yrtle Wilson and the American Dream
I will be discussing Myrtle Wilson, starting from the lowest of the low: the Valley of Ashes and her destructive journey in striving for the American dream.
Myrtle saw the not only the elitist but married Tom Buchannan as her gateway in acquiring the American dream, to obtain Tom entirely as her own she would then in theory achieve the American dream. However we know this to be a fallacy. Tom, because of their differentiating social classes could never be with her, at least not publicly. To him Myrtle was a shameful secret at his disposal; she was not highly valued by Tom because of her geographical location which was a representation of the lack of wealth and class in which she acquired. This is precisely why myrtle could never climb the social ladder with Tom and live out her dream.
Despite this cold hard truth myrtle was clearly willing to go to great lengths by committing immoral acts to live out the American dream. These immoral acts include cheating on her husband, George Wilson and interceding into another marriage, Daisy and Tom Buchanan or as Tom would like to say “sneering on family institution.“ This shows the corruption in this ideology of living out the American dream. Unlike Tom, George never physically abused Myrtle until he found out about her affair, in contrast to Tom whom beat her when she simply uttered his wife’s name. This also displays myrtles deep longing for this corrupted dream. That in a time of empowerment for women she was allowing herself to be abused in order to achieve her aspirations to live out this dream. Myrtle is an example of how this perfect vision can corrupt people, can cause one to venture away from their moral compass resulting in radical and in just actions.
Myrtle played a childish role in a game of “house“ in her New York flat purchased by Tom. She believed it to be a piece of the American dream. However we know this to be situational irony as in reality she was being...