How and in what ways do the themes of dreams, wealth and time relate

to each other in the novel’s exploration of the idea of America?

‘The Great Gatsby’ can be described as a story of one man’s pursuit in obtaining
the girl he loves – and it is this determination, resolve and ‘his incorruptible dream’
(p.147) that deeply moves Nick, despite his uncertainties relating to Gatsby’s morals. He
manages to capture the core of Gatsby’s identity in a positive regard: ‘his heightened
sensitivity to the promises of life…an extraordinary gift for hope’ and a ‘romantic
readiness’ (p. 8). This extraordinary hope is essential to the idea of the American Dream,
which in itself explores the ideas of America.
Gatsby’s dream fundamentally revolves around Daisy, but it is obstructed due to
their respective social statuses. To impress her with his extravagant wealth, he resorts to
crime illustrating the limitless boundaries Gatsby is willing to cross in order to achieve
his dream and it demonstrates the extensive materialism that existed in the upper class of
American society in the 1920s. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is more than personal, it is a
passion that permeates his entire being as well as his self-image, and it is the depth of that
feeling which most likely intrigues Nick. His naïve response ‘Can’t repeat the past?…
Why of course you can!’ shows that time has not stopped for Gatsby. 1The repetition of
‘time-table’ (p. 60) reinforces the idea of the fixed ordering of time, despite the fact that
the narrative keeps moving backward to the past, which Gatsby is trying to recreate.
Gatsby’s desire to ‘repeat the past’ must inevitably be frustrated by time. In chapter 5, the
nature of Gatsby’s dream is highlighted. In fact, the poem ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ has
several parallels with Gatsby’s love for Daisy. In stanza XXXIV, ‘Porphyro’ is unable to
rouse Madeleine and wakes her with music. ‘Her eyes were open but she still held
beheld’, demonstrates the blurring of illusion and reality. The words ‘witless words’ and
‘looked so dreamingly’ suggests she is disoriented and confused. This is a direct link to
Gatsby love for Daisy, since she is an object of his longing and the creation of his
imagination, and by concentrating on this feature of her charm he is able to ignore reality
whereby she is a woman full of inconsistencies and flaws. As a dream figure, she can
remain perfect.
Gatsby’s meeting with Daisy at Nick’s cottage is set in a cool and still
atmosphere, a stark contrast to the warm and vibrant mood in Gatsby’s parties. The
‘increasing rain’ not only forewarns us on how the meeting may be like, but it adds to the
cold and dreariness of the atmosphere, which is no doubt, later reflected by the equally
negative emotions that the characters project. It does not exactly provide the perfect
romantic setting for the couple to reacquaint. However, this is perhaps what makes their
encounter all the more naturalistic. The element of water (rain) suggest a fresh start for
Daisy and Gatsby, and Fitzgerald swiftly changes the mood and atmosphere through Nick
as he enters back in the room to find that the awkwardness that was previously in the
atmosphere has diminished. This is reflected in the sudden change of the weather, ‘sun
shone again’, which emphasises the positive outcome. Fitzgerald repeatedly uses bright
colours to illustrate the happiness and joy portrayed between the couple, for example,
‘glowed’ and ‘twinkle bells of sunshine’. Seeing that Gatsby and Daisy are now more

1
Penguin, Critical Studies by Kathleen Parkinson, pg 33

1
comfortable in each other presences, Gatsby gives Daisy a tour of his mansion. 2The
central role of Gatsby’s house in his dream of Daisy becomes increasingly clear. It has to
prove her that he has attained her exclusive world of great wealth and now has a ‘real
right to touch her hand’ (p. 142). The repetition of ‘admired’ shows that Daisy is in the
state of awe at Gatsby’s wealth and possessions. This in turn pleases Gatsby. Fitzgerald
makes a rich use of colour for example, ‘sparkling odour of jonquils’, ‘plum blossoms’
and ‘pale gold odour’, which add vibrancy and life to the images, this can reflect on the
new life or chance that Gatsby and Daisy are given for a fresh start in their relationship.
However, the intensity of Gatsby’s emotion puts an immense pressure on Daisy. His
vibrant and sensuous shirts become a symbol to express his five years of devotion and
struggle. Despite her sweet naïve comment, ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen
such – such beautiful shirts before’, which make it seem she is crying out of joy, yet there
is the underlying tones of the real sadness in her sobs, which may be representing her
overwhelmed emotions.
The pattern of imagery of light, colour and the use of naturalistic dialogue all play
a tribute to the faithfulness with which Gatsby has held on to his dream at the expense of
rationality, the passing time and any moral awareness, and we see that right to the end of
the novel, his loyalty is maintained. As the chapter ends, Nick offers a perceptive reading
on the whole situation. He interprets a look on Gatsby’s face to indicate that perhaps he is
dissatisfied with the whole affair. Nick and Gatsby may have realised that once a dream
is achieved, life still must continue. We begin to question whether Gatsby was in love
with Daisy, or the idea of Daisy. His relentless pursuit of his dream has allowed him
many opportunities to construct different views in his head and to imagine her in a way
that she may not be in the present. As Gatsby peers into Daisy’s eyes and listens to her
enchanting voice, he forgets about everything and leaves his focus entirely on her,
‘Gatsby didn’t know me now at all’. We recognise he simply falls further in love, with
either Daisy, or the vision he has conjured of Daisy.
Nevertheless, Gatsby’s happiness is short-lived. Fitzgerald underlines the
importance of wealth associated with the American dream, with their wondrous
expectations along with the way people misused it. He overtly expresses the concerns
regarding the handling of money for example, during their day out Daisy, Tom, Nick,
Jordan and Gatsby all book a luxurious hotel suite and it is a clear example of how they
waste their money on such trivial occupations. It is also a waste of their time since they
could have just as well relaxed at Tom and Daisy’s house, without having to make such a
long journey. Gatsby exhibits his wealth solely to attract Daisy’s attention rather than
using it for other purposes such as investment or other business affairs that would in
effect make him more prosperous. He earns his money through illegal ways, and when he
sends a brand new dress for Lucille, it demonstrates how he uses his money to provide a
service or to avoid trouble. His anonymity and invisibility among his guests during his
parties once again emphasises his role as a provider rather than a proper, interactive host.
In a moral sense, ‘The Great Gatsby’ effectively points out the demoralisation of society
have corrupted the true vision of the American dream. 3President Clinton (42nd President
of the USA) claimed, ‘We need a new spirit of community…or the American dream will
continue to wither. Our destiny is bound up with the destiny of every other American.’

