ORAL PRESENTATION

THE GREAT GATSBY

THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM

The novel, The Great Gatsby, is a story of thwarted love between

a man and a woman but the main theme is much deeper.
Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed moral values
and corrupt people filled with selfishness and greed. This is
shown in the novel through the parties that Gatsby throws every
Saturday night. According to Fitzgerald, the original American
dream was about discovery, and the pursuit of happiness.
However money and relaxed social values have corrupted this
dream. Differences have also been created, not only between the
rich and the poor but between the ones with old money and the
ones with new money. Fitzgerald has used the symbolism of
place to show this as well. Another way in which corruption is
seen is how Gatsby had no trouble resorting to bad ways to earn
money to impress Daisy.
I would like to start by saying that Nick believed that Tom and
Daisy were morally corrupt. This can be seen when Nick
says,We shook hands and I started away. Just before I reached
the hedge I remembered something and turned around. Theyre
a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the
whole damn bunch put together." Nick says this to Gatsby, the
last time they meet. Fitzgerald here shows that even though he
earns all his money through wrong means, he is worth much
more than Daisy and Tom who were born with all the wealth.
He nodded sagely. And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a
while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always
come back, and in my heart I love her all the time." According to
Tom, it is okay for him to have affairs with other women as long as
he comes back to Daisy and that Daisy should trust him because

he loves her. Both these things show how morally corrupt the
upper class of such a society is. The people are not only morally
corrupt but selfish as well.
I was sure he'd start when he saw the newspapers, just as I was
sure a there'd be a wire from Daisy before noonbut neither a
wire nor Mr. Wolfsheim arrived; no one arrived except more police
and photographers and newspaper men.
This shows that Daisy could leave without even coming to
Gatsbys funeral, even though she is responsible for his death.
This is just pure selfishness. It is the same for all the people who
came to Gatsbys parties, none of them showed up. This just
shows how alone Gatsby truly was in such a corrupt society. This
novel gives a feel that in such a corrupt society, the poor will
never have what the wealthy do, no matter how much effort and
change is made. Gatsby is a prime example of this, there will
always be a James Gatz inside him. All this time, it is that James
Gatz inside him that is pushing him to achieve the great American
dream. The society while being corrupt had also created
differences between classes of people.
One way the author shows this is through the symbolism of place.
East Egg was the place where Tom and Daisy lived together. It
was for the people with old money. These people have been rich
for generations all together. Nick describes the West Egg as the
less fashionable of the two. The people living in West Egg were
the ones with new money. This is where Gatsby lived.
Tom also says, He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of sidestreet drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol
over the counter. Thats one of his little stunts. I picked him for a
bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasnt far wrong. This
just shows how there is a class difference among the ones with
old money and the nouveau riche.
"What about it?" said Gatsby politely. "I guess your friend Walter
Chase wasn't too proud to come in on it." Even though Tom is
trying to accuse Gatsby of doing something wrong, his friend
himself was a part of the deal. This shows Toms double

standards and how corrupt the society was. Many people in that
society wanted to achieve the great American dream.
But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he
was content to be alonehe stretched out his arms toward the
dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could
have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward
and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and
far away, that might have been the end of a dock. Gatsby also
wanted to achieve the dream. He was born in a poor family and
he only thought about the Great American dream in his childhood.
The green light is associated with that. It was Gatsbys inspiration
the unachievable dream. He worked hard, not in the right way
but he made money, bought all the things that he thought Daisy
liked and help parties every Saturday hoping to find her. Yet he
died without achieving anything. Gatsby was quite materialistic
according to me. He once described Daisys voice as, Her voice
is full of money It seems as if she herself is a prize for him.
Another way in which this novel displays corruption is the valley of
ashes. About halfway between West Egg and Ney York, the
motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a
quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate
area of land. The Valley of Ashes is like a no mans land situated
at the heart of the American society. The phrase, shrink away
implies that people are trying to ignore that place, as if it does not
exist. Nick goes on to describe it as, a fantastic farm where
ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque
gardens. The word fantastic gives us a feel as if it is a fantasy
which is not real. Ashes are connoted to death and funeral and it
is ironic that something organic and so full of life like wheat and
grotesque gardens is used to describe it. Also the alliteration on
fricative sounds in a fantastic farm and grotesque gardens, and
use of words like crumbling play an image in the readers minds
of a disgusting and foul place which is decaying . He also says,
Occasionally a line of gray cars crawl along an invisible track.
The grey cars refer to the industrial dump trucks that arrive every
day to dump the industrial waste; the description of these dump
trucks is just like somber cars at a funeral. The Valley of Ashes is
presented as a literal and metaphorical dumping ground which

also shows signs of corruption and adulteration in the Great

American Dream.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the author has done a very
good job in showing portraying the Great American Dream and
how all the people are thriving to achieve it. It doesnt matter to
them how they achieve, they just want to do it. This shows us the
state of the society and how corrupt it is. The Valley of Ashes has
played an important role in showing this corrupt society and also
in showing us the decline of The Great American dream. It is like
the Heart of the corrupted society. This novel also showed us the
different social classes of people and how the rich could get away
with anything using their power and influence but the poor
couldnt do it as they did not have the resources, yet again
referring to the corrupt society.