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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page paper looking at F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novel in terms of its indictment of the American Dream. Through a deep analysis of the novel's symbolism, it shows how the novel's characters are seduced by the mistaken belief that money equals self-worth. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Gatsdrem.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
his own wife Zelda. In addition, Zeldas biographer Nancy Mitford notes that at the time Fitzgerald was writing Gatsby, Zelda was having an affair with a young Frenchman, and extramarital
affairs figure prominently in the novels plot (Milford, 145). But unlike some of his books in which autobiography eclipses art, Fitzgerald was able to take the externals of his life
and shape them into themes of universal significance. The Great Gatsby serves as an explicit criticism of the tenets of the American Dream. What, precisely, is the American Dream? It
is the belief that if any individual works hard enough, he will succeed in life; that success translates automatically into material prosperity; and that material wealth is a sign of
an individuals intrinsic worth. The inverse of this belief is that people who are poor, for whatever reason, are necessarily worthless because if they had worked hard enough, if they
had really had "what it takes", they would not be in that position. The American Dream, therefore, insidiously ties who you are to what you have. Wealth guarantees happiness;
poverty guarantees sorrow. Belief in the American Dream is a necessary component of capitalism because it reinforces the doctrine of competition. And yet, as Paul Littrell observes in his notes
on The Great Gatsby, "As Puritan values gave way to an unrestrained craving for money, power, and other forms of gratification, the moral center of American life eroded" (Littrell, GATSBY.HTM).
In the midst of the burst of economic prosperity and spiritual decadence that followed World War I and preceded the Crash of 1929, Fitzgerald was able to show that the
American Dream as a way of life is a sham -- and why. Gatsby is told from the viewpoint of Nick Carraway, a young man who rents a cottage on
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