2
Penguin, Critical Studies by Kathleen Parkinson, pg 56
3
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/american_dream/

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The declination of the American dream is therefore particularly prevalent when society
itself is in decline as a community. When Nick’s father says, ‘all the people in this world
haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had,’ we realise he is referring to Nick’s
advantages of moral understanding that many of the rich people in West Egg and East
Egg lack, he is therefore inclined to ‘reserve all judgments’ towards them.
At the end of the novel, Fitzgerald creates a sense of utter hopelessness to prove
that the purity of the American dream is dead with the examples of Daisy’s baby,
Gatsby’s death, and Wilson’s suicide. Gatsby’s dream loses its substance as he slowly
realises the impracticability of repeating the past, and that it is nothing more than an
‘unreality of reality’. 4Society’s complete replacement of the American dream with the
materialism is pointed out as Nick and Gatsby discern the charm in Daisy’s voice, ‘That
was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible
charm that rose and fell in it…the golden girl…’ (p. 127). We are then forced to confront
Daisy’s true disposition and of what she represents. The dream Gatsby has been so
inexorably pursuing is ripped apart into dollar bills as we discover he has been pursuing
not love, but merely cold, hard money hidden behind the disguise of a human face. Just
as Americans have given America meaning through their dreams for their own lives,
5
Gatsby instils Daisy with a kind of idealised perfection that she neither deserves nor
possesses. Hence, his dream is stained by the unworthiness of what he pursues, just as the
American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the corruption lead by money and pleasure.
Furthermore, the American dream held value that only existed in a bygone era 1920s,
similarly, Gatsby longs to rebuild a vanished past – his time in Louisville with Daisy –
but is incapable of doing so. When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is
die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values have not
decayed.
Fitzgerald positions his characters to symbolise many different aspects of how the
American dream can be interpreted. The Declaration of Independence is a good indicator
of what American’s ideals are and it initially attracted little attention after the American
Revolution. However, its importance increased over the years, particularly towards one
section of the declaration relating to human rights: 6‘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 historian Joseph Ellis described these words as 7‘the most potent and
consequential words in American history’ which came to represent an ideal for what
America should strive for. However, society in the 1920s have undermined the product of
hard work in the strife to succeed, as we see through the eyes of Nick, Fitzgerald reveals
the transformation of the American dream from a pure ideal of security to a convoluted
scheme of materialistic power. He highlights this difference by embodying the purest
characteristic of the American Dream – everlasting hope – inside of Gatsby, and
contrasting it against the senseless actions of other characters, especially the people who
attend Gatsby’s parties.

4
Class Notes: Langley Grammar School English Department, Student’s Guide on ‘The Great Gatsby’
5
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/themes.html
6
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
7
Ellis, American Creation, 55–56

