Decline of the American Dream

¶ … Decline of the American Dream Depicted in Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby

Scott Fitzgerald's novel, the Great Gatsby is a novel that reveals many things about human nature and the inclinations of the human spirit, namely the weakness of it as it becomes tempted with the promise of excess and materialism. When we read the novel, some of the details become hideous to us, as we do not like to think that man can fall pretty to such whims and devices and perhaps this is the truth that makes the novel such a classic. In the novel, we have the very basic creature of man that is experiencing life at a time of extreme freedom - or, at the least, a need to be free. The war has just ended and there is enough money for almost anyone to rise to the top and enjoy all of the extra things that an affluent life guarantees. We see that there is a desire to be free from the previous restraints of Victorianism as well as an escape from the depressing war. Jazz, dance, alcohol, and wild parties are the ingredients for a decadent lifestyle that spins completely out of control in a few short months. The Great Gatsby is undoubtedly a tale about the American Dream but it is more a tale about the decline of the American Dream. What we learn from this novel is that man cannot handle a life of excess and remain compassionate, caring creature. When left to his own devices, he will kill what little humanity is left in his soul and eventually kill himself because he does not know how to control his desire for more. The decline of the American Dream begins and ends with too much greed that refuses to let go. The Great Gatsby demonstrates how this greed operates through a series of characters that come from different walks of life, representing different attitudes. Fitzgerald captures the broken and fragile spirit of man through these characters, highlighting their weaknesses when it comes to human emotion. Gatsby, the Buchanans, and Nick become representatives of different personality types that respond differently to life and its challenges as well as its opportunities. While these characters my have their differences, they all point to the decline of the American Dream by way of their behavior and mindset. Only Nick emerges a free man, unhindered by want and desire. Through setting, characterization, symbolism, and setting, Fitzgerald illuminates how destructive materialism, greed, excess, and unadulterated desire can actually be. Man becomes a victim of his own weaknesses and, as a result, murders his own dream through sheer desire.

Chapter I

The Premise of the Decline of the American Dream in the Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald lays the foundation for the decline of the American Dream by placing it in the heart of the 1920s when every American had the opportunity to achieve that dream. The land of the free and the home of the brave became the land of excess and the home of materialism. David Trask notes that in the minds of many people, the American Dream was "sometimes thought of as a promise" (Trask) that meant anyone that possessed a practical amount of talent "could reasonably aspire to material success if they adhered to a fairly well-defined set of behavioral rules" (Trask). Trask also points out that there was another aspect to this dream that often drove people to achieve it and that was the assumption that "spiritual satisfaction would automatically accompany material success" (Trask). With this notion in mind, we can see how the dream became bigger than it really was. The rise to fortune is enough to drive one to succeed but when one attaches a sort of spiritual satisfaction to the dream, one begins working outside of the dream realistically. Certainly, fulfilling a dream can make one's life better in many ways and there is no doubt that reaching one's goals makes life "better" in many respects but attaching to the notion that something spiritually occurs within a person once this American Dream is achieved gives the dream too much power. Many critics have connected this idea with Thomas Jefferson, who "firmly established the myth of the garden -- the concept of agrarian virtue and the urban vice -- in American minds" (Trask). It is this notion that becomes planted in the minds of many Americans and once it is realized, life changes and suddenly, values take a second place to success. Spiritual satisfaction should never be associated with material success for then it creates the premise that one must always be present with the other, thus creating a conflict in the very nature of what spiritual satisfaction means. In this day and age, however, it is easy to see how spiritual satisfaction was equated with materialism because materialism was so prevalent.

