Question at position 22 Which of the following is the best expression of a main theme of the novel?While the American Dream remains a beautiful concept, it is an illusion, corrupted by materialism and rigid social stratification.Jay Gatsby was a great man with limitless hope and potential whom we should all try to emulate, despite his obvious flaws.All wealthy people and the elite social class are morally bankrupt and corrupt because money is the source of all evil.Nick Carraway experiences the immorality of New York in the 1920s and becomes disgusted by it, returning home to the Mid-West.

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To approach this question, we consider the central themes of the novel and how each option aligns with them.
Option 1: 'While the American Dream remains a beautiful concept, it is an illusion, corrupted by materialism and rigid social stratification.' This captures a core critique often drawn from the text: the dream is alluring but undermined by wealth, status, and class barriers that distort ideals.
Option 2: 'Jay Gatsby was a great man with limitless hope and potential whom we should all try to emulate, despite his obvious flaws.' While Gatsby embodies ambition, the novel also emphasizes his moral ambiguities and the hollowness of his dream; presenting him as an unambiguous hero would misrepresent the nuanced portrayal.
Option 3: 'All wealthy people and the elite social class are morally bankrupt and corrupt because money is the source of all evil.' This statement overgeneralizes and casts all wealth as corrupt, which oversimplifies characters and motives and ignores individuals who are not morally condemned solely by wealth.
Option 4: 'Nick Carraway experiences the immorality of New York in the 1920s and becomes disgusted by it, returning home to the Mid-West.' While Nick comments on moral decay, the idea that he completely rejects the East and returns home as a simple moral judgment misses the more complex, ambivalent stance the novel takes toward the era.
Continuing this line of analysis, we see that Option 1 best encapsulates the overarching critique of the American Dream as presented in the narrative: it acknowledges the desirable idea while highlighting its distortion by materialism and class structure. The remaining options either present an overly romanticized, overly generalized, or overly simplistic reading that diverges from the text’s nuanced examination of wealth, status, and illusion.
In sum, option 1 aligns with the main thematic tension of the work: aspiration tempered by the corrupting influence of materialism and social stratification, whereas the other choices misrepresent the author’s nuanced treatment of characters, morality, and social critique.

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