The Great Gatsby
“The Great Gatsby” is one of the best works of the American writer, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, in which he described the urgent problems of the contemporary bourgeois American society of the early 20th century. Pathos, the emotional intensity of the romance and sharp, even satirical realistic look of the author found its expression on the pages of “The Great Gatsby” which debunks a myth of the American dream and realistically show the demoralization of the modern consumer society. Critics have paid little attention to the philosophy of consumerism in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald was unsatisfied by American capitalism, and claimed that the novel may be recognized as a capitalist fable with an unhappy ending (Berman, 35).
The most successful people in America are the incarnation of the American dream. It is a desire of lightning success and rapid enrichment. Happiness and wealth are identical for the people who support the postulates of the American dream. The dream inspires that in America a person is free to choose its destiny and nothing prevents it from living in harmony with itself. It says that in a country where all have enough place under the sun and many paths open before everyone, the human becomes infinitely free again and can be naturally happy, as Adam was ("Great Gatsby: Awakening from the American Dream").
The "Political Dictionary" written by William Safire describes the American dream as the spiritual power of the nation. If the American system is a skeleton of US policy, the American dream is its soul. The idea of the American dream is based on practical positivism, which is a simple and unshakable conviction that if you do something, and at the same time hope and believe with all your heart and ignore the possibility of defeat, then any idea will necessarily materialize. Not only Americans, but also the whole world tries to find answers to such questions as what a dream is and what success is and where is the line between dream and a dangerous illusion (Safire, 47).
The myth of American dream includes the equal opportunities for all people regardless of their initial capital and social origin. The name of this dream embodies the idea that it is possible to reach the wealth and success only in America. Francis Fitzgerald debunked the theory of American dream in the novel "Great Gatsby" and his other works. He argued that a man who put his whole life to get wealth, would not become happier, but on the contrary, would lose itself, its own spiritual world and, as a consequence, the desire to live a full life. The author showed the tragedy of a man whose aspire to wealth, eventually, led to his death (Gross and Gross, 74).
The Great Gatsby shows that there is no such thing as the American Dream or the self-made person. People are who they are born, and attempts to change class lead to tragedies. It's a really unattractive image of …
