1. Explain what you think Fitzgerald is trying to say about society by presenting the idea of illusion so thoroughly throughout the text.The idea of illusion is used so much throughout the book because it is representing the failed american dream.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     It is clear that the american dream isn’t present in the book. This is shown through places like the valley of ashes and East Egg. There is a clear difference between the social classes. There are the rich people. These people are split into two groups. New money- made their money by either having a good job or bootlegging and Old Money- Born into wealth. There are then the people with no or little money. They live in the valley of ashes. Here in the valley of ashes you will find the illusion of the american dream everpresent. This is because most people that live there work hard and get no or little money out of it. On the other side you have East Egg. Here the american dream is also ever present however it is the opposite to the valley of ashes. People that live in East Egg don’t work hard in fact many don’t work at all. They were born into wealth which is also an illusion of the american dream and a normal society.

2.

Discuss how “illusion” is a real idea for teenagers. What problems/challenges/issues do teenagers face each day and how can we relate them to illusion.

Everyday, teenagers face the hard and stressful thing called school. It is a thing that happens to every teenager. We go to school to learn for up to 8 hours a day. This is very hard to keep up with. We are becoming stressed and more and more busy. We have a lot of work to do everyday and when you don’t do that work you get in trouble which can lead to not passing the year. Some people work extremely hard but still don’t get good marks which ultimately brings them down completely. This links back to illusion of the american dream. Some people put all their effort in and barely scrape a pass. This is the same as what is happening in the valley of ashes. Most people living there work all day and get very little if any pay.