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Janelle Gatchalian

English 11

Hollister

20 March, 2023

The American Dream

In the 1920s of America, known as the roaring twenties, the surging economy created a

bustle of life in social classes, with jazz music, flappers, and flouting prohibition. Even though

there was a sense of pleasure that people could indulge in, post war affected identities and culture

in people due to the idea that the war was disillusioning. People who lost their identity due to the

war began expressing their thoughts on paper were known as the Lost Generation, heavily

emphasizing that the American dream was a deception. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book heavily

portrays the Lost Generation’s concepts with the book The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s

The Great Gatsby, he demonstrates the death of the American Dream with the characters, Gatsby

and Myrtle.

Above all, Gatsby demonstrated the death of the American Dream. For instance, Gatsby

had acquired money to show that he could win his dream girl, Daisy. When Gatsby confessed his

love to Daisy, she exclaimed, “‘Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you

now—isn't that enough? I can't help what's past’...the words seemed to bite physically into

Gatsby” (Fitzgerald 132). In other words, Gatsby had been longing for his and Daisy’s

relationship to advance, creating the dream that Gatsby needed to be rich just like Daisy, in order

to be with her. Fitzgerald had used his characters to show that the American dream was dying by

emphasizing that the characters only saw that achieving the American Dream meant they had to

become materialistic. Even though Gatsby had worked so hard to woo Daisy over, the feelings he
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had overcome after his confession led to the idea that the American Dream is impossible to

achieve regardless of Gatsby’s determined mindset. In addition, the death of Gatsby symbolized

the death of the American Dream. When Nick finds Gatsby dead in the pool, he describes that

Gatsby left “A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like

air, drifted fortuitously about . . ” (Fitzgerald). Essentially, Nick conveys that Gatsby was so

fixated on the materialistic approach of the American Dream, that he had not been able to be true

to his own identity. Gatsby lost sight of who he was due to the love he had for Daisy, leading him

to his tragic death. Fitzgerald uses death to symbolize how the American Dream is fallible by

describing that other people who failed to meet their goals, now are freed by their death.

Not only does Gatsby portray the death of the American Dream but Myrtle also

contributes to the concept. Myrtle has been having an affair with Tom to get away from the poor

man she had married to. When the character is explaining how she had married George Wilson,

she mentions that, “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away that I made

a mistake… I gave it [the suit Wilson borrowed] to him [lender] and then I [laid] down and

cried…” (Fitzgerald 35). Myrtle had given up her fantasy of becoming a rich city girl when she

had realized that was only possible if Myrtle’s husband was rich. Given that her husband

borrowed an expensive tux, she realized that love would get in the way of her American Dream.

Even though Myrtle wanted to escape living in social inferiority, she cried, knowing that being

with Wilson was better than being alone. In addition, Fitzgerald also uses Wilson to emphasize

that the American Dream was unachievable for Myrtle. When Wilson had found out about his

wife’s affairs, he mentions, “I got my wife locked up in there… She’s going to stay there till the

day after tomorrow, and then we’re going to move away” (Fitzgerald 137). Particularly, Wilson

had Myrtle physically trapped in the house in order for her to give up her dream of being with a
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rich man. This act symbolized how even if Myrtle were to attempt to escape her social class, she

was trapped due to her marriage. Despite Myrtle escaping after Wilson mentioned locking her up

until tomorrow, her desire to leave Wilson was so great that her life ended tragically just like

Gatsby’s, resulting in unaccomplished goals.

All things considered, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby became a big hit, emphasizing

modern and realistic issues that people had faced after the surging consumerism economy. The

American Dream in the novel was altered and came to a death, along with aspirers of this notion.

Gatsby and Myrtle had shared many similarities in conveying the American Dream such as

desiring for wealth, and doing anything in their power to reach their goals, however, each

character experienced obstacles, distracting or discouraging them from achieving those dreams.

The American Dream comes to its death in the novel The Great Gatsby with Fitzgerald’s use of

death and distractions of the characters, Gatsby and Myrtle.