"THE GREAT GATSBY". F.SCOTT
FITZGERALD. CORINNENOTES
"THE GREAT GATSBY". F.SCOTT
FITZGERALD.
QUESTION 3.
HOW DOES FITZGERALD PROVIDE A CRITIQUE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM?
Basically the entire novel seems to provide a critique of the American Dream! (see themes).
However to be more specific you could look at the valley of ashes which,as as well as being Fitzgerald's literal waste land,also represents the reality of the American Dream. You'll need to look at the characters of Wilson and Myrtle and the fact that Tom may well be able to make a "stable out of a garage" but Wilson is never able to do this. The valley of ashes, being the place of the garage is the home for all of the "bad drivers" and is therefore the spiritual home for the American Deam. Myrtle may literally die there but there is also the symbolic and metaphorical death of society amongst the ashes. To believe in the dream is to condemn yourself to death, whether it is literal or metaphorical.
The other characters appear to be the ones who have made the dream work,particulary Gatsby. However you only have to look at the spirtiual emptiness which pervades everything they do to realise that the dream is flawed. Daisy loves the unworn shirts and Gatsby holds meaningless parties. Only Owl Eyes notices that the books in the Merton College Library are real and only three people attend Gatsby's funeral. Their version of the dream is one which is coloured by violence,lies and bad driving. It produces only "dark water" rather than the rain which they need to cleanse themselves and heat which leads to death.
The final passages of the novel, especially the part about the dream being "already behind" Gatsby, sum up the futility of the American Dream. It may have once existed for the Dutch sailors but it has long been lost in the "dark fields of the republic", replaced by the materialism of Gatsby's house.