The Great Gatsby and the American Dream

The main theme in both stories The Great Gatsby and A Continuing Journey is the decay of the American Dream. Both authors Archibald MacLeish and F. Scott Fitzgerald show in their stories that the modern society is taking over and replacing the American Dream with corruption and bare materialism. MacLeish believes that a genuine American person is “a restless man, a great builder and maker and shaper, a man delighting in size and height and …

…James Gatz the decline of the American values. The characters in this story serve as the parts of the author’s bigger picture: the American Dream. Gatsby is the ideal that is buried by the lusting-for-money society. The Great Gatsby is not about James Gatz, but about the America itself. Both authors suggest that people should learn how to deal with the society, but not get caught up in it because “…the time is short. ”