Gatsby, of course, makes this mistake, thinking if he finds the success he is after, he will also find Daisy, who is his spiritual satisfaction at the end of the proverbial rainbow. Everything he did was leading up to the very moment he could her say she loved him and wanted to be with him forever. On the surface, we must admire Gatsby for his goal to have a better life and his ability to accomplish that task. Digging deeper into his personality, however, reveals that much more was going on inside Gatsby's head. He never had a firm grasp on reality and this only led to his failure. For Gatsby, the dream of the past was not only the link to his future but also to his spiritual satisfaction. He lives so much in the past that he allows it to dictate his every move, ignoring anything that might get in his way or cause him to stumble. The clearest illustration of this occurs when he tells Nick, "Can't repeat the past?... Why of course you can!" (Fitzgerald 113) and he is "going to fix everything just the way it was before" (113). In short, he thinks money will solve all of his problems because he thinks he can buy any and everything. Gatsby's sight is myopic at best. Another aspect of this dream fulfilling some sort of spiritual need comes from Gatsby's belief that Daisy is perfect. It is only with her and for her that he can see any happiness in his life and only she can fulfill his need. Gatsby is the typical individual blinded by love and this is a role that he plays very well. The image of Gatsby is captured perfectly in Nick's recollection of the man:

There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion. (92)

His emotional attachment to the dream is so extreme that absolutely nothing can make it right for him but he is unable to see this because of his fondness for Daisy. Nick understands that the dream has outgrown the individual of Daisy but there can be no telling Gatsby this. She becomes the spiritual satisfaction and, as a result, the source of his idolatry. Gatsby states that her voice is "full of money" (127) and he sincerely believes that she will simply walk away from Tom without a second thought. We read that Gatsby paid careful attention to the decoration of his home so that it would please Daisy; Nick explains, "everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes" (97). Gatsby's attachment to this spiritual need is something that has been a part of his life the many years the two have been separated. While they were apart, Gatsby was planning everything out for a life with her and in the meantime, he "read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy's name" (84). Perhaps the most telling sign that Gatsby was reaching for a dream that could never satisfy him spiritually or otherwise was the fact that he deliberately purchased a home from where he could see the green light on her dock. For Jay Gatsby, the American Dream and spiritual fulfillment is directly related to Daisy Buchanan.

The life of decadence becomes the vehicle through which Gatsby will achieve this dream. The 1920s are plagued with greed and limitless pleasure, which is demonstrated through Gatsby's outrageous weekend parties. Materialism and greed become the primary forces that ruin the American Dream and led to its decline in the novel. Reckless behavior with no sense of consequence covered up by loud parties and jazz music lies at the heart of everything that goes wrong by the novels' end. In addition, the desire for more and the unadulterated greed of these people kill what is essential to the American Dream, which is honesty and respect. In the Great Gatsby, the decline of the American Dream begins with affluence. As we have already mentioned, the mood and tone for moral corruption in New York City was prime in the 1920s and while it may seem there are the rich and the poor, class distinction among the rich plays an important role in the novel. Gatsby's success will only carry him so far because of a dividing line that exists between the new wealth and the old wealth. This is best depicted with the West and East Egg sections that divide individuals according to their wealth. Gatsby, regardless of how much money he makes, cannot hold a candle to the old wealth of the community in which Tom and Daisy live. Tom comes from an "enormously wealthy" (6) family and when he moved to the rich East Egg, he "brought down a string of ponies from Lake Forest" (6). The Buchanan's home is "more elaborate" (7) than what our narrator Nick could ever have dreamed, observing it is a "cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens" (7). The issue of wealth distinction did not seem to matter to Gatsby because that was not part of his thought process. His mind is completely consumed with attaining wealth and his version of the American Dream. The distinction is significant to the context of the novel because it represents the major difference between Gatsby and the Buchanans. The distinction being how wealth is attained - a matter more important to the ones that acquire wealth the old fashioned way as opposed to those who earn it differently, as Gatsby did. Tom realizes this difference and cannot wait to capitalize on it, holding no reserves when it comes to his opinion, or Gatsby, for that matter. Tom does not believe Gatsby is truly an Oxford man, a point-of-view he bases on the fact that the man wears a "pink suit" (124) and he declares Gatsby a cheat, claiming, "A lot of these newly rich people are just bootleggers" (110). To confirm any suspicions, Tom looks into Gatsby's past for any additional ammunition that might come in handy for an attack and exposes the fact that Gatsby is a "common swindler" (136) in front of everyone. Selling alcohol over the counter was only one of his "little stunts" (137), according to Tom. This scene is crucial to the novel because it reveals something to Daisy that she did not know before and it also reveals something to us that we do not want to know. When Tom goes digging into Gatsby's life, his only goal is to destroy Gatsby because he was of the new wealth and was not good enough to sit and dine with him and those like him. When Daisy must confront this issue about Gatsby, she does not handle it very well because Tom has opened her eyes to the vast difference between that from which she comes and from where Gatsby comes. Once this light shines on the truth, Tom knows that any affair will be over because Daisy loves her money too much to let it go. This is difficult because it represents the fall of the man that comes so close to his dream.

