Great Gatsby - Corruption of the American Dream

This is probably the best essay about the American Dream/Great Gatsby. Email me if you are using the paper, I would just like to know if anyone uses these esssay, thanks. Enjoy
The American Dream can be interpreted by many people to mean many different things. Even with various definitions, to the majority of people, it is to be happy, wealthy and successful in life. Assumptions are often made that money always leads to happiness -- this is wrong. When you have an unlimited amount of money, you can always buy the things that satisfy your taste. These items will make you happy but only for a short amount of time; after that, the consumer becomes bored with having everything that he could possibly want. This is just one of the ways the characters in the novel are swallowed up by these misleading representations of the American Dream. The true meaning of the American Dream is lost by the characters in The Great Gatsby, and leads
them to the downfall of their life trying to obtain it's illusionary goals.
For Jay, in The Great Gatsby, the interpretation of the dream is that through
wealth and power, one can acquire happiness. To get this happiness, Jay must reach into the past and relive an old dream; to do thi

In the book, the characters distort the meaning of the American Dream through

many ways, including marriage. They become so materialistic that they are willing to do anything in order to get more material items. Generally, when people get married it is because they love one another, but in The Great Gatsby, the upper class' weddings are mainly for social purposes. This leads the greedy people to marry someone for status purposes only; which in turn, haunts them in the end through the adulterous acts of their spouse. The first time we come into contact with an adulterous act is when Jordan Baker informs Nick about Tom’s affair. She informs Nick that, “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (15). It is obvious that they are not truly in love but they are married because their social standings make them perfect for one another. Soon after that, Tom drives up to go see his mistress, taking Nick with him. Nick is surprised at what he sees, "The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford, which crouched, in a dim corner. The proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands on a piece of waste. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into

The American Dream was first recognized by the early settlers. They came here because they were being mistreated and not free from European powers, they saw America as the land of opportunity. They could finally live the life they wanted to through the American Dream; through family, freedom, wealth, and hard work. Through the years the citizens of America have corrupted this dream and turned it into something quite opposite of the original meaning -- greed. As was shown in The Great Gatsby, the characters always wanted more of something, no matter what it was or what they had to do to get it. With Gatsby, it was the illegal ways he obtained his money and for the purpose he was doing it. With Myrtle and Tom, it was the disrespect and misinterpreting the beauty of marriage with the hopes of getting more. Finally, with Daisy, it was how her shallowness, greed, and lack of morals allowed her to achieve great arrogance and materialistic views. The Great Gatsby illustrates how the pursuit for happiness through materialism cannot be successful without accompanying morality. Cut off from their Midwestern traditions and ethics, the characters in the novel live in a sort of sic