had violated the code and thus would have to submit to punishment” (Ellison 145).
The “American Dream” is denied Jay Gatsby by outside forces, but his fortunes stand in sharp contrast to those of the protagonist of Invisible Man. Gatsby is the darling of the Jazz Age set, to whom material passions, reckless behavior, and substance use were measures of value. Gatsby is a self-made man of enormous wealthy, one example of “American Dream” success, despite his connections to organized crime. Gatsby version of the “American Dream” is one of ostentation, flamboyance, and excess. As the conservative and Midwestern bred narrator tells us, “Gatsby represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn” (Fitzgerald 8). It is a material, superficial, and valueless culture that infuses Gatsby with romantic notions of the “American Dream” that will always remain out of reach in reality.
To Gatsby, material wealth does not fulfill him nor do the superficial lifestyles of those who will race to his parties but remain afraid of attending his funeral satisfy him. Gatsby’s vision of the “American Dream” is illusory. He tries to capture the past by winning the affections of Daisy. In reality most of the high-society individuals
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