Gar Lai Mrs. Mackin English 11B 18 May 2014 The Time of Modernism and One of its Best Products The very start of World War I brought the culture of the twentieth century to a world of the new ages. The abrupt start of the war brought conflict and confusion. This sudden flash of reality and birth of new technology whirled into a frenzy of madness that introduced the idea of demoralization. It was the beginning of Modernism which many American authors jumped into. One of them was Scott Fitzgerald who was heavily known for his greatest piece The Great Gatsby, in which a man takes a tight grip onto his past and tries to relive the life he yearned for. At the same time, this novel is being clashed with themes of loneliness and demoralization of the characters and the division of social classes. Fitzgerald’s personal life was just as intriguing as his writing. He was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota as the son of Edward Fitzgerald and Mary Mcquillan. His mother was occupied as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul while his father was an old Southerner (Bruccoli). The family relocated to New York after his father failed as a manufacturer of wicker. His father took the job as a salesman for Procter and Gamble, but not soon after, Edward was dismissed and once again, the family found themselves back in St. Paul. In the Fall of 1913. Fitzgerald enrolled at Princeton where he dove deep into the literary life. He made contributions to the Princeton Triangle Club, the Princeton Tiger, and the Nassau Literary Magazine, as well as forming relationships with students who pursued a similar dream of being a writer... ... middle of paper ... ...f ale. They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale--and yet they weren’t unhappy either.” With Tom, he escape this lonely marriage by having an affair with Myrtle who also seems to be having similar issues in her marriage. Daisy follows Tom’s footsteps and has an affair with Gatsby creating a scandalous mood in the midst of the aggravatingly hot summer. In chapter 9, readers find out that Jordan, who was thought to be single, was actually engaged. Her compulsive lying and affair with Nick hints that the marriage is not based on love. She admires someone who is careful because she is careless herself. The fact that she never told Nick about her engagement before making advances towards him, proves how selfish or inconsiderate she is. None of the characters had anyone close, presenting an image of a society of isolation (Fitzgerald).
Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.
“Riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky; I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again.”(Fitzgerald). F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, into a very prestigious, catholic family. Edward, his father, was from Maryland, and had a strong allegiance to the Old South and its values. Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul. His upbringing, affected much of his writing career. Half the time F. Scott Fitzgerald thought of himself as the “heir of his father's tradition, which included the author of The Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key, after whom he was named” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). The other half the time he acted as “straight 1850 potato-famine Irish” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). Consequently, he had typically indecisive feelings about American life, which seemed to him at once “vulgar and dazzlingly promising” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). This idea is expressed in much of Fitzgerald’s writing. From an early age he had an “intensely romantic imagination” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography); he longed for a life of passion, fame and luxury.
Gatsby is America. The rise and fall of our identity as an emerging nation is the true subject matter of F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. It is the story of illusions, of what lies within everyman, and what we are willing to overlook to acquire what we desire. This paper will focus on the characters of The Great Gatsby as they represent different aspects of America in her post war growing pains.
“We are becoming like cats, slyly parasitic, enjoying an indifferent domesticity. Nice and snug in the social, our historic passions have withdrawn into the glow of an artificial coziness, and our half-closed eyes now seek little other than the peaceful parade of television pictures.” (Baudrillard) In this quote by Jean Baudrillard, she reflects on the emergence of the new upcoming modernist era. In the 1920s, the development of industrialization and the terrors left behind from World War Ⅰ led to a new set of norms and way of living. In addition, this new realistic view of the world changed various forms of literature. While some scholars say The Great Gatsby does not represents a Modernist novel, there is an abundance of evidence depicting
In the book The Great Gatsby, there are multiple examples of symbols, such as the green light, the valley of ashes and Doctor T.J. Eckleburg's eyes and so on. One particular place is the valley of ashes.The valley of ashes represents hopelessness,death and destruction, and
Fitzgerald had began his life in St. Paul of Minnesota, he had a wealthy life with his mother. Even though Fitzgerald was living in wealth he also had family issues, his mother was an alcoholic. During the year of 1993, Fitzgerald got accepted into Princeton, and started
The period between the First World War and the Second World War brought dramatic change to the values, lifestyles, norms and culture of the American way of life. It also brought a new kind of literary philosophy known as Modernism. Modernism was a movement which portrayed the world of men as a harsh and hostile environment in which life had lost its meaning and the American dream had disappeared completely from reach because of the corrupt world. Many of these modernist revealed their discontent with this new way of life with books and paintings that uncovered the ugliness of the society they lived in. One of the most famous books was the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald which follows a young American man named Nick Caraway in his experience at Long Island and New York during the roaring twenties. The author explores many modernist themes including decadence, resistance to change, social upheaval and excess. Through the chosen quote, Fitzgerald reveals the lousy and careless lifestyles that the wealthy had during the Modern period in order to criticize the morally corrupt and untraditional life’s that many were living because their existence was losing its meaning.
Some of the major themes include the decline of the American dream in the 1920s and the hollowness of the upper class ("The Great Gatsby”). On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman (Einem). The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope ("The Great Gatsby”). The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular, the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy ("Literature - Boundless”). Fitzgerald positions the characters of The Great Gatsby as emblems of these social trends ("The Roaring”). As Fitzgerald saw it, the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness ("The Great Gatsby”). Even after many decades, the relevance of The Great Gatsby increases because it is the definitive romance of the American dream, a concept that haunts our society (Bloom
The novel The Great Gatsby shows us many different themes throughout the book . The author F. Scott Fitzgerald does a great job of showing the themes hope,money and obsession throughout the characters.
The main character of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a young man who came from a poor childhood in North Dakota to become very wealthy. However, he accomplished this goal by participating in organized crime, including selling illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. From his early ages, Gatsby always hated his poverty and badly strived for wealth. He dropped out of St. Olaf’s College after two short weeks because he couldn’t deal with being a janitor, which was the job he has to pay his tuition.
Gatsby, one of the most notable names in American literature today still strikes excitement and wonder in the minds of its readers almost 90 years after the original copy was published. The story of luxury, love, and tragedy grip its audience like ever before. Most authors can only dream of such success but Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism, plot and character truly made “The Great Gatsby” a lasting book in history.
Modernism is best known as a movement where society goes through changes. The changes are related to literature and art. During this period the American society suffered the devastating effects of World War I, the market’s depression and World War II. Modernism movement happened between the years 1900 and 1950. During this period many writers expressed their ideas, helping and guiding the society to understand those changes that would come during this period.
The Great Gatsby also shows examples of feeling restless another characteristic of the “moderns”. This may be linked to the Great War or Worl...
There was also a change in American culture in the 1920s. This was the time when jazz music was introduced to the world, and the roles of women were changed. Jazz music is a new thing for Americans. It was created by African Americans, and it had a huge impact, on the society. This music mainly affected the youth and women of this time period.
"There are all kinds of love in this world, but never the same love twice." (F. Scott Fitzgerald).