F. Scott Fitzgerald explores themes of wealth, social class, and the American Dream in his classic novel The Great Gatsby. The story follows Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, as he tries to win back his former love Daisy Buchanan, who is from old money. Fitzgerald critiques the culture of materialism in the 1920s and how the pursuit of wealth and status often leads to tragedy, as it does for Gatsby. The characters represent both those who acquired wealth recently, like Gatsby, and those born into wealth and status, like the Buchanans. Fitzgerald drew from his own experiences trying to achieve success and the American Dream to portray its hollowness in the novel.

1. ‘Buchanun’, ‘Gatsby’ and
Fitzgerald:Wealth and The American
Dream.
“That was always my experience-A poor boy in a rich town;a poor boy in a rich boy's school;a
poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton…However, I have never been able to forgive the rich
for being rich,and it has colored my entire life and Works”.
-Fitzgerald

2. ● Name : Rinkal Dangar
● Roll no : 18
● Enrollment no : 4069206420220007
● Paper name :The Twentieth Century Literature:1900 to World War-II
● Paper no : 106
● Paper code :22399
● Topic: ‘Buchanan’, ‘Gatsby’and Fitzgerald: Wealth and The American Dream
● Submitted to : Smt. S.B.Gardi, department of English M.K.B.U
● Dated on : 11/03/2023
● E-Mail : dangarrinkal0609@gmail.com
Academic Details

3. ● Fransis Scott Fitzgerald was an American author
of the 20th century.
● He was born on September 24,1896,St.Paul,
Minnesota and attended Princeton University.
● He captured the spirit of Jazz Age,a period of
culture and artistic Vitality of America during
1920s.
● Fitzgerald's personal life was marked by his
Tumultuous relationship with his wife,Zelda and
his struggles with Alcoholism.
● He was also known for his elegant and lyrical
prose style,which has been praised for its clarity
and Precision.
Introduction of an Author

4. ● The Great Gatsby is a Novel written by
F.Scott.Fitzgerald and first published in 1925.
● It is set in the summer of 1922 in the fictional
town of West Egg on long Island,New York.
● It tells the story of Jay Gatsby,a wealthy young
man who throws extravagant parties in the
hope of winning back his formal love, Daisy
Buchanan.
● Novel is considered a masterpiece of
American literature and a symbol of Roaring
Twenties.
Introduction of the Novel

5. ● Wife of Tom
Buchanan,
● Beloved of Gatsby.
Daisy Buchanan
‘Old Money’ and
Hypocritical
Person
Tom Buchanan
● A Self
Made Man.
● Born in the
North Dakota
Jay Gatsby
● Wife of George
Wilson, Mistress
of Tom
● Lives in the Valley
of Ashes
Myrtle Wilson
Characters

6. Wealth and the Social Status
● Importance of Wealth and Status is Constantly present in the novel.
● The significance of wealth and the effect that it has on Daisy, becomes
apparent as Gatsby makes his re-entry into Daisy's life.
● “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let mr.nobody from
nowhere make love to your wife”.
● Though Gatsby succeeds in acquiring wealth,he never accepted by upper
class(Old money people).
● Tom and Daisy -Old Money people and Buchanan is from New money.
● The only one who questions Gatsby’s alleged schooling and Background
is Tom Buchanan,who find it ridiculous that Gatsby would have attended

7. The American Dream
● “American Dream" was coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931, saying
that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with
opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of
social class or circumstances of birth.
● Fitzgerald specially critiques the American dream within the context of The
Roaring Twenties,a time when growing affluence and changing morals led
to a culture of materialism.
● The American dream is not to be a reality in the minds of man like
Gatsby,whom it destroys in their espousal and relentless pursuit of it,The
American ‘Dream’ turned in reality ‘A Nightmare’.

8. ● Both, Fitzgerald and ‘Gatsby’ Joined Army during the World War-I
and both fell in love with a woman at the locations they were
stationed.
● As ‘Gatsby’ became millionaire, Fitzgerald and Zelda were the
members of Newly rich class by the income of their writings.
● The Contributions Fitzgerald experienced and put into fiction
heighten the implications of the dream for individual lives.
● For Fitzgerald and ‘Gatsby', their love was the inspiration to
achieve wealth (American Dream).

9. A Dream, which caused Tragedy into lives…
● critics have noted that the ‘Waste Land’ of ‘Gatsby’, Fitzgerald may have had the
Valley of Hinnon in mind when he created the Valley of Ashes.
● “What business you are in ?”-Nick
“That's my affair”-Straight reply of Gatsby.
● “I was man divided,she wanted me to work too much for her and not enough for my
dream” -Fitzgerald.
● Fitzgerald confessed to his daughter in a bon scrapping passage,he compromised his
artist's dream by inching the very thing that inspired him-Romantic Love of Zelda.
● It took only three years to earn the money for the house for Gatsby.
● “I found out, what your ‘drug stores were”.
● Corruption done by Gatsby to reach at his dream and thought he defeated by Tom
Buchanan and Daisy.

10. Work Cited
● Callahan, John F. “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Evolving American Dream: The ‘Pursuit of
Happiness’ in Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon.” Twentieth Century
Literature, vol. 42, no. 3, 1996, pp. 374–95. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/441769.
Accessed 8 Mar. 2023.
● Fitzgerald, F., and Anne Daniel. The Great Gatsby,W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.
● FRIEDRICH, OTTO. “F. Scott Fitzgerald: Money, Money, Money.” The American Scholar,
vol. 29, no. 3, 1960, pp. 392–405. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41208658. Accessed
10 Mar. 2023.
● Pearson, Roger L. “Gatsby: False Prophet of the American Dream.” The English
Journal, vol. 59, no. 5, 1970, pp. 638–45. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/813939.
Accessed 10 Mar. 2023.
● Quirk, William J. "What F.Scott Fitzgerald's Tax Returns Reveal about His Life and
Times." The American Scholar, 1 Sept,2009, https://theamericanscholar.org/living -on-
500000-a-year/. Accessed 10 Mar,2023.
● Randall, John H. “Jay Gatsby’s Hidden Source of Wealth.” Modern Fiction Studies, vol.
13, no. 2, 1967, pp. 247–257. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26278584.

11. Thank You !