.. What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him'" (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 known guilt nor shame as a member of the established elite. Through Nick, Fitzgerald pinpoints the effect of the modern dream on the upper class, thus condemning an entire people and its revered society: "It couldn't forgive him or like him but I saw what he had done was, to him, entirely justified... They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made... " (pg 187) Nick realizes that Tom and Daisy represent a class of heartless citizens who have attained success at the cost of dehumanization. Their vast wealth blocks out all inspiration and all true emotion, resulting in a void of apathy buttressed by status and power. At the end of the novel, Fitzgerald creates a sense of utter hopelessness to prove that the purity of the American Dream is dead with the examples Daisy's baby, Gatsby's death, and Wilson's suicide. The first hint of this tragic loss is the introduction of the Buchanans' daughter, whom Daisy refers to as "Bles-sed pre-cious." When the girl is brought into the Buchanans' salon, Nick observes an obvious disturbance in Gatsby's attitude, thinking, "Gatsby and I in turn [lean] down and [take] the small reluctant hand. Afterwards he [keeps] looking at the child with surprise. I don't think he [has] ever really believed in its existence before" (pg 123). Daisy then calls her child an "absolute little dream," crushing all hopes Gatsby has of truly recreating the past. Society's complete replacement of the American Dream with materialism is pointed out moments later, when Nick and Gatsby attempt to discern the charm in Daisy's voi...
