion. He is not in love with the present
Daisy, but with the one from the past, or more precisely from his imagination created
over those 5 years when he did not see her. He idolized her to such an extent that she
became the core of his American dream. However, his “idealism and faith” collide with
“hollowness and emptiness” of Daisy’s materialistic character (Bani-Khair et al). In
other words, his love cannot exist or survive where “the love of materialism can be the
norm” as well as it is not possible to buy or achieve it with wealth (Bani-Khair et al.).
That is the critical point of Gatsby’s dream and a reason why it has never come into
being.
To conclude, Gatsby’s value of love is inseparably connected to wealth.
Although he claims to love Daisy, he values her not only as a person but also as a
source of the wealthy life and higher social stand he has longed for. Love means in
Gatsby’s case a retrospective look back in time expecting people to be the same as they
used to be. As a result of this, his love is not and cannot be connected to reality.
Gatsby’s vague idea of love brings him to a wrong path during his pursuit of the
American dream which is in his case connected to love that nearly does not exist.
Indeed, the combination of wealth and his longing for the fulfilment of his American
dream created a superficial love to Daisy which was formed in Gatsby’s mind and
50
influenced him throughout his life. Consequently, he loses his individuality, common
sense and morality on his way to get Daisy back. Finally, it leads to the end of his
journey to achieve his American dream since he devoted his life to a promise of a
successful life in wealth with a person who does not share his feelings which are, either
way, more connected to wealth and illusion than a real love.
Clyde’s perception of love is influenced by the society that he lives in which
makes him think that before he can ever find a girlfriend, he must have some money to
spend on her in order to maintain the relationship. Clyde chooses Hortense Briggs,
which he affectionately reveals to her: ““Well, I’ll tell you one thing,” he blurted
boastfully and passionately. “I could spend a lot more on you than they could. I got it””
(Dreiser 74). Hearing this confession, Hortense senses his devotedness which is not
appealing to her, so she only plays with him as she usually does. Although Clyde is
aware of her manipulation: ““I can’t help it. I wish I could sometimes. I wish I wouldn’t
be such a fool”” (121), he decides to do nothing about it: “if she wanted to lie and
pretend he would have to pretend to believe her” (Dreiser 129). He is so eager to spend
time with her that he ignores Hortense’s manipulation and acts rather foolishly.
However, his foolishness is not only because of his inexperience with women but also
because of his current social stand which differs from the one in Lycurgus which was
considerably higher and therefore he was more confident with women.
When Clyde moves to Lycurgus and his uncle makes him a supervisor with tens
of women working under him, his social status and the importance of his family name
changes, which makes women more interested in him. He is proudly aware of that but
51
his cousin’s order not to get closer to any of his co-workers is more important for him.
Yet, he decides to break this rule when he meets a new worker Roberta Alden. He is
conscious of the power of his name as well as of his position in the company:
Whereas here, and especially since he had had charge of this stamping room,
he had seemed to become aware of the fact that he was more attractive than
he had ever thought he was before. (265)
Although he is still as inexperienced as he was in Kansas City when he tried to impress
Hortense Briggs, in Lycurgus he does not need to do much to impress Roberta. In fact, a
person from such a powerful family as Clyde is, is Roberta’s dream. The same as
Sondra later becomes a dream for Clyde. Yet, the narrator mentions that Roberta and
Clyde “found love” and “were deliciously happy” (Dreiser 268). It is perhaps the
happiest period of Clyde’s life: “It seemed at the moment as though life had given him
all— all—that he could possibly ask of it” (266).
Nonetheless, when Clyde sees that “she is hopelessly and helplessly drawn to
him” (257), he starts to pressurize her to have a more intimate relationship with him
because he thinks he can ask her of anything with his current position in the city. Yet,
Roberta has her principles and refuses to get closer to anybody without a marriage.
Consequently, Clyde starts to ignore her in work and talks more with other women in
order to make her change her mind. Hence, Roberta clearly suffers: “He couldn’t be that
cruel to her now—could he? Oh, if he but knew how difficult—how impossible was the
thing he was asking of her!” (Dreiser 287). Yet, after days of Clyde’s merciless torment,
Roberta yields to him, which causes her pregnancy followed by a murder. Cassuto &
Clare state that the crime is caused not only by his “sexual appetite and sexual
carelessness” but also by the “religious abstemiousness” of his parents (209). Briefly,
52
owing to his parents’ abstemious profession, Clyde has no sexual education and does
not think of any protection methods.
Nevertheless, Clyde has everything that he initially wanted. He earns enough
money and has a girl to spend it on. Yet, due to his new surroundings, presence of
wealthy people and his potential connection with them, Clyde does not value the love
that he receives and thinks badly about Roberta: “For after all, who was she? A factory
