Through the studied chapters of the great gatsby, analyze the portrayals of the upper class and the pursuit of their american dream

AMERICAN DREAM OTRAYED IN THE GREAT GATSBY OF F SCOTT FITZGERALD MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM ENGLISH FACULTY SUBJECT AMERICAN ENGLISH LITERATURE Through the studied chapt[.]

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

ENGLISH FACULTY

SUBJECT: AMERICAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

Through the studied chapters of the Great Gatsby, analyze the portrayals

of the upper-class and the pursuit of their American Dream.

Student’s name : Nguyễn Phương Mai

Student ID : TA46A-015-1923

HÀ NỘI – 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I

Introduction……….…… -1-II Author, era

….……….……… -1-The life of author F Scott Fitzgerald

……….…… … -1-III The portrayals of the upper-class in The Great

Gatsby…….…….…………-2-1 Tom and Daisy

Buchanan………-4-2 Nick

Carraway……….-4-3 Jay

Gatsby……….-5-IV The idea of American

Dream……… …… -5-1 The formation of American

Dream……… ……-5-2 The theme of American Dream in The Great

Gatsby……… -7-V The corruption of American

Dream……… ……….-8-1 The dream of Jay

Gatsby……… … -8-1.1 From James Gatz to Jay

Gatsby……… …-8-1.2 Jay Gatsby – the biggest representative of the American

Dream…….…… -9-1.3 The collapse of such a

dream……….…….-11-2 Myrtle Wilson’s American Dream

shattered……….……- 12-3 American dream portrayed through

symbolism……… ….- 14-VI

Conclusion……… -16-REFERENCES

……….…… -17-I Introduction

The author F Scott Fitzgerald is seen as the first modern novelist to deliver the tragic realization by a close writing manner showing in writing theme and writing

techniques It is uncomplicated to see that the character Gatsby in The Great Gatsby

(Scott, 1925) is the reflection of the author himself in order to express a desire to

become a true American with the conception that prosperity and social status can solve every difficulty However, from experiments and failure, readers witness partly the reality and sum up the human’s bitterness in the era of loss and everything

collapses Throughout the view of character Nick Carraway, people figure a fuller visualization of the character Gatsby who chasing illusions of a glorious future and determination to fulfill his wild dream Fitzgerald discovered an obsessed world which guaranteed by the thriving material value It is not only a matter of one individual but

a common problem of the times

The broken American dream was a famous and noticeable theme in American

literature in the 20th century In some extent, in America there were people who

seeking for leisurely, lavish material life but also experiencing mental chaos and the downgrade of moral values as exchanges That being said, despite being a target, a motivation for people to strive for, American dream was a tragedy of a broken,

helpless human being who found no destination for himself in the world The

foundation of money or love that American dreamers previously used as a fulcrum to survive and dominate society would then completely corrupted

II Author, era

1 The life of author F Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota, on September 4, 1896,

to a furniture manufacturer and salesman He began writing early, scribbling in the margins of his textbooks and penning adventure stories for the school newspaper Though his grades were not good enough to grant him immediate admission into Princeton, he managed to talk the administration into accepting him on probation

(Hacht, 2007)

In 1917, however, he interrupted his education to join the army and wrote his first novel, which the publisher Charles Scribner's Sons praised, but rejected Fitzgerald met debutante socialite Zelda Sayre when he was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama When the war ended, Fitzgerald, who had never been sent overseas, joined the

advertising business, hoping to make enough money to marry Zelda Unfortunately, Zelda called off their engagement, not wanting to settle for life on his meager salary

A year later in 1919, Fitzgerald worked with an editor at Scribner to publish his first

novel This Side of Paradise (1920) Propelled by the momentum of his new

professional writing career, he also sold short stories to popular markets (Hacht, 2007)

Inspired by Fitzgerald's newfound success, Zelda married Fitzgerald They had a tumultuous relationship that produced one daughter, Frances (whom they called

"Scottie"), in 1921 Fitzgerald became an icon of the 1920s, synonymous with both

the carefree wealth of the Jazz Age, personified by his masterpiece The Great Gatsby

(1925), as well as the disaffected American abroad of the Lost Generation, epitomized

by his earlier novel, This Side of Paradise After Zelda was diagnosed with

schizophrenia in the 1930s, Fitzgerald's star dimmed a bit, and he found himself in Hollywood writing screenplays to pay the bills He died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four on December 21, 1940, with heart, lung, and liver disease from years of

excessive drinking and smoking (Hacht, 2007)

III The portrayals of the upper-class in The Great Gatsby

Social class is a critical theme explored in F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great

