The characters in The Great Gatsby illustrate that, by the 1920’s, the American Dream is deteriorating. Through symbolism, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows that the lost generation brought with it the deterioration of the American Dream. Immigrants from all over the world, at the beginning of the twentieth century, came to America with the hopes of establishing new lives different from the way they lived in Europe and other parts of the world. America was that …showed first 75 words of 474 total…

…showed last 75 words of 474 total…young boy, Gatsby imagines unrealistic fantasies and dreams, a trait that remains with him until the day he dies. “Get rich quick,” the motto and ideas of Americans in the 1920’s shows that the ideas about working and money had shifted. Before the 1920’s, it was ideal to work hard to earn money. But in the 1920’s people wanted quick money. They wanted to do the least amount of work for the most money possible.