girl! The daughter of Parents who lived and worked on a farm and one who was
compelled to work for her own living” (294). Instead, he keeps thinking of Sondra
Finchley, who he accidentally meets when he strolls in the neighbourhood of his rich
family. Yet, although he barely knows her since he has seen her only for a couple of
minutes at his uncle’s dinner, he secretly wishes to be in a more intimate relationship
with her and thanks to that, to be part of her wealthy world:
Ah, to know this perfect girl more intimately! To be looked upon by her
with favor,—made, by reason of that favor, a part of that fine world to which
she belonged.
… if he only had as much money—or a part of it even. (301)
Later, Sondra mistakes Clyde for his cousin Gilbert, who she does not like,
which makes her think of possible consequences of her closer relationship with him:
“And that would mean perhaps that Gilbert would find himself faced by a social rival of
sorts—his own cousin, too, who, even though he was poor, might come to be liked
better” (304). This opinion of hers allows Clyde to spend more time with Sondra and
her rich friends. Due to this, he starts to neglect Roberta and forgets all the love they
had together. Yet, he does not want to tell her about Sondra because she still means
somewhat of a pleasure for him. He knows that Roberta would not know about Sondra,
“unless he told her” (Dreiser 306) because there is no connection between poor and rich
53
people in Lycurgus. At this point, Clyde stops to value the love he feels with Roberta
and rather appreciates Sondra, who he barely knows, because of her wealth and high
social stand in the county.
Since Clyde loved Sondra even before he learnt something about her character, it
is clear that he is more interested in her money and social stand than her love and
personality:
The effect of this so casual contact was really disrupting in more senses than
one. For now in spite of his comfort in and satisfaction with Roberta, once
more and in this positive and to him entrancing way, was posed the whole
question of his social possibilities here. And that strangely enough by the one
girl of this upper level who had most materialized and magnified for him the
meaning of that upper level itself. The beautiful Sondra Finchley! (301)
Similar to Gatsby, Clyde also mentions several times that Sondra is beautiful and
amazing but never explains or elaborates why. It can be seen as another proof of his real
interest - wealth which makes her beautiful and amazing. Furthermore, although Clyde
finds happiness and love with Roberta, he replaces her by his American dream
personalized by Sondra. It is ironic because he lets the girl who he loved drown,
because of a rich girl who he barely knows or truly loves. Yet, Sondra disappears when
Clyde is arrested and sends him nothing but a short letter. The only person who still
cares and tries to help him is his mother who he once refused to help because of his
platonic love to Hortense Briggs.
In summary, Clyde values his whole life something or somebody else over
people who truly love him. Starting with Hortense over his mother, finishing with
Sondra over Roberta and in general - wealth over any person, even himself. In fact, both
Gatsby and Clyde go beyond the law to get the love of their life expressed either by a
54
person, money or both. However, although in the narrator’s eyes Gatsby seems to love
Daisy, it is unsure whether Clyde loves Sondra. He can only see her wealth that makes
him think he loves her. Yet, similarly to Gatsby’s thoughts about Daisy every day, also
Clyde thinks of Sondra very often but in his case, he mainly wonders and dreams about
her wealth and power of her family name. On the other hand, the narrator mentions that
he “found love” with Roberta (268) but Clyde would never admit it since he could only
see her lower social stand, lack of money and poor family background. Accordingly, he
rather admits loving Sondra, which is not real.
Nonetheless, not only that Clyde moves his value of love lower than value of
wealth and the American dream, he also changes the addressee of his love. He does not
feel love to a person anymore but to money which can be provided by Sondra. This
distorted value of love clouds his real love to Roberta who he kills instead of marrying.
Yet, he has already possessed the American dream which is according to the pattern
from 17th century a dream of a happy and successful life which he achieved by a leading
position in the company and happiness with Roberta. Yet, Clyde focuses mainly on
achieving wealth and puts the other aspects of his life aside. He chooses a wrong path
and therefore, his personal American dream of a wealthy life remains unfulfilled.
55
Conclusion
The selected works of F. S. Fitzgerald and T. Dreiser give us an insight into the
society of the 1920s. Dreiser with his experience as a journalist and Fitzgerald with his
own pursuit of the American dream had enough material to create novels demonstrating
the theme of the American dream of 20th century.
The first chapter deals with a brief biography of the writers which is further
elaborated in the fifth chapter focused on the background of the novels. Like the main
characters, also the writers wished for a better future and success. For Fitzgerald,
similar to Gatsby, was wealth the only way to marry the woman he loved, Zelda Sayre.
Dreiser and Clyde shared poverty in their families and constant seeking for success and
wealth since they were both influenced by the values of the society of 1920s which is
