Essay - The Great Gatsby: A World of Illusion the 1920s Were...

The Great Gatsby: A World of Illusion

The 1920s were a time of change for **********. The war was over and America was ready for some fun. The poor lived in a world of little opportunity and destitution, while the rich threw lavish parties in exquisite gardens. *****se ***** ***** portrayed in magazines and the lives ***** the rich ***** famous were everywhere. These glimpses into ***** ***** of the rich provided food for fantasy in ***** minds of those less *****tunate. They wanted to be like them and to have all of the material things that symbolized their fortune in life. However, behind this public image of grandeur was a corrupt world built on deception and deceit. Greed was the master of destiny. The contrast between the "American Dream" and reality is the central ********** of the ***** Gatsby. ***** represented the ideals and attitudes of an era. He st*****ds for ideals common to humanity, and is not limited to the scope and ***** period of the novel. In th***** way, The Great Gatsby should be classified as a modern myth, not simply as a piece of period fiction. The following will demonstrate that the Great Gatsby has all ***** the elements commonly found in classical mythology ***** will use ***** theme of illusion to support this thesis.

*****, people aspire ***** be something that they are not. They may see another person, whom they admire, or a famous public figure and wish that ***** were like them. Sometimes they may do ***** *****cause they ***** unhappy in their own existence, or because ***** want more. Little girls dream of being Princesses and little boys of being Kings. Human *****s of gr*****eur have remained the same since ***** beginning ***** time. However, if one actually were to explore the private lives of public *****s, they would find that ***** lives are as filled with problems as our own, and at *****s may even be worse. Princess Diana ***** a good example of this. When you think of Lady Diana, ***** might picture the image ***** a beautiful princess riding a***** with her prince in the royal carriage ***** live happily ever after. But history would reveal that the illusion was quite different from the reality. *****r marriage to Prince Charles was ***** with unhappiness, ***** rumors of an affair. Yet, ***** still appe*****d as the happy storybook couple and were able to keep up this "***** face" for quite some time, undisc*****ed. ***** ***** same way, the Great Gatsby is a critical look at ***** "American Dream" ***** the corruption and ***** ***** lies behind the scenes. It portrays the American Dream as an *****, behind which lies corruption and greed.

In her essay, Scott Fitzgerald's Criticism of America, Marius Bewley, describes ***** like *****, "a romantic baptism of desire for a ***** that stubbornly remains out ***** his sight" (*****, in Mizener, p. 127). Gatsby represents ***** dreams and ********** that are always just ***** of reach, yet