Gatsby Stereotypes and themes are used along with rich details to portray the

characters of the novel and their differences in social class The main characters of the novel were mostly of the upper social classes, however there are significant

differences between them, particularly their behaviours

1

Tom and Daisy Buchanan

Tom Buchanan is seen as uppermost class due to his family name and large

inheritance As a member of the upper-class, Fitzgerald has engaged some

stereotypes to describe this character For example, Tom is described to possess a hypocritical, snobbish, and specificially unlikable personality He believes that he can not be wrong; that everyone should settle with him, dedicated to him; and that

he should always get his way

Daisy Buchanan was nurtured in a traditional manner for a daughter of an

exceptionally wealthy, upper class family in the early 1900s She was taught to act

as though she was stupid, and to marry into a wealthy family to pursue her

American dream; the dream of not having a care in the world With her marriage to Tom Buchanan, she realized this dream and live carelessly “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Fitzgerald, 170)

2

Nick Carraway

Likewise, from his family name, Nick inherited his upper-class wealth Nick enjoyes his wealth just like Tom He says, “I bought a dozen volumes … and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to

unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew.” (Fitzgerald, 10) Contrary to Tom, Nick does not take as much for granted from possession of money He says “the house, a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month.” (Fitzgerald, 9) This indicates that, however similar the two men may be, their difference in social class is shown clearly in their lives

3 Gatsby

Jay Gatsby was formally James Gatz, born in North Dakota into a poor farming family, aspired from a young age to take advantage of the American Dream, to alter his name and advance his social status He is presented as a rich man,

aspirational, and presumptuous in his early thirties Despite throwing extravagant weekly parties with many attendees, but has no friends besides him; no one knows anything about him or how he became so rich, and he does not tend to share this information with anyone When Gatsby dies, at the end of the novel, there are just two people attending his funeral, Nick Carraway and his father This indicates the shallowness that Fitzgerald found in people and how Gatsby was admired for his wealth but the way that clearly no one cared about him sincerely This presents the idea that Gatsby was only accepted by the upper class because they enjoyed his parties, but that he was never fully acknowledged by them

Social class is a vital theme throughout the whole novel and is explained and discovered in a variety of ways Even in the song sung by Klipspringer class stereotypes are portrayed, “One thing’s sure and nothing’s surer; The rich get richer and the poor get – children.” (Fitzgerald, 92) This demonstrates how wealth and class are almost unperceivably tangled and how there are stereotypes about the ability each class has to generate change and live the American dream

IV The idea of American Dream

1 The formation of American Dream

The book The Great Gatsby, written by F Scott Fitzgerald is set in the context of the

Jazz Age of America in the 1920’s, where the end of the World War I brought a quite long period of peace and prosperity Fitzgerald was among one of the first to define the concept "American dream" according to critic Jeffrey Louis Decker, who noticed that the term "was not put into print until 1931." In that respect, The Great Gatsby's underlying narrative marks the birth of a myth, one that shaped the definition of

success for future American society

So, what is American Dream?

It was declared when the United States was born and became an independent nation

on July 4, 1776 The Declaration of Independence (US 1776) indicated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by

their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The American Dream is actually not portrayed thoroughly

by this statement but a promise that only in the United States can this idea have a chance to come true, for all those who have the courage to pursue it till the end and only in America do people have equal opportunity At the end of their national

anthem, Americans sing that their country is the land of the free and the home of the brave Everyone has the rights to make his or her own choice without the obstacles of their class, caste, religion or even race ethnicity That being said, life should be great, richer and be enjoyed to the fullest by everyone according to their opportunities and achievements

From the time of independence, America has been seen to become a land of

opportunity where good life can be accomplished no matter what social status but hard work and straight shooting Freedom of democracy is allowed thus everyone has a right to express his or her religion and moral beliefs The thought that equality was the in-thing is widespread American Dream ever since has been flourishing under the principle of freedom but nowadays, many things have changed in America It has been born from a nation of freedom and then moved to a nation of materialism From the start, one accomplished his leaving by hard-working which was considered to be an achievement of financial success but then people seem no longer look into the vision

of the future which includes time, sweat and ultimate success but instead they sit in their comfort waiting for it to come true Some even afraid that American values seem

to start to shaky

Nonetheless, Michael Hout, Professor of Sociology at New York University once said

"A lot of Americans think the U.S has more social mobility than other western

industrialized countries This (study using medians instead of averages that

underestimate the range and show fewer stark distinctions between the top and bottom tiers) makes it abundantly clear that we have less Your circumstances at birth—

specifically, what your parents do for a living—are an even bigger factor in how far you get in life than we had previously realized Generations of Americans considered

the United States to be a land of opportunity." (Hout, 2018) Some people believe that

in the U.S the degree to which one generation's success depends on their parents'

resources This opinion seems quite right in The Great Gatsby While the character

Gatsby didn’t have a prosperous background, he still managed to get rich but it was an unreliable manner from the illegal business, unlike the stable rich of the “old money” whose inheritance came from their parents

