Title:
CULTURAL VALUES AND THE MATERIAL IMPULSE: AN APPROACH TO F. SCOTT FITZGERALD'S THE GREAT GATSBY

Authors:
Larry Amin

Volume:1 Issue: 8

Abstract:
The American Dream that excludes inequality among people through individual endeavor and merit has faced varied human flaws after World War I. Equal opportunity, egalitarianism, inclusiveness and social mass progress have been replaced by cynicism, selfishness, sexism, racism, disappointment, and easy money. Should the principles of the Dream incite the use of corruption and fraudulous ways to reach a successful goal? Or should the upper class members prevent the other class from emerging in freedom and abide by the dream's principles? This article observes F. Scott Fitzgerald's depiction of the American characters in his novel The Great Gatsby. The partition of the characters of that novel into aristocrats and workers reveals the variation of the disruption of the American moral values due to increase in material. If the gap between the working class and the upper class keeps widening, the American Dream would keep fading.

Citation:

[Amin, Larry. "CULTURAL VALUES AND THE MATERIAL IMPULSE: AN APPROACH TO F. SCOTT FITZGERALD'S THE GREAT GATSBY." IJAH, vol. 1, no. 8, 2017, pp. 613-626. September.]