J GATSBY AND THE EXTERNAL AGENTS OF HIS FALL

Abstract

The Great Gatsby, as the icon of 20th century American Novel generated a wide range of criticism and reactions, since its publication in 1925. J Gatsby is believed to be an undeniably true American following his American dream.
He strongly believes in his success by employing all the means he owns. This is the force behind Gatsby's strong but blind belief in the fantasy of his ideally sketched future. Although he achieves his dream of financial success he
tragically falls. Any classic tragic fall, definitely, claims a tragic hero guilty of a tragic flaw. Psychoanalytic studies have been conducted to identify the inner causes of this fall related to the lack of family, secured social position and
his desires. This paper, however, attempts to bring the external destructive agents of this modern tragic hero into the spotlight. The opportunity to earn wealth, to construct a fake social identity and to believe that the impossible is
possible pushes him down the hill. And that is nothing more than the very American Dream itself. This includes the possibility of social mobility, connecting with the members of higher social ranks and the wealth facilitating him to
use the machinery and the new inventions of the age.