Promišljanje "američkog sna" u romanima The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgeralda i Fight Club Chucka Palahniuka

This paper deconstructs and questions the idea of the American Dream in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club (1996) and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby (1925). It juxta- poses two characters from different eras who face similar issues and go through similar situa- tions, focusing on their spiritual incompatibility with the society of their time and the norms it imposes on an individual. Another problem it addresses is the feasibility of the American Dream and what an individual must sacrifice in order to succeed. The paper also deals with the dark side of the American Dream, pointing out its flaws and the details its pursuer should pay attention to. It argues that happiness comes from within, not through material gains, and that material possessions only make life difficult and hollow. In addition, the analysis high- lights the concepts of existence, mortality, and morality in order to show that even though the two novels’ settings and time frames are completely different, some issues regarding human nature simply cannot be changed. The paper also tackles the idea of nihilism, which is mostly apparent in Fight Club, where characters undergo a change due to their realization that life might be worthless