American Values ​​in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a novel that illustrates 1920s society and its associated beliefs, values, and dreams of the American population at that time. time. These beliefs, values ​​and dreams can be summarized in what is known as the “American Dream”; a dream of money, wealth, prosperity, and happiness that was supposed to accompany the booming economy and get-rich-quick schemes that constituted the essential underworld of upper-class American society. This underworld has infiltrated the upper echelons and created such moral decadence within society at large that it has paved the way for the ruin of dreams and dashing of hopes while they were confidently placed in the possibility of opportunities that could be seized by all. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the American dream and the “foul dust” or carelessness of a society that floats in the wake of that dream. By examining each character, their circumstances, and their ambitions, we can see that the American Dream was not limited to one social class or type of person, that it spanned the nation and was found in everyone. As narrator, the reader has access to Nick Carraway's thoughts and feelings more than those of any other character; but this same position also reduces the reader's effectiveness as a judge of character because he or she is presented in a biased manner relative to others. That said, it is clear that Nick suffers enormously from his experiences in New York. His respect for human decency is ruined and he leaves with his hopes dashed and his disgust at seeing how the materialism that is rampant in his social class is capable of ruining lives and dreams. Nick, like all the characters, believes in the American dream because even he moves east to work in the bond business - then a booming industry. Through the actions of his cousin Daisy, her husband Tom, and the beliefs of his love interest Jordan, Nick is finally aware of how the dreams and values ​​of all these people exceed their sense of reasonable behavior and how the generally society has ensured that their personality is affected in this way. The transformation between James Gatz and Jay Gatsby is an example of how people can transform themselves based on their ambition for wealth and prosperity. The use of illegal activities to acquire Gatsby's wealth is discussed in the book; it shows how the American dream circumvented moral revulsion and drove money-mad people into crime – thereby destroying the moral standing of the richest citizens. For Gatsby, his dream was symbolized by Daisy; Gatsby even says that his voice sounds like money, a direct correlation between Daisy and the wealth and happiness that Gatsby would be expected to enjoy if he could have married Daisy but could still enjoy if he had married her five years later. His pursuit of happiness with Daisy was the ultimate cause of Gatsby's degradation of morality and realistic dreams. This is because he had an unrealistic view of life and how he could recreate the past. His dreams had distorted reality to the point that when his rationality realized that the image of life and of Daisy did not coincide with the real version, his mind did not understand that perhaps the dream had receded to the point of no -back, therefore his dreams contributed to the devastating ending of The Great Gatsby. This difference between Gatsby's mental image and Daisy's real image was due to Daisy's incompleteness. His interpretation of the American dream included a fun-filled lifeand comfortable with money and influence. To do this, her marriage choices were limited to men with money, preferably with inherited money, the kind that comes with prestige. The reader can see that Daisy is a superficial character who views happiness more as a physical state than a mental state from the scene. When she talks about her daughter and what she said when she was born: "It's the best thing a girl can be in the world, a beautiful little idiot”; this shows how Daisy thinks about life and how happiness can be bought by not being aware of it and probably by having money and being cheated. The results of her dream and the methods she used to achieve her dream led to the unhappiness of her marriage. When she again tried to capture happiness while keeping her dream in front of her, it ended in the tragedy depicted in The Great Gatsby. If Daisy had actually been concerned about happiness, as was implied throughout the novel, then she would not have been as concerned about money as she obviously was - she would have waited for Gatsby to return from the war and would not have married Tom; a decision based on his thoughts about what his life should have been and a decision that cost him his happiness. The moral decadence and recklessness of the American dream is also accurately illustrated by Daisy in the situation of Myrtle's murder and her abandonment of Gatsby just before and after his death. The fact that she ran over Myrtle without stopping and didn't have the courage to tell Tom shows how much Daisy always thought of herself and her own comfort rather than safety, good -being and the feelings of others. Although Tom's interpretation of the American dream involves money, it is not his primary concern as it is for many other characters. His dream also concentrates power, acquired through the prestige associated with old money. His self-confidence and complete belief in his superiority is an example of how he views himself in comparison to all other people, especially those belonging to a lower social class. Tom's dream of power and superiority led to his moral decline which contributed to Tom ruining his marriage to Daisy and ultimately his wish to have a truly happy marriage. Not only did his lack of morality affect Daisy and her happiness, but it also promoted the situation of Gatsby and George's deaths, which was the ultimate example of how the effects of the American dream caused society to change from morality and to adopt actions harmful to society. general. Myrtle, as an almost co-conspirator with Tom, is responsible for the unhappiness of her own marriage to George and Tom's marriage to Daisy, but the latter would have already been unhappy because of Tom's former indiscretions. Her dream of wealth and membership in a social elite blinded her to the possibility that she could have tried to make her marriage to George work and thus achieve happiness, although this can be generally doubted because one can saying that a woman with personality and ambitions such as Myrtle could hardly have been satisfied with a "witless" man like George. Apparently, she married George because she thought he was a gentleman, something the social elite traditionally appreciate; but only if he is also rich enough to belong there in the first place. Because Myrtle's personality is so strong, it would indeed have been easy for her lifestyle aspirations to corrupt her values ​​and thus open the door to the ruin of her dreams. This ruin is in fact due to the man with whom she fell in love, Tom, and to what he represented: money, power and..