The twentieth century in the United States was a time of prosperity, frantic pursuit of wealth and success, and at the same time a decline of idealism, which has no place in a society dominated by money, business, and cold pragmatism. Many intellectuals have become disillusioned with America's 20s with its cult of big business. Acute social criticism is inherent in the works of the best American writers of the time. Many prominent writers (such as Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway) felt so alienated from their country and society that they preferred to live abroad. The writers portrayed the disappointment of society 'without ideals and hope.'
In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald brings to the fore the phenomenon of the 'American Dream', which is one of the fundamental concepts of all American history. In the image of the main character Jay Gatsby, the writer has simultaneously achieved remarkable harmony in portraying the allure of the dream and its inevitable collapse. The main motives of the work - the juxtaposition of immense material wealth and spiritual devastation of those who own them. F.S. Fitzgerald is trying to prove that the 'American Dream' is tragic because its problems are insoluble. He unmasks this popular social-ethical myth of the success of one and all, the ease of the 'way up' in American bourgeois society. The ideal image of the 'American Dream' dims and then distorts. The perception of personality in the light of the national ideal is also distorted. The thirst for success, the social connection is possessed by man, but she, like the 'great' Gatsby, believes in the illusion to the end.
The American Dream is not consciously owned by Jay Gatsby. The rules he lives on from a young age are a kind of code of conduct for a determined person who believes in a dream. Such a person is endowed with diligence, thrift, sober calculation, that is, all those qualities that help to succeed in life, his own example to prove that anyone can achieve anything he wants.
The fate of the Gatsby ironically overstates the medieval quest for the Holy Grail. However, Gatsby's journeys and exploits lead to a tragic outcome. A native of North Dakota, the son of poor, poor farmers, he decides to devote his life to the pursuit of wealth, worldly glory and Desi's heart.
Turning from the ordinary James Getz to a prosperous businessman with a supposedly Oxford education, Gatsby comes to New York. There, his relentless worship of wealth quickly brings success, the expression of which is a villa-palace in a prestigious area of Long Island and luxurious parties for local celebrities.
Naïvely dreaming of becoming the legend of the strongest in this world, he leaves behind an aura of demonic mystery. It is no coincidence that many of Gatsby's acquaintances blossom about him. It is not known to anyone that all these broad gestures of the eccentric rich man pursue the sole purpose of attracting Desi's attention. In the end, Gatsby pursues his primary goal of life and secretly seizes Desi, just as he has acquired a fashionable wardrobe, an elegant car and a luxury villa on the coast. However, the finale of Getsby's rapid-and-ephemeral take on wealth and happiness is senseless and tragic: he is killed by his mistress, Tom Buchanan.
The tragedy of Gatsby's life is that he was stranger to the class he dreamed of and tried to join. Gatsby is doomed to loneliness. He was lonely in his life when, abandoned by his guests, stood on the beach in the evenings and stared sadly into the distant green light in the Buchanan's house. And just as lonely he was after death: none of countless friends and acquaintances - including the 'beautiful lady - did not come to take him the last way.
The image of 'the great Gatsby' is drawn by the author with sincere sympathy, but at the same time with a fair amount of irony. Gatsby, the American 'hero of our time', the so-called 'age of jazz', a lightly fun, but short-lived post-war prosperity of America. Gatsby, as a type of 'age of jazz', embodies the dreamy idealism of poor provinces and the inevitable collapse of their dreams after a cruel encounter with ruthless reality. Gatsby is 'great' because it is typical of American mythology of the 1920s. 'Man-Who-Made-Him-Made.' But its 'grandeur' has parody properties. Inside, he remained a plebeian, and his craving for sophisticated aristocracy turned only to a love of 'pompous, vulgar, and tattered beauty.'