This American Dream fails and Fitzgerald captures how this type of failure can occur with Gatsby's life and times. Inge observes that Gatsby's story "deals symbolically with the failure of the American dream of success" (Inge), focusing on the "possibility of rising from rags to riches through industry, ambition, self-reliance, honesty, and temperance" (Inge). However, there is something wrong with this dream and those possibilities primarily because it is a myth of sorts. Inge states that within this myth "lies the genesis of what impels Gatsby" (Inge). Gatsby is inspired by "childhood dreams of a Franklin or a Thomas Edison... And the tradition that every American boy could make a million dollars or become President" (Inge). The irony, of course, is that while "imitating the great American moralists, Gatsby rises to be a rich and powerful criminal" (Inge). However, it is Gatsby that allows us to see how great the dream can become and how quickly it can fade away. Edwin Fussell maintains that the novel has "two predominant patterns, quest and seduction" (Fussell 291). To consider the America Dream from this perspective, it becomes all too clear. Fussell writes that the quest is a "search for romantic wonder" and the quest is "flight" (291). This flight moves away from "normality, from time, from fate, and the conception of limit" (291). In a sense, we can see how the dream becomes too big for itself. Gatsby has his own set of problems that blow his dream completely out of proportion and make it, in a sense, something somewhat unattainable. Yet, this does not prevent him from trying. If we keep this same perspective, we can see how Gatsby's dream is the symbol for the decline of everyman's American Dream in the sense that the spoils of excess only ruin what might have been simple, pleasurable, and clean.

Chapter II

Characters as Vehicles and Victims of Decline in the Great Gatsby

More than anything, the characters in the Great Gatsby represent social positions first. Their positions establish their primary ways of thinking and set the mood and tome for their behavior. Nick and Gatsby were soldiers in World War I and they represent the pristine cosmopolitan point-of-view as well as skepticism that many soldiers faced after returning home. Jay Gatsby, our tragic hero, is what Inge refers to as the "American arch-romantic" (Inge), because he seems to just miss everything. He "lacked the wealth and timing" (Inge) that he needed to get the girl in the end. As we have already discussed, Gatsby suffered from dreaming a dream that simply could not come true. Nick referred to it as "incorruptible" because Gatsby simply would not accept anything else. This is part of Gatsby's tragedy, says Inge, and "Not since Don Quixote's pursuit of Dulcinea has literature seen such a noble, heartbreaking, and impossible quest" (Inge). Indeed, the passion that drives Gatsby is simply incredible, as it never seems to reach a place where it might slow down. Instead, it maintains a steady pace in the novel, even when we know that the dream will not come true. It is this inability to let the dream go that Gatsby becomes a great romantic - regardless of other questionable aspects of his character. The decline of the American Dream begins and ends with the life of Jay Gatsby because he unveils the tragedy that lies beneath the corruption and naivety. The dream of Daisy is a symbol of the American Dream in that Gatsby will never believe that he cannot have it and he will stop at nothing to get it. In a moment of realization, Nick writes, "There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion" (Fitzgerald 98). Here we see that Nick can see the futility of it all. He is close enough to see the folly and he is just far enough away from it to see the damage it has already done. Gatsby has corrupted himself in order that he might touch this dream and thus, the decline of his dream began with the dream itself.