briefly described in the second chapter – The Roaring Twenties.
The third chapter focuses on the historical background of the American dream.
This chapter serves as an introduction to the term American dream and its origins in
order to analyse this phenomenon in the novel. According to J. T. Adams’ The Epic of
America, the American dream represents in its purest version a belief that the poor and
rich have equal chances and opportunities. Yet, the idea of the American dream changes
throughout centuries and appears in a different form in the selected works. Both main
characters seek mainly for wealth and believe that they can achieve their American
dream ignoring the consequences and rightness of their actions and principles.
Concerning the literary part, the main aim of this bachelor thesis was to closely
examine Gatsby’s and Clyde’s American dream as well as its pursuit and values chosen
on their way to achieve it. As a result, we can see that the form of the American dream
56
is identical in both novels – it represents pursuit of success, wealth and power
represented by a rich woman.
The second chapter of the literary part focuses on the values which determine the
main characters’ destiny and failure of their American dream. Having read the first
subchapter about moral values, we find out that although they do not realize or admit it,
almost none of their actions is moral. Gatsby tries to achieve his dream by illegal
bootlegging during the Great Prohibition which should have decreased the criminality
and alcoholism. Also, his choice of covering Daisy’s car accident and killing Myrtle
Wilson proves fatal for him since he is killed by Myrtle’s husband out of revenge. Yet,
whereas Gatsby presents himself as a gentleman, Clyde chooses a path of a manipulator.
He uses people and chooses only those who he can profit of. Therefore, when his
girlfriend Roberta Alden starts to lack the benefits but also, at the same time, announces
her pregnancy, he decides to murder her in order to escape from his responsibilities and
marry Sondra Finchley.
The next subchapter deals with the value of wealth. Having analysed the main
characters’ values, we can see that both are very sensitive to money. This feature clouds
their reason and makes them blindly follow their plan to become wealthy. In fact, their
dream gets formed when they meet Daisy Fay and Sondra Finchley. They perceive
these women as a direct way to become truly rich, powerful and respected. Yet, both
main characters value money too much that they forget about other aspect of their life as
well as courtesy. They choose to ignore that their chase for wealth, which they
overvalue, brings them gradually to their downfall.
Last subchapter focuses on the value of love. Neither Clyde nor Gatsby feels
pure love to Sondra and Daisy since their love is inseparably connected to money.
57
Nevertheless, Gatsby claims he loves Daisy but in fact, he is in love with an illusion
which he created during the years he had not seen her. He sacrificed his individuality,
morality and his own life for love which does not exist on either side. In Dreiser’s
novel, Clyde expresses amazement at Sondra mostly because of her possession; he does
not convey love to her. On the other hand, the narrator mentions that Clyde found love
with Roberta. It is ironic because he chooses the opportunity to become wealthy over
her and lets Roberta drown. Indeed, he does not value the love which he has for her and
she has for him.
To conclude, values together with the American dream and individuality of the
main characters are closely connected. The excessive focus on the American dream
causes the main characters’ loss of their identity which they used to have before their
American dream started to form. This change is followed by fall in values which brings
them to wrong decisions and actions on their way to achieve their American dream.
Moreover, if we have a closer look on the reasons of the failure of their American
dream, it is not because that they did not endeavour enough to reach it, it is the poor
choice of values on their way to achieve it, which is the main finding of this bachelor
thesis. In fact, distorted values of the main characters have a considerable impact on
their decisions that are mostly wrong – Gatsby’s illegal bootlegging, an attempt to break
a marriage, a getaway after a deadly car accident and covering the driver at fault. In
Clyde’s case, he has always chosen money over anything else, does not help his family
in need and thinks only about himself. As a result of his sensitivity to wealth and an
excessive focus on it, he murders Roberta in order to marry Sondra.
Each of these actions mentioned brings the main characters closer to the
downfall of their American dream as well as their death. Although it is arguable
58
whether they could have achieved their American dream if they had chosen a moral
path during their chase, it is mainly the immorality of their actions that results in the end
of their life, which can be understood as the moral message of the books since moral
values are important in every century and situation.
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Bibliography
Primary sources:
Dreiser, Theodore. An American Tragedy. New York, N.Y.: Library of America, 2003.
Print.
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby. London: Picador, 2013. Print.
Secondary sources:
Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America, with a new introduction by Howard
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Bachelor Thesis American Dream

