The pursuit of the American dream has been alive for generations. People from all over the world come to America for the chance to realize this legendary dream of freedom, opportunity, and “the whole American family.” However, in the 1920s, this dream began to take a different form. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby reveals what the American dream really meant during the Roaring Twenties. The Great Gatsby tells the story of wealthy Jay Gatsby and his dream of attaining the love of bride Daisy Buchanan. In this novel, Gatsby's dream of love is unmasked and vilified as a dream of materialistic things. Fitzgerald shows that each character truly only glorifies money, power, and social stature. In the 1920s, these things were the only things people dreamed of. The symbolism in The Great Gatsby illustrates how the American dream was corrupted in the 1920s. Fitzgerald has an incredible talent for creating symbols for things that might be overlooked by any reader, such as colors. Every color mentioned has a meaning even if it doesn't seem like it. White and green are the main colors mentioned in the novel. White can often be described as wholesome and innocent. However, in this novel, white actually represents the false purity or decency of some of these characters. Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy's, always wear something white. Daisy and Jordan both seem sweet and innocent at first, but deep down you see that it's just and they act and they're really carefree and selfish. Gatsby also wore white when he first met Daisy after five years in order to appear good and pure. The 1920s also resorted to this method of deception. Fads such as jazz, fashion and art all marked the 1920s...... middle of paper...... Gatsby's dream of winning Daisy embodied the American dream of the 1920s. Gatsby, like everyone else in the 1920s, only dreamed of a materialistic life and it didn't matter how that was achieved. Speaking of Gatsby, Nick says, "If it was true, he must have felt that he had lost the warm old world and had paid a high price for living too long with one dream." » (Fitzgerald 161). This quote explains that it is sad that a man had only one dream that he paid a high price for and never made it come true. Fitzgerald shows that in the 1920s, people had only one dream of power, whatever the cost, and ultimately it was never achieved due to the selfishness of their dream. Through Fitzgerald's symbolism, it is shown that the American dream of the 1920s was corrupt and collapsed. Work cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.