Jay Gatsby is a relevant character today, in 2015, as he was a relevant character in 2002 at the time of Cohen’s writing in the NY Times. In 2002, a lot of things were happening that made the American dream seem toppled. Kmart, then a large retailer, became the largest retailer to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Also declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy that year were WorldCom and United Airlines. The former Chief Financial Officer of Enron is indicted on several counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and wire fraud, among other charges (The People History, 2004). A lot of big money bombed in 2002, some of which were illegally gotten in the first place (Enron), and this reflects in Jay Gatsby – illegally gotten wealth that eventually bombs when Gatsby dies. But it is not so much the “ill-gotten gain” that makes Gatsby suffer as it is the disillusionment with what society valued up until the end of the first world war, when Gatsby got out of uniform and got into money. Up until the end of the first world war (1918), society was all about its old money and aristocracy, whatever leftover Victorian values there were, and the elegance and refinement that supposedly came with the generations of old money. And the new money that Jay Gatsby has does not put him in the same social class as the rest of the old money people, even though he has just as much (if not more) money than they do. They look down their nose at him for having “new” money, and find him to be gaudy, garish, almost tasteless. To make matters worse, the woman that Gatsby is pursuing is from that “old” money, and hence that never really works out the way Gatsby wants it to. Plus, the old money aristocracy does not believe that just “anyone” can be self-made and wealthy based on their own travail and merit, which is the real reason why they cannot accept Gatsby as one of their own – they do not believe in “rags to riches” even though a lot of that aristocracy built their own wealth that way, and their money is so old that they no longer remember that at least one of their ancestors created that wealth from nothing, as Gatsby did, even though they probably made that wealth in an industry of some sort. For them, class and status are the important things in life, and maintaining that is one of their topmost concerns. Another conflict of self-made money and old aristocratic money is that since the old money people never really accept the new money people, so no matter how much money a newly-wealthy person has, they are never accepted and seen as an equal by the old aristocratic money people; therefore, the new money people are never accepted as having “made it” in life. The old money people never experience the disillusionment of war as did those who were in a war, so they have no idea of the cynicism that accompanies those veterans that are also the “nouveau riche”. That cynicism knows that it will never be totally accepted by the so-called “elite”, so why be like them? Better to have fun with the money and spend it, life is short (as we saw in the war), than to be a multi-generational snob who passes millions in family wealth down through all sorts of “elite” people who have nothing better to do than let their wealth sit around in a bank somewhere. That cynicism also means that there may not be any future generations to whom one can pass any sort of wealth, and we do not want to end up being like those snobs, so the idea of that American dream is ridiculous to us, so forget it, we are going to enjoy what life we have left. We got all this money now and for what? To be a snob? No way. Might as well party. Money does corrupt. We never had that kind of money before, and it is fun. So why not spend it? We are still young, we want to enjoy what we have done with our money, no matter if it has corrupted us or not. If the American dream is snobbery and aristocracy, then we do not want it. Mixed in with that cynicism is anger, anger at the system that was supposed to celebrate the stories of those people who finally “made it” in life, not make them feel as though they were still in that lower socio-economic class that they came from. So why bother trying to improve one’s station in life when all it does is lead to corruption and snobbery?

Works Cited
The People History (2004) 2002. Available from: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/2002.html