“Jay Gatsby” The American Dream and the Agrarian myth Essay Sample

August 21, 2017 General Studies

David Trask one time said. noticing on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby that “The Great Gatsby is approximately many things. but it is ineluctably a general review of the ‘American Dream’ and besides of the ‘agrarian myth’ – a powerful presentation of their invalidness for Americans of Fitzgerald’s coevals and after. ” Fitzgerald rebelliously breaks down the social boundaries of the 1920’s and creates a new social illustration.

Although the state was rooted in the American Dream. or what they thought was the American Dream. Fitzgerald rubs the gilding off of the sides. At a first expression into the book it seems as if Fitzgerald appreciates the American dream. He shows a adult male. James Gatz. who had a dream and followed it to its terminal. He considers Gatsby’s dream so baronial that he compares his way with that of Benjamin Franklin’s when he shows Gatsby’s agenda for illustriousness. merely as Benjamin Franklin had prescribed many old ages before. But Jay’s American Dream was genuinely non one of a happy stoping. This dream. in footings of Gatsby was a corrupted 1. He hadn’t go the ego made adult male obtaining his money through capitalistic agencies. he simply was a moonshiner.

He came up with a get rich easy strategy without seting in the difficult work. Fitzgerald clearly agreed that portion of the “American Dream” is the pursuit to obtain that dream. Even the alleged benefits of the dream ; money. power. and felicity. have been corrupted by Jay’s acquire rich speedy strategy. The promise of friends in the American Dream is broken down when every bit shortly as Gatsby is dead. the visible radiations slice. and his alleged friends apparently dissipate. The felicity Gatsby thinks he has through obtaining the American dream is simply a facade that fades off as we see Gatsby’s true character. Clearly. F. Scott Fitzgerald understood that the American Dream. when corrupted. is no longer a dream but instead a frontage.

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Fitzgerald besides shows that the “Agrarian myth” is neither a great option either. He confronts the American Dream with the character of Gatsby’s male parent. His male parent is disheveled and apparently in bad status during the book. One could travel every bit far to state that Mr. Gatz was even a failure working in the Midwest. Wilson besides represents the “Agrarian Myth” But he is surrounded by a married woman seeking to populate in an n American Dream universe and ends up killing himself and the ultimate representation of the corrupted American Dream.

Although Fitzgerald confronts both the “American Dream” and the “Agrarian Myth” he provides an surrogate. He shows Nick Carraway as the ultimate option. Picking from both ideals of the American Dream and Agrarian Myth. Nick Carraway becomes the hero of the 1920’s. Nick Carraway is in some ways a ego made adult male. He works difficult for his bantam level in West Egg. and is rooted in the ideal of working for a steady income. He besides captures the “American Dream” in the sense that he lives in it every twenty-four hours. Nick becomes the Agrarian Farmer in the wilderness of New York. He becomes the new myth or dream. Person who works hard for their life. but can still populate in a moderate universe of flashiness and glamor. Nick is a more significant individual than Gatsby in that he is rooted in true friends. and spends to what he needs. Nick is besides a more significant character than Wilson. in that he can encompass the universe of the American Dream. Nick is basically the new working category man of affairs of the 1920’s. Fitzgerald defines the new myth of the upper in-between category adult male working to prolong himself.

Fitzgerald clangs with both the Agrarian Myth and the American Dream to make the new upper in-between category adult male of the 1920’s. His representation of Gatsby shows that he does non hold with him. Fitzgerald’s representation of Wilson besides shows that he dislikes the Agrarian Myth. But alternatively of go forthing America with no ideal. and no hero. he creates Nick Carraway. the new hero of the 1920’s.

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