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Great gatsby and the 1920
Great gatsby and the 1920
Symbolism of the american dream in great gatsby essay
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Amidst the exceedingly prosperous decade of the 1920’s, traditional American lifestyles and principles were interjected by the new superficial and materialistic beliefs closely associated with “The Roaring Twenties.” Undoubtedly, the 1920’s were a decade of change. Deteriorating moralities and optimistic beliefs of overnight wealth replaced strict traditional views on religion, family structure, and work ethics. In an era of such high optimism, the pioneering spirit of the American Dream was revitalized. The nouveaux riches often clashed with the established wealth, as evident throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s narrator, Nick Carraway, suddenly finds himself submerged in the paper-thin morals, and shallow values of upper-class New York after migrating from the Western interior. Throughout the novel, Nick is highly cynical of American society. Thus, The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s means of criticizing the worsening family structure of American society, the newfound materialistic lifestyles of Americans, an American society governed by corruption, and ultimately, the paradox of the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s characters and his own personal beliefs seem to suggest that he is mocking the weakness of American family life during the 1920’s. Throughout the novel, the most prominent of Fitzgerald’s characters are involved in extra marital relationships. The fact that these relationships are seen so often, clearly suggests that Fitzgerald is attempting to portray a weak bond between married couples. The weak relationship between the Buchanan couple as well as the Wilson couple are proof that. In addition, it should also be noted that Fitzgerald’s relationship with his own wife, Zelda, who The Great Gatsby is dedicated to, was highly romantic and severely strong. Fitzgerald had endured to attain his love for Zelda, and was faithful to her for much of his life. However, the fact that Fitzgerald creates characters who seem to contradict his own beliefs, seem to suggest that he is making a mockery of the weak marital bond common in American society during the 1920’s. Many of the characters in Fitzgerald’s novel are portrayed as shallow and materialistic, which accurately reflects the mindset of the 1920’s. