The United States of America are commonly known as as the land of opportunity. The ethos of the country is what we refer to as the “American dream”; a concept based on egalitarianism, which states that every American citizen has the opportunity to live a successful and happy life – get a good degree and a good job, buy propertry, get married and have children - provided they work hard. The “American dream” has been a recurring theme in literature since the late nineteenth century. Writers such as John Steinbeck and F.S. Fitzgerald are both very famous for giving their interpretation and thoughts on this concept on which the entire American society rests. The release of The Great Gatsby, by F.S. Fitzgerald is a very good example of the dream in literature, it is a “social commentary on the corrupt and disillusioning effects that materialism can have on members of society”.1 Jay Gatsby, the main protagosnist of the novel, has dream; he loves Daisy, and the only wait to get her back – she told J. Gatsby she would wait for him to come back from war, but she did not and married Tom instead – is to show her that he has managed to become an important figure whose reputation precedes him; the only trouble is that J. Gatsby does not see that attaining wealth and power does not equal happiness.
F.S. Fitzgerald's novel has been adapted for film five times and after watching all the trailers and video clips of the movie adaptations of The Great Gatsby, it becomes evident that they all have a rather similar approach to the American dream: using corruption is an easy way to achieve the dream, but in doing so, it all becomes an illusion – a « pertfect life » that revolves around secrets and lies.
Therefore, the objective of this essay is to understand how the bits and pieces of the five movies render the illusion of the American dream. To do so, I will compare and contrast the different Hollywood narratives focusing essentially on some aspects of the dream that are...