Jay Gatsby is a corruption of the American Dream because of the way he gets his money. The American Dream refers to the belief that all Americans have the opportunity, equal to everyone else's, to prosper and achieve success through their own hard work and ingenuity. It implies that this hard work is honest work and lawful work. Gatsby certainly does prosper as a result of his work, but it is hardly work that can...
Jay Gatsby is a corruption of the American Dream because of the way he gets his money. The American Dream refers to the belief that all Americans have the opportunity, equal to everyone else's, to prosper and achieve success through their own hard work and ingenuity. It implies that this hard work is honest work and lawful work. Gatsby certainly does prosper as a result of his work, but it is hardly work that can be called lawful or honest. He is breaking the law because the distribution of alcohol is illegal as a result of Prohibition, an era spanning from 1920 to 1933. The 18th Amendment made it illegal to sell beverages that had an alcohol content of higher than 2.75%. Because Gatsby is a bootlegger, his money has not been earned honestly or legally; he is a criminal. Due to the kind of work he does, he cannot be said to have achieved the American Dream, and the comparison of his kind of work to the kind of work the Dream requires is a corruption of that Dream.
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