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As one of the most controversial novels in American literature, Tender is the Mightrecords the eventful life of Dick Diver, a psychologist. The controversies stemfrom a new explanation of the American Dream by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In thisthesis, attempts are made to explore the possibility of the Anerican Dream andthe dilemma of Dick Diver, a modern man, in his attempt to realize his AmericanDream in the 1920s. Dick, hero of the novel, is neither optimistic nor pessimisticin the face of the dilemma, and his choice is continuing to struggle for life even ifhe becomes incomplete.As a myth throughout the American history, the American Dream was at one of itsheydays in the 1920s. Holding the old Alger formula of the American Dream,Dick Diver, enters the modern society. The Alger formula seemingly proves itsvalidity in the 1920s, but its pretense is revealed by the ups and downs of Dick.His pursuit of both material and moral betterment turns out to be the chains onhim, which testify the impossibility of the American Dream. For this reason, Dickis placed in a dilemma: he becomes immoral whether he pursues his dream or not.Neither fleeing from reality nor abandoning his dream, Dick eventually chooses tostruggle for life between the hopeful and the hopeless as an incomplete man.With a view to the fact that the author presents the impossibility of the AmericanDream and depicts the dilemma of a modern man earlier than his contemporaries,Tender is the Night is a great novel.