The Great Gatsby Corruption Theme

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, has several themes throughout. Some include romance, and wealth. But those are just what one sees on the surface. The main, and most crucial theme in The Great Gatsby is; “The American Dream” or rather, the corruption of the American dream. Fitzgerald seems to focus a lot on this fake ruin of the American dream. Although, one must understand what the American dream is to grasp the book’s theme. The definition of the American dream is: that every citizen of the U.S. should be given the equal opportunity to attain success and prosperity through good and virtuous hard work, determination, and a pure desire for ambition. But in this novel it is the impure and corrupt version of the American dream that …show more content…
He came from a very poor family and rose from nothing, to a very successful and wealthy man but he did this through bad and illegal activities. He has the classic “rags to riches” tale. But to understand this, one must start from the beginning of his story. Which starts in the desolate farm lands of North Dakota. There lived a young boy, named James Gatz. He had never been satisfied with life growing up in the Midwest. Ever since he could remember, he had dreamed of leaving to go and get an education and to finding himself and become a successful individual. So a young Gatz of only about seventeen set out on the world. He attended school for a short time, but that didn’t work out for him. It was hard for him, because he had so many things he wanted to achieve and that was a lot of self expectations. At one point he was pretty hopeless, until one day he met a very wealth man, Dan Cody. This quote is from when Jay met this Mr. Cody and shows what Gatsby saw he wanted and what the American dream meant to him. “To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in our world”(Fitzgerald 100). As one can see from Gatsby’s words, he was very obsessed with the whole “image” of being rich. He wanted nothing more than to live in all of that luxury that came from being wealthy. James saw, and took the opportunity to help his new friend, this very affluent man, in return he promised Gatz a large amount of his wealth. This allowed Gatz the chance to become all that he ever wanted. That is when he then identified himself as Jay Gatsby. After becoming friends with this man Dan Cody, Jay then, fell in love with the life and leisure of being wealthy. Unfortunately, after the Mr. Cody passed away, Jay was cheated out of his inheritance. Jay then had to turn to other ways of becoming the
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