The decline of the American dream is brought to life with Gatsby because he is so human in everything he does. His excess is the result of the American Dream because he suddenly becomes aware that he has money. Gatsby's extravagance discloses much about the decline of the American Dream. As with most notions of the American Dream, it begins with the home. We read that Gatsby's home is enormous and has "Marie Antoinette bedrooms and Restoration salons" (93) as well as a "Merton College Library" (93). In addition, his restroom is adorned with a "toilet seat of pure dull gold" (94) and he has closets stuffed with suits that are crafted by a "man in England... who sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall" (94). Gatsby is achieving part of his dream when is able to show off his home to Daisy and he will use every opportunity to his advantage. As he escorts Daisy through his home, he makes sure he points out that he keeps it "full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated people" (92). Here we see how he is connecting that dream to himself through celebrities and very important people. It is also important to note how he attempting to win her over with these associations. He knows he cannot do it on his own and he is completely prepared to give every part of his American Dream to her. It is interesting in that we do not feel any anger toward Gatsby. We might dislike him at times for being such a fool but it never within us to hate him. After all, he has just taken Daisy through his home and bragged to her about everything he had and he used everything bit of materialism he could find to win her over. These actions are not what we are drawn to and we would not even call respectable in the least but, for some reason, we do not hate the man. Harold Bloom notes:

Fitzgerald's oddest triumphs that we accept his vision of Gatsby's permanent innocence; the gross reality of Daisy's love for her brutal husband, Tom Buchanan, is dismissed by Gatsby as merely 'personal' and as something that can be canceled by a simple denial. We come to understand that Gatsby is in love neither with Daisy nor with love itself, but rather with a moment out of time that he persuades himself he shared with Daisy. Gangster and dreamer, Gatsby is more of an inarticulate American poet than he is an episode in the later history of American transcendentalism. (Bloom)

This is true and it also explains why Gatsby emerges as one of the good guys at the end of the novel. Fraser agrees with this notion, adding that Gatsby's ability to evoke sentimentality in readers is a "tribute to the further aspect of the illusion of largeness that the novel so brilliantly and charmingly generates" (Fraser 562). In Gatsby, we see a man that is "divided between power and dream" (562) and with stands for "America itself" (562). After all is said and done, Gatsby's life can be nothing but a symbol of the decline of the American Dream. Donaldson observes that Gatsby rises "from much the same stratum as Myrtle Wilson. The limitations of this background finally make it impossible for him to win the enduring love of Daisy Fay Buchanan. and, like Myrtle, he is guilty of a crucial error in judgment" (Donaldson). This is significant because we realize this and Gatsby never does. Even as Daisy humiliates Gatsby in front of everyone, he fails to see that it is "not money alone that matters, but money combined with secure social position" (Donaldson). Gatsby attempts to overcome this handicap with a "show of possessions" (Donaldson) but he is "undone by the lack of cultivation" (Donaldson) that drives him to "buy the wrong things" (Donaldson). This is not apparent to him, however, so he continues in his fruitless efforts. While we pity him for being such a fool, we admire him as well because he still h as the nerve to go after what he sincerely desires most in the world.

Brian Sutton maintains that Fitzgerald provides us with four instances in the novel that point to the decline of the American Dream that can be traced to specific scenes of Gatsby representing the phases of decline. When we look at these images as stages of decline, we can associate them to the decline of the society in which Gatsby and Daisy lived. According to Sutton, this first image is one of the first times that Nick sees Gatsby. It is the classic image of that summer evening when Gatsby is reaching toward the light that shines on Daisy's dock. Nick tells us that he swears Gatsby is "trembling" (Fitzgerald 22). The image is of a man locked in the darkness; he is surrounded by the dark night and the dark water adds mystery to the sight of this man appearing to reach out into nowhere. Of course, it is Daisy for what he reaches but the overarching image we should keep in mind is the fact that this is the only thing we ever see Gatsby reaching out to grab and hold. Sutton maintains that the second image "marks Gatsby's brief moment of triumph" (Sutton) because Gatsby has attained the level of becoming Daisy's lover.

