All of _The Great Gatsby_'s characters are chasing their version of the American Dream - the idea that they will be able to transcend themselves. Whether that is through love, social position, class, or simple wealth.

**TL;DR: _The Great Gatsby_ is an analysis of the unattainability of the American Dream** _The Great Gatsby_ is indeed an analysis of the American Dream, but rather than praising and idealizing this ideology, F. Scott Fitzgerald critiques the unattainability of America's cultural ideal. As [Roger L. Pearson] (https://www.jstor.org/stable/813939?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents) states, the American Dream is 'the belief that every man, whatever his origins, may pursue and attain his chosen goals, be they political, monetary, or social'. Upon first reading, the book does encapsulate this general ideology: Jay Gatsby is a man who has achieved wealth beyond his dreams from hard work, creating a life for himself that he was not born into, but worked hard for. He hosts glamorous parties and lives a decadent lifestyle full of excess, alcohol and cars. He is the epitome of 'rags to riches', and a poster boy for the American Dream. However, Fitzgerald's novel emphasises the tropes of America's so-called 'golden age' to illustrate the bleakness of the novel and the shallowness of this ideal. By the end of the novel, Jay Gatsby's idealised life is shown for what it really is - we find that he has earned his living from illegal bootlegging, making him a fraud. He essentially stole his persona from rich, old-money type Dan Cody, who he was employed by when he was homeless, and ends up framed for the murder of a woman killed by his lover, and pays the price of his life for this. The novel's evidently bleak ending, void from any sort of optimism, illustrates the flaws with the American Dream ideology - that it is in fact, an illusion of success.