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Masaryk University

Department of English Language and Literature

The American dream and the destructive

influence of distorted values in An American

Tragedy and The Great Gatsby

Supervisor: Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D.

secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

20 April 2020, Brno Author’s signature

guidance, helpful advice and supportive comments that he provided me throughout my

for their support.

Americká tragédie a Velký Gatsby. Práce obsahuje analýzu snahy o dosažení

postav spojené s bohatstvím, láskou a morálkou jsou pokřivené a negativně ovlivňují

morálka, selhání, Theodore Dreiser, Velký Gatsby

but also to their death.

Great Gatsby, Theodore Dreiser, values, wealth

1. Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Theodore Dreiser ...................................................................9

2. The Roaring Twenties .......................................................................................................11

3. Definition and history of the American dream ..................................................................12

4. Plot summary .....................................................................................................................14

4.1 The Great Gatsby .........................................................................................................14

4.2 An American Tragedy .................................................................................................15

5. Background of the novels ..................................................................................................16

6. Depiction of the American Dream in the stories ...............................................................20

6.1 The Great Gatsby .........................................................................................................20

6.2 An American Tragedy .................................................................................................25

7.1 Moral values ...........................................................................................................30

7.1.1 The Great Gatsby .................................................................................................30

7.1.2 An American Tragedy .......................................................................................... 34

7.2 Value of wealth.......................................................................................................40

7.2.1 The Great Gatsby .................................................................................................40

7.2.2 An American Tragedy .......................................................................................... 43

7.3 Value of love ..........................................................................................................47

7.3.1 The Great Gatsby .................................................................................................47

7.3.2 An American Tragedy .......................................................................................... 51

‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me,

the advantages that you’ve had.’(Fitzgerald 3) (Italics added)

dream and therefore also its achievement or failure.

closely discussed in three subchapters.

to Fitzgerald’s growing alcoholism. He died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist, journalist of the

characterized American life – e. g. murders with a motive of an escape from a

Dreiser died of heart failure on December 28, 1945 (Riggio).

summarizes basic description of this period for a better understanding of the

background of both novels.

States characterized by consumerism, technological inventions, prosperity, leisure and

growing urbanization (O´Callaghan 92).

rediscovered basic values in America among which belonged success, freedom,

created an expression known worldwide.

intellectuals, scientists as well as in academic articles or political speeches

Caldwell, John Steinbeck, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Dreiser’s An American

Tragedy as well as in cinematography and art (Shestakov). Moreover, the American

primarily being free from restrictions (Samuel 14).

achieve their American dream (14).

4.1 The Great Gatsby

moment when Daisy expresses “sensitivity and self-awareness” (Prahl).

world of the rich (Lombardi).

the American society which surrounded him. While he worked as a journalist, he

Nevertheless, if we examine the historical background of the story closely, we

6. Depiction of the American Dream in the stories

6.1 The Great Gatsby

changed throughout the centuries. The American dream of 1920s displayed by

possessions” are equal to “happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70).

them in cultural background, “sophistication” and particularly in “refinement” (71).