The death of the American dream

Going once more to the Great Gatsby, The Great and Mighty Presto wishes to describe another phenomenon that he witnessed in the novel. The mortal Gatsby, seemingly mimics the concept of the American dream that was so strong with American Mortals during the 1920s. The idea that any of you could become successful with enough determination(laughable that mortals would have that no?) was the dominating principle during that time, and Gatsby mimics this exactly. Gatsby decides that to achieve what he wants in life, he must acquire large quantities of wealth, and so he does. Ironically this is done through bootlegging, but this only serves to further his perception as a 1920s American dream ideal, after all though the sale and consumption of alcohol were illegal during the time, very few of you mortals actually cared... if anything you actually drank more through the twenties, there wasn't even any sort of real punishment handed out, the alcohol itself would just be thrown out. Through that it becomes obvious, even to you mortals that Gatsby is a very distinct symbol of the 1920s American dream. Though, just as the American dream did in 1929 with the stock market crash, Gatsby is murdered late into his novel, largely due to the actions of Daisy and Tom. These two mimic the citizens of 1920s America, irresponsible to anything besides themselves, and rather carefree, and similarly to Daisy and Tom, due to their financial irresponsibility they were largely responsible for the market crash. Daisy and tom similarly created the scenario required for myrtle's husband to seek retribution against Gatsby, regardless of his blatant innocence. So as even you mortals can see, Gatsby and the American dream have some striking similarities, and seeing as how The Great Gatsby is exemplary of a piece of modernist fiction, this sort of critique and symbolism within Fitzgerald's novel would be no surprise.