Fulfillment and Falsity in The Great Gatsby and World's Fair Anna Gibbs 11th Grade

‘The American Dream’ is an ideal which states that every man, woman and child should have equal opportunity to be prosperous and achieve the highest possible goals; this principle is supported by the United States Declaration of Independence, which states that ‘all men are created equal’, thus supporting the idea that all American citizens should have identical chance to search for fulfillment within their own lives regardless of social standing, wealth, or gender. Even as men of two very different eras, novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald and E.L. Doctorow were both drawn to this fundamental social principle. Despite major differences in approach, the concept of America and the search for fulfillment are linked together in both The Great Gatsby and World’s Fair.

Fitzgerald’s 1920’s American novel presents a society where materialism has replaced God in the pursuit of fulfillment; yellow is the color of gold, and as such the color is repeatedly used to symbolize conspicuous expenditure and is commonly associated with characters such as Gatsby. One example of this material wealth can be read in the form of Gatsby’s car – Nick uses the negative adjective ‘monstrous’ to describe the yellow vehicle, and adds that it appears ‘swollen’, a...