The (Irish)-American Dream

Social Insecurity and Disadvantage in Irish Characters in Fitzgerald and Mailer

Abstract

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Norman Mailer both explore the notion of the American Dream and its dominance in the imagination of the American people and society. Fitzgerald and Mailer are especially in tune with those for whom, for whatever reason, the American Dream slips from their often desperate grasp. In both of their works, the Irish were such a group of people, even though their respective relationships to Irishness were different and complex. Tender Is the Night and The Naked and the Dead exhibit nuanced Irish-American characters who experience social disadvantage as a result of their Irishness and thus cannot pursue the mythical American Dream. Dick Diver in Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night and Roy Gallagher in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead, because of their Irish identities, both experience deep social insecurity and a persecution complex, which causes them to lash out against others in often self-destructive ways.