The Great Gatsby: An Analysis of the American Dream

Abstract

The American Dream and its relation to the American literary production is a subject that has been exposed to detailed study throughout time. In order to contribute to this field of studies, this paper will analyze the representation of the American Dream in one of the most significant novels of American literature, F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. First, the essay will put in context the notion of the American Dream and the type of literature that is going to be analyzed. Afterwards, and conducted from a cultural perspective, the analysis of the Dream will be done regarding four different aspects of the novel: first of all, how the Dream distributes in space; after that, how the Dream is related to time, to the Roaring Twenties; then, the Dream’s connection to class and the differences amongst the several social classes that appear on the novel; and finally, how gender and the notion of the Dream combine together. This way of approaching the study will show how the Dream works differently for the characters in the novel depending on several characteristics, such as class, gender and status; in other words, the paper will show the discordance of the Dream and its drawbacks based on Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the Roaring Twenties.