In the scene, Gatsby turns on a lamp and lights Daisy's cigarette "from a trembling match" (Fitzgerald 97). This image is of man so excited that he is trembling and Sutton takes this further and claims that Gatsby is trembling because of his "excitement and joy at recovering her" (Sutton). The third image of Gatsby occurs with Tom in the mix and Gatsby has just demanded that Daisy tell Tom she does not love him. She is not strong enough to do this, regardless of her true feelings because Tom begins manipulating her with memories of their past. She breaks and cannot do this and ends up becoming angry with Gatsby, declaring he wants "too much" (Fitzgerald 135). This is the beginning of the end for Gatsby's dream in that it is all downhill from here. Sutton maintains that "Gatsby, and the light, like Gatsby's hopes, is all but extinguished" (Sutton). The last image of this broken dream is much like the first, according to Sutton in that Gatsby is alone "largely the same position as in the first image: physically apart from Daisy and searching, from a distance, for a light which he associates with her" (Sutton). The scene occurs with Gatsby in the bushes, depending upon Nick's interpretation of what is happening in Buchanan household. Nick cannot force himself to tell Gatsby what appeared to be going on and we realize at this point that Gatsby's dreams are "clearly dead by now" (Sutton). When Gatsby refers to seeing Daisy looking out the window in the early morning hours it is the last time he sees her and the image is of a desperate man still clinging to something that simply is not there. These are the stages that his dream was so close within his grasp that it must have killed him that he could not have it even for just a little while. The man longs for his prize, the man gets close to the prize, the prize begins to slip away, and finally, the prize is gone, leaving the man in disbelief that things could be over. These images help us see the stages not only of Gatsby's dream but they also allow us to see the decline of the American Dream in stages.

Gatsby is the quintessential dreamer and he is living the quintessential American Dream. He comes from a simple past and finds a way to make himself rich. In many ways, he worked harder at becoming wealthy than Tom ever did - regardless of whether those ways were legal or not. Gatsby knows what it means to be without money and he can at least be credited for rising to the top. The trouble with how he makes his money is only a problem to those who have inherited their money and have never actually had to earn a living. Regardless, Fitzgerald emphasizes the distinction between these classes and the perfect way to capture this distinction is for it to exist between the two men in Daisy's life. Alberto maintains that Fitzgerald quickly establishes readers with "essential information by mentioning the source of Buchanan's income as well as his spending habits. Thus, his enormous inheritance renders him the diametrical opposite of the self-made man, a concept forged at the end of the nineteenth century" (Alberto). It was something for which Gatsby could be proud because this concept, according to Alberto, "lays emphasis on the fact that the millionaire is the product of the laws of natural selection and, in that struggle for survival, his money becomes a token of his successful adaptation to the environment" (Alberto). Tom, however, would not see things this way but he would also not waste any time arguing with anyone about it because it would not be worth his time to do so.

Nick is the only individual that seems to remain untouched by the power of greed and the hypnotic effect of excess. Without his perspective, things would not be held in balance. Nick's calm character leaves room for the other characters to behave wildly. Nick appears to be and stand for all that Gatsby does not and it is no secret that Nick was not altogether pleased with Gatsby's lifestyle or character. Nick is straightforward and Gatsby is circled by a mystery that is difficult to define. Nick is sensible, which is why he does not get involved with Jordon; this is just the opposite of how Gatsby is and feels toward Daisy. Nick understands when and why Gatsby's life becomes "confused and disordered" (Fitzgerald 113). Fraser maintains that nick is a significant character in the novel because his attitudes do not reflect those of the society in which he becomes involved. He notes that:

In the deliberately simple, largely unillusioned and passion-free relationship that Nick has chosen to see, in part, another manifestation of that yearning for a clean and changeless simplicity, a non-human aesthetic purity, that shows itself in his grateful view of the ocean's cleanness and in the general gratefulness with which he responds to phenomena having those qualities" (Fraser 558).

