Achieving the American dream

Introduction

From the colonial era , the King of England used the American dream to promote immigration and settlement in North America. He praised the vast territory, synonymous with almost unlimited opportunities, as well as easy access to land, which was the aspiration of many farmers in the city. For the Puritan English, New England is idealized as the "promised land" where they could make a fresh start and build a new society, away from persecution in force in Europe.

The American Revolution advanced the idea of the American dream. In the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, the "pursuit of happiness" is one of the inalienable rights of man, next to freedom and equality. With the Industrial Revolution , many Americans had managed to get rich during the nineteenth century, with courage and entrepreneurship. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans left at that time the Old World to escape religious persecution (Jews of Eastern Europe), poverty (Italian) or starvation (Irish). Access to the vast western territories opened up opportunities for access to land.

Discussion

Fitzgerald portrays the disintegration of the "American Dream" during a time of prosperity never seen before and excess materialism (known as the "Roaring Twenties"). Fitzgerald describes the '20s as an era of social and moral decay, as indicated in the materialism, cynicism, greed and an empty pursuit of pleasure (Borosage & Heuvel). The extravagant parties that Gatsby held every Saturday night result in the eventual corruption of the American dream, while the thirst for money and pleasure surpassed more noble values. Moreover, at that then, the 18th Amendment in 1919 dictated the prohibition of alcohol sales. This prohibition created an underworld designed to satisfy a massive demand for smuggled alcohol for consumption by the rich and poor alike. emerged So smugglers and made millions of dollars through the illegal sale of alcohol.

On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a love story between a man (Gay Gatsby) and woman (Daisy Buchanan) (Borosage & Heuvel). However, the main theme of this novel is about an important symbolic meditation United States during the 1920's. It takes place during the summer of 1922 in Long Island, New York (Marsh).

To better understand the context in which Fitzgerald wrote his novel, it is important to consider the situation that crossed the United States at the time. At the end of World War II (1918), the young Americans who had fought in the war were disappointed. Moreover, the rise in the markets in the aftermath of war, led to a sudden and sustained increase in national wealth and materialism that emerged recently as people spend money and consume at unprecedented levels (Borosage & Heuvel). Anyone could make a fortune, however, scorned the new American aristocracy, wealthy industrialists and speculators. Consequently, it generated a social shock Fitzgferald geographically portrayed in his novel with the names of: East Egg (representing the aristocracy) and West Egg (new rich). The author presents these areas so deeply divided because of differences between the new rich and ...