In the era when the book was written (1925), the US economy entered the golden age for the upper class From 1922 to 1929, stock incomes increased by 108 percent, corporate profits rose by 76 percent and wages rose by 33 percent Technological

advances and increased productivity have reduced the cost of products, making the economy grow rapidly

But its implications are enormous People are absorbed in enjoyment and forget their spiritual values, which leads to moral degradation All-night parties at Gatsby's place, dancing-girl, wine, smoke, jazz music,… All of this created a colorful picture and the sounds of a rich but suffocated view Moreover, these were also the time when

American women thought they were liberated They smoke, seek out instantaneous relationships and even affair - all considered as "fashionable" Those things alone are enough to show how much morality has been despised

2 The theme of American Dream in The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a classic written by the American writer F Scott Fitzgerald in the years 1918 - 1929 - the period when the US entered its flourishing development The author gave this era an ornate name: The Jazz age, because the jazz songs themselves somewhat describe reality - seductive but full of confusion, catchy but selective It appears at most of the upper-class parties However, the spirit that the author wants to deliver is not the flashy before the eyes but the obsession or the dream of money, love, fame and all of its downsides After all, the only thing left is oblivion

The American dream is viewed as idealism: a picture of a perfect life in which

everything one could ever dream of behind a white picket fence Life behind the fence

is fulfilled, peaceful, and, above all, moral Having that said, prosperity and success could be accomplished through hard work and straight shooting However, from the characters in The Great Gatsby, we can indicate that in order to reach social and financial success a person might have to sacrifice his ethics by telling lies, oppressing others, or breaking laws

Besides, the book illustrates the tragic cost for the American dream In the end, both Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson lose their lives in the pursuit of success, or at least the appearance of success For them, the American dream means being able to exchange their impoverished pasts for the good life Unfortunately for them, the good life is a masquerade

Jay Gatsby is a typical rich man who finds out the hard way that money and

materialistic things cannot fill an individual’s need for happiness The author

described the corruption of an individual’s American Dream through their blindly pursuit of wealth and materialistic belongings While the rest of the world, including Daisy, pursued overwhelming wealth, favoring the flashy and ephemeral delusions, Gatsby instead sought the American dream to bring back to Daisy Till the end, what

he has earned actually never belonged to him

V The corruption of American Dream

1 The dream of Jay Gatsby

Gatsby’s American dream includes his past identity, his obsession about love and his tragic death

1.1 From James Gatz to Jay Gatsby

The author F Scott Fitzgerald joined the army from 1917 to 1919 following the

propaganda about the ideals, glory and fairness of the military uniform His motive for becoming a soldier was initially the eagerness to develop military career However, it was soon broken by the fact that from the European battlefield to the American

reality, there came major differences causing his faith collapse: the military did not eliminate his background as well as social status and those who did not belong to the upper-class were still be looked down on or despised This frustration later motivated

him to create his most famous novel The Great Gatsby.

In the novel, originally named James Gatz, Jay Gatsby had an impoverished childhood

in rural North Dakota At the age of 17, James Gatz changed his name to Jay Gatsby and also during this time he met Dan Cody, a wealthy man who he saved from a destructive storm and ended up being employed by Cody directed him to reach his potential, orientated his future by teaching him the manners of the rich on the yacht

He was deeply ambitious and determined to be famed and successful However,

although Dan Cody intended to leave his asset to Gatsby, it ended up being taken by Cody's mistress Ella Kaye, leaving him with the knowledge and manners of the upper class, but owned no money to implement and back them up The past identity of Gatsby plays an important role in the formation of his American Dream In Chapter six, the truth about Gatsby’s past is revealed, uncovering the fact that he has not been the glorious and rich person we think he is now “James Gatz of North Dakota” is the true identity of Gatsby (Fitzgerald 98) With his “parents shiftless and unsuccessful”, young Gatz’s “imagination [has] never really accepted them as his parents at all” (98) Thus, “the Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, [springs] from his Platonic

conception of himself” accompanied by his belief of him being “a son of God” (98) Although Gatsby’s ambition was to be rich, his main motivation in achieving his property was his love for Daisy Buchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville before leaving for battle in World War I in 1917 From the beginning, Daisy’s aura of luxury, grace and charm made Gatsby immediately fell in love with her, so he lied to her about his background in order to convince her that he was good enough to take care of her as well as keeping up their romance Daisy promised to wait for him during the time he left for the war, but then married Tom Buchanan in

