A lost Institution

In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald focuses on the corruption of the American Dream. By analyzing high society during the 1920s through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, the author reveals that the American Dream has transformed from a pure ideal of security into a convoluted scheme of materialistic power. In support of this message, Fitzgerald emphasizes the original aspects as well as the new aspects of the American Dream in his tragic story …

…American values. Gatsby and the other characters of his story act as vessels for the author's true message- the American Dream, once a pure and mighty ideal, has been buried and is pressed into the ground by the inhuman emptiness of money. The Great Gatsby is not a novel about the death of Jay Gatsby, rather, it is written in remembrance of an institution which once was, but is now gone and can never be.