The Great Gatsby, the Perverse American Dream

The American Dream is an ideology that through hard, honest work and determination, you can achieve success in The United States of America. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to the concept of The American Dream in a time just after World War 1 and he achieves this through many characters and the environment in which they live and interact in. The main character of the novel has often been characterized as a clear representation of The American Dream, which is a false statement for many concrete rationales. The fact that Gatsby accumulated his wealth from the bootlegging of alcohol at a time period where it was considered illegal; the true and main reason for Gatsby’s love of money was because it represents Diasy and the love they had.

Gatsby accumulated his wealth from bootlegging alcohol, which at the time of the novel was extremely illegal. Illegal acts often have greater reward then honest work, but with illegal acts there are severe consequences that usually proceed. “He and Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side street drugs stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him.” (Fitzgerald, 127) The concept of The American Dream can not be held acceptable when people find wealth in criminal acts like Gatsby did. The ideology is for hard working and honest people who have a dream to be successful and wealthy. Condoning criminal behavior would be a horrendous and immoral thing to do because it teaches society that we can do whatever we want as long as we gain some materialistic goods from it. In the process of all this criminal behavior Gatsby has kept alcohol on the streets for people to consume, which