At the end of the novel, Nick is becomes "increasingly conscious of a time not as the bringer of fruitions but only as the destroyer of beauties and securities" (Fraser 558). Nick is the only character to realize this and had he uttered any of these words to anyone else in the novel, they surely would have laughed him out of the room. We need Nick, if for no other reason, to be our grounded individual. Nick's character is essential to understanding the aspect of the American Dream because he is the only stable character on which we can rely.

Daisy is nothing but a contemptible, empty-minded character in the story. Her personality compliments the attitude that Fitzgerald presents regarding the attitude of the wealthy. Michael Witkoski observes, Daisy and Tom live essentially useless lives, entering the novel as "self-centered, essentially uncaring persons, obsessed with their own concerns and indifferent to the feelings and the existence of other people" (Witkoski). Tom's involvement with Myrtle is taken lightly by both man and wife and Daisy chooses to become involved with Gatsby with no regard for her family. Witkoski points out that their true colors appear when Myrtle's death "places their world in jeopardy, husband and wife quickly abandon their 'loves' and retreat into the safety of money and privilege" (Witkoski). Nicks reinforces this idea by stating, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (Fitzgerald 184). The Buchanans become perfect representations for the type of corruption that begins to erode the moral landscape during this era. Donaldson observes that despite everything negative about her, Daisy is the "most desirable object of all. She is invariably associated with the things that surround her, her car and her house particularly, and most of all her voice" (Donaldson). We must assume that there is something beautiful and alluring about her since her personality is so detestable. It cannot her shallowness because she never once attempts to hide this deplorable characteristic. This is perhaps best illustrated when she begins sobbing into Gatsby's pile of shirts on the bed. She has allowed herself to be overcome with fabrics that are not even in her closet; she is a slave to things. Daisy idolizes everything that she should not and it makes her ugly in the most appalling way because she does not care that this is how she has allowed herself to evolve. While Gatsby is just as guilty of extravagance and excess as Daisy is, he does not exhibit the same level of lust for things that Daisy does. She is the epitome of the worst kind of greed that emerges in the novel.

Chapter III

Symbols and Setting Emphasizing the Decline of the American Dream

The setting for the Great Gatsby is extremely important in that nothing represents excess and modernity more than New York City. In addition, it is the very heart of America and it is the place that immigrants would find themselves when they began their quest for the American Dream. However, even in New York, there are divisions among classes of people. Fitzgerald finds it necessary to separate these types of people from the more conservative ones that Nick is drawn to at the end of the novel. A geographical distance is just as necessary as the philosophical one and placing the Great Gatsby in New York only seems fitting for this purpose. The Midwest becomes almost opposite to the East Coast and its new ideas and activities. It is interesting to observe that the very thing that Nick wanted to escape is what attracts him by novel's end. After all of the drama, he suddenly looks back to the west with a fond reverie, stating, "I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all -- Tom and Gatsby, Daisy, Jordan, and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life" (Fitzgerald 181). Nick must return from whence he came if only to regain a sense of self and decency again. With this distinction, Fitzgerald is focusing on the "traditional American dichotomy between the east as a model of European sophistication and corruption and the west as a repository of the fundamental decencies and virtues derived from contact with the American soil, the new Garden of Eden" (Inge). The image of the Garden of Eden can also be contrasted with the Valley of Ashes, a predominant symbol in the novel.

The Valley of Ashes is situated between West Egg and New York City and Nick describes it as a "fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air" (Fitzgerald 23). With this image, we see nothing death and decay. This valley is death and it cannot be avoided because one must travel through it to get to the city. That Myrtle dies there illustrates the pain and loss that will always be associated with this dead ash. Fitzgerald reinforces this image by offering it to us with representations of a wasteland with every mention of it. We must be reminded of the decay because it will penetrate every life in the novel and the death that results from that decay must never be forgotten. The wasteland represents what remains after a lifetime of the kind of moral decay we witness in the Great Gatsby. From seeking all forms of personal pleasure to unbridled indulgences, the message is clear that there is only one result from this type of lifestyle.