pg.25) Gatsby’s goal gives him a purpose in life and sets him apart from the rest of the upper class. He is constantly striving to reach Daisy; from the moment he is seen reaching towards her house in East Egg to the final days of is life, patiently waiting outside Daisy’s house for hours when she has already decided to abandon her affair with him. “Gatsby is distinguished as a man who retains some of the purest traits of the old dream, but loses them by attempting to reach his goals by wearing the dream’s modern face.”(Lehan, pg.95) “Fitzgerald attributes the depravity of the modern dream to wealth, privilege, and the void of humanity that those aspects create.”(Website) Money is clearly identified as the central proponent of the dream’s destruction; it becomes easily entangled with hope and success, inevitably replacing their places in the American Dream with materialism. This replacement is evident in Gatsby’s use of illegal practices and underground connection to attain his enormous fortune. His ostentatious parties, boundless mansion, and lavish clothing are all signs of his unknowing corruption. His ability to evade the law, demonstrated when his traffic violation is ignoring by a police officer, reveals his of status and privilege to get what he needs. Although Gatsby’s rise to prominence is symbolic of the nature of the new dream, the most odious qualities of that dream are evident in Daisy and Tom Buchanan, who live their lives with no hopes and no regrets because the true foundation of their characters is their opulence. While Daisy is never heard form again after Gatsby’s rival responds: “ I told him the truth…what if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him” (Fitzgerald, pg.187). Tom admits to the fact that he is responsible for Gatsby’s murder and Wilson’s suicide, but continues to claim innocence because he has never kn...