1919 Gatsby studied at Oxford after the war in an attempt to gain an education,

despised poverty and longed for wealth and sophistication but left after five months Gatsby gained his fortune through Meyer Wolfsheim, who helped him got into shady business such as bootlegging and gambling As a result, Gatsby accrued a large

amount of money in just 3 years After reaching a level of prosperity, he moved to West Egg, built an extravagant mansion and a Rolls Royce, and started throwing luxurious parties and forming a reputation, all with the ambition of meeting Daisy again Thereafter, an aspiring bond salesman named Nick Carraway, Daisy's second cousin, appeared as an element to help Gatsby come closer to his dream: Nick moved

in next door just as the novel begins Through that connection Gatsby had chances to reunite with Daisy and pursue the biggest dedication in his life: winning Daisy back His acquisition of money to join the elite group, his purchase of a gaudy mansion on West Egg, and his lavish weekly parties are all merely means to that end

At this point, readers can realize that the majority of what develop the character

Gatsby is deception The name Jay Gatsby is portrayed as a means for Gatsby to get rid of his impoverished background Although the new name can also be viewed as an ambition to reach a better life, join the upper-class or a new manner of expressing or reinvention of himself, we cannot deny the fact that from the from the first time they met, he lied to Daisy in order to maintain the romance with her In order words, his using camouflaged self with Daisy shown his insecurity, but also made him a liar from the beginning On the other hand, despite the moral values, Gatsby attended illegal business so that his individual’s selfish desire is fulfill He intended to win Daisy back and ready to be involved in an affair with a married-woman

1.2 Jay Gatsby – the biggest representative of the American Dream

Gatsby, first revealed to readers through the narrator Nick Carraway, is an extremely prosperous gentleman living in an over-the-top mansion

This character is directly affected by the disillusionment of an American dream, but as

an insider, he did not aware of his tragedy Fitzgerald allowed his character to become wealthy, but pursuing that rich and the passionate love by all means Gatsby's

disillusionment was brought about by the society in which full of people Nick called:

"a rotten crowd” and that Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch put together." Gatsby rushed to get rich to look forward to recognition by the upper class However,

he would never be accepted because at that time, "new money" is considered

ingloriously by the upper class The money they just have made is just an approach they use too merch into the upper class so as a consequence, they are despised

Despite his great efforts, Gatsby still faced loneliness as well as helplessness in

society In Gatsby's mansion in New York, he organized hundreds of high-class

parties but most of his guests were tasteless and empty Gatsby was obsessed with the love in the past with Daisy, but then she married the billionaire Tom Buchanan

Gatsby tried to get rich, entered the elite group and shown off his properties only to regain Daisy but in the end, he couldn’t However, his ambition was to return to that delightful moment when he put all of his hopes and dreams on Daisy back in

Louisville, and also to make that past moment his present It contemporarily means putting everything to its right direction, what he couldn't accomplish the first time by winning Daisy over

Gatsby's obsession with the past was made of the wish of taking control over his own life and over Daisy, as much as it was about his ideal love This search for control could be an expression of being born into a working-class family in America, with a lack of control over the direction of his own life Even after managing to get access to

a great amount of money, Gatsby still searched for control over his life one way or another Perhaps he assumed that by winning over Daisy, he can finally achieve each

of the dreams he ever imagined at as a young man His faith for his American Dream drove him to chase after glory as well as making him obsessed with his insatiable desire towards the future

As his relentless desire demonstrated, Gatsby had an incredible ability to transform his wishes and dreams into reality; at the beginning of the novel, his appearing to the reader made us thought that he just desired to appear to the world This talent for self-invention is what gives Gatsby his quality of “greatness”: indeed, the title “The Great Gatsby” is resemble to such vaudeville magicians as “The Great Houdini” and “The Great Blackstone,” suggesting that the persona of Jay Gatsby is a masterful illusion

(Auger, 2015).

Readers can indicate that all of Gatsby acts were to achieve just one purpose: he determined by all means that getting rich is a must to win his dream girl back Gatsby continued to throw lavish parties with the hope of getting attention from Daisy but failed It was not accomplished until he met Nick Carraway that he made a plan to ask Nick to invite Daisy to Nick's house for a small tea party without exposing to anyone about Gatsby’s attending As expected, Gatsby was reunited with his dream girl He then showed Daisy his huge possession, and after a moment of surprise, the two quickly cultivated affection

There’s a fact that Jay Gatsby’s American Dream is not typical wanting of wealth and success as so many others, instead it is a dream of reclaiming a lost love Gatsby surrounded himself by luxurious parties and strangers so-called friends who took advantage of his wealth and fame He did all of this with a purpose of not for himself but for a foolish love formed in the past with Daisy He did not make money through honest work but by shady backdoor deals that he made with other criminals However,