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 Characters such as Daisy and Myrtle also have dreams but are unable to strive for
them due to the social expectations and pressures. Myrtle desires Tom because of his
bulky masculinity and his social style, and in a way, her sexuality is a counterpart of
Gatsby’s romantic passion for Daisy. The difference between the two women, is that
Daisy’s dream is obtainable and it holds a substantial reality whereas Myrtle can only
dream of what she truly wants. She shouts ‘Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!’ and this not only
illustrates her immature behaviour but her feelings of frustrations and envy towards
Daisy. She wants what she has, yet the irony here is that Daisy wants what Tom gives
Myrtle – attention. Before Gatsby made his appearance, we see that Daisy feels slightly
neglected by him and wishes more of his attention, whereas Myrtle desires his enormous
wealth and his social power. Daisy cannot have both Gatsby and Tom. She is torn
between the responses to Gatsby’s romantic vision of herself and Tom’s materialistic
evaluation of her, expressed by the ‘string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars’ (p. 74), which was his wedding gift. Daisy could not wait for Gatsby to
return from the war, romantic possibility was not enough for her. Unlike Daisy, Myrtle
knows what she wants – Tom, and is not in the slightest remorseful at the idea of
betraying or leaving George. She does not have an inner conflict, as Daisy seems to have.
Myrtle’s pretentious display is a symbolism of what she truly wants to be, whereas when
Daisy puts on an ostentatious appearance only because she has to. The fact that Daisy and
Myrtle both become unfaithful to their husbands, the possibility that Daisy only loves the
way Gatsby loves her – not necessarily him, and Gatsby only being in love with an
illusion of Daisy that he has created suggests that characters do not truly know what they
want and that their life remains unsatisfactory and empty. Tom and Daisy exemplifies
this as Nick observes, ‘they weren’t happy…and yet they weren’t unhappy either.’
Time is a central concept to the narration of the novel; Fitzgerald deliberately sets
the novel in an era that is lacking in moral values and human altruism towards
inspirational endeavours. America was one of the victors of the World War One, and it
began to rise in international power with substantial population and industrial growth. It
enjoyed its great prosperity during the 1920s, however a more acquisitive type of society
began to develop, which effectively is summarised in Lucille’s comment ‘I never care
what I do, so I always have a good time.’ 8Fitzgerald identified other American
characteristics of the 1920s in an article called ‘Echoes of the Jazz Age’ (1931): ‘We
were the most powerful nation. Who could tell us any longer what was fashionable and
what was fun?....This was the generation whose girls dramatised themselves as flappers,
the generation that corrupted its elders and eventually overreached itself less through lack
of taste. That was the peak of the younger generation, for though the Jazz age continued,
it became less and les an affair of youth…A whole race going hedonistic, deciding on
pleasure… It is associated with a state of nervous stimulation, not unlike that of big cities
behind the lines of war… In any case, the Jazz Age now raved along under its own
power, served by great filling stations full of money… It was borrowed time anyhow –.’
The metaphorical use of ‘filling stations full of money’ and ‘borrowed time’ reflects on
some of the key issues of the novel that characterised America. An effective example is
the way Fitzgerald portrays motor cars, which became a newly established feature of
American life by the early 1920s. It symbolised the new freedom and affluence for

8
Quotes by Robert H. Fossum and John K. Roth in The American Dream, British Association for American
Studies, 1981, p. 106, from James F. Adams, The Epic of America

4
American citizens, as well as representing the people’s carelessness, which lead to
destruction and death. When Daisy does not confess to her ‘car accident’ but simply
returns to Tom so she feels protected we feel utter disappointment and shock at her lack
of responsibility for her devastating mistake, and we are forced to view her in an
inauspicious manner. She lives in East Egg, the part that represents inherited wealth and
power in which the aristocratic stick to traditions and formalities. In contrast to the
vulgarity and formlessness of West Egg, East Egg conserves style and elegance, yet still
proves to be careless and inconsiderate. In the end, Nick criticises Tom and Daisy, ‘They
were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then
retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness’ (p. 170). This is further
displayed as Tom and Daisy run away rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral. We may
understand why Tom did not attend, but we certainly expected more from Daisy
considering Gatsby was her lover, even if it was for a short period. Gatsby, whose wealth
derives from criminal activity, has a true and passionate heart, loyal to his aspirations and
possesses the positive traits of what the true American dream represents. It is ironic and
tragic that it leads to his death in the end, even more so when we know he is taking the
blame for Myrtle’s death, not allowing any possible harm towards Daisy.
On the other hand, people like Wolfshiem and the Buchanans that embody the
corrupted qualities such as indecisiveness and selfishness escape their problems and
fears. Rather than caring about the bond they shared with Gatsby, they prefer to remove
themselves from the unfortunate incident to prevent any suspicions of the event that
might be associated with them. This truly underlines how materialistic and callous
society was during 1920s America and further highlights the death of the American
dream. Moral chaos destroyed faith, greed undermined hard work, and fear overrode
passion. In some respect, the American dream still continues to exist in 21st century of
America, as the recently new president Barack Obama stated in one of his speeches, 9‘…
we have a responsibility to make sure that our young people can reach a little further and
rise a little higher than we did….It’s time to reclaim the American dream’. The element
of responsibility and concern for the future generation shows people still believe in the
true ideals of the American dream, and it is still recognised in today’s society. Gatsby had
‘believed in the green light’ (p. 171) right to the point of his death. Even if his dream was
unattainable, he lived his life as if it would come true. This strong will power to believe is
the subtle basis behind the idea of the American dream, and perhaps what truly promotes
the values of America, Nick captures this as he say, ‘tomorrow we will run faster, stretch
out our arms further’ indicating that we will always continue to increase our desires and
aspirations in the future.

WORD COUNT: 2918

9
Barack Obama: Reclaiming the American Dream:
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_obama2_03-02-08_GE95U43_v10.39c783b.html