The American Dream as defined by the Declaration of Independence expresses the idea that all men are created equal and each person has the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the story The Great Gatsby the example of the American Dream is heavily corrupted by numerous characters in the book. First and most obvious is Mr. James Gatsby. He corrupted the view of an American Dream by rising to the top, becoming rich and powerful, in so doing he proved that money cannot buy happiness. Even when he had it all he was still not content. Another person who showed corruption of the American dream was Tom Buchanan. He walked all over people throughout the entire book because he was so cocky with all his money and all his strength that he just bossed people around and treated everyone with no respect. Daisy Buchanan was also an example of a corrupted American dream. She married rich Tom and just acted like she was so much better than everyone else.
In the beginning of the story the first character that we meet that is corrupted is Tom. He is described to have been a football star in his glory days. Thirty years later he is rich and is married to Daisy. Even though he is married he has another woman behind Daisy, Tom pushes everyone around and acts like he’s more of a man than everyone. He shows very little respect to anyone except himself. Later in the book he punches out one of the guests of his party and even later he set up Gatsby with the murder of Mrtyle. Throughout the story he never gets any more noble or any more respectable. He shows how with all the money you get it doesn’t give you a sense of triumph or a sense of respect for hard work, all it gave him was the urge to be a dick. No one really likes him.
The second person we meet is Daisy Buchanan who is married to Tom. She’s better than Tom in the sense that she doesn’t think that she is better than everyone else. She seems more like the kind of girl that uses her qualities to get what she wants out of people. When we first meet her she is laying on a table in a seductive fashion when she greets Nick. She isn’t exactly completely content and knows that her husband is cheating on her and still does nothing. Later in the book she and Gatsby meet again and they rekindle their relationship, she plays him and makes him completely fall for her. In the end of that she chooses Tom over him. She chose Tom knowing that he cheated on her numerous times. With all the money that she and Tom have she has no need for a good husband she can just get whatever she wants with the money. She buys whatever she wants.
Gatsby is a perfect example of corruption of the American dream. At the beginning of the book, not much is known about this “Great” Gatsby. All that is known is that he throws extravagant parties that are widely renown which attract people from all over different places. Some travel for hours to go to these parties that are held every Saturday at his enormous mansion. Sounds odd but reasonable right? Nick attends one of the parties and he gets the pleasure of meeting the one and only Gatsby. The two of them become friends, and later in the book we discover that the reason for Gatsby’s purpose of everything is to try to win over Daisy. He only has these parties so he can get Daisy’s attention. All the luxuries that he buys and shows off are because he thinks it will get Daisy to like him more. The location of his mansion is directly across a small body of water from where Daisy lives. Doing all this he seems like he would be pretty smooth but he abuses his money. He went from a man who had everything and lost is all because he got played by a little girl. He had very little respect for hard work and made his money off of the organized crime industry, or so everyone says. He sells alcohol at his parties and just buys useless things to wave around his money then shows is off to the masses. In the American Dream he has everything a man could want but has no happiness. He shows that the hard working people out there can easily be beaten by crimes. He shows that honesty wont get you anywhere and the only way to the top is by breaking the law. Even after everything he still never gets what he was always after, Daisy. By the end of his story they found his corpse floating in his pool and his killer dead beside him.
All these rich and powerful people, you would think that the all would have worked really hard to get where they are. You would think they would have respect for those that they see working harder than them and not making the money. The truth of the matter is that they see them as less than them. With all their money it doesn’t buy them happiness, just an over sense of pride.
The American Dream grants people the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t see people that are supposed to have the high life with what the American dream shows. All it shows is materialistic prideful people. If thats what the American Dream grants us then I don’t want it.
