Gatsby Blog: Text Connections

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author stresses the pinnacle and the nadir of the “American Dream.” While the 1920’s are best known as the “Roaring Twenties” they achieve this name by the social interactions, revival of economic activity, and the sense of victory that are result from the ending of the Great War. The high points of the “American Dream” include the complete transformation from poverty to wealth due to industriousness and intuition. Accompanying this new lifestyle are social expectations that most self-made-men do not fully understand. They are not prepared to associate themselves with socialites that have merely inherited their wealth and fame. While the majority of the population did not reach that high of a station, those that did found it unfulfilling and disappointing. Fitzgerald wished to express that the “American Dream” in moderation was successful for most, but those that reached for the stars and caught them often came plummeted back down to earth.

            Jay Gatsby is a primary example of the common man reaching beyond their limits and struggling to maintain who they are. He was a North Dakota boy that shed his true self to assume the persona of someone he was not. A veteran of the war himself, he rose above the ranks of poverty driven by the need to prove to himself and his love, Daisy, that he was worthwhile. But in his quest for acknowledgment, he lost what had initial attracted Daisy to him, his freedom of character that preceded the war and change in social status and wealth.  F. Scott Fitzgerald conjured up the story of The Great Gatsby as a way of reminding people of their main values and the necessity of not getting lost in the excessive ideals of the “American Dream.”