James Gatz was a small town boy with a big dream, a dream of escaping his current circumstances and making a name for himself. He was willing to work hard and passionately to achieve the original American dream. Yet as this young boy grew up, just like America did, something changed. When the United States became older, the original American dream was killed, just like James Gatz died the second he approached Cody's boat. With the death of an original dream and a boy, a man, considered great by a corrupt society bent on enriching itself, is born, along with a new dream to have only the best. Although this new man, now Jay Gatsby, is viewed through Nick Carraway's critical, prismatic eyes as the son of God, it is clear that Nick sees things in a light refracted by society and that Jay's true integrity Gatsby is not exceptional. Nick Carraway's eyes are compared to a prism because he only sees a very small part of what is actually happening; society reduced Nick's specter by only seeing things the way it had led him to see them. According to society's beliefs and guidelines, Gatsby is great, and Nick certainly agrees because he sees no other way out. However, behind the lies lies the truth. The human eye is only able to see a very small part of the light spectrum. When light passes through a prism, it is simplified into the only colors we can see. The lights refracted by the prisms are shades of yellow, red, blue and green. Throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, colors are used to help the reader discover truth and add meaning. Yellow - which is the color of the car, the tie, the windows and even his ultimate goal which he calls the golden girl - could represent wealth, horn...... middle of paper . ..... easily across its blue lawn. The driver is an illusion because he is not rich and rich people don't want to see poor people, which is a recurring theme that appears when Myrtle and her husband are not really introduced. So much blue surrounds Gatsby because he represents the corrupted American dream. He was originally a good person, this self-made man, but he now only seeks to have the best and to be the best. Gatsby is not great, but to society he appears great. He is the corrupt American dream that everyone has bought into. The true American dream no longer exists. We are raised to believe that the rich are good and the poor are bad. F. Scott Fitzgerald gave all these hints that lead to the corruption of the American people as a whole. He realized before many others that our perception of the rich and our aspirations to be like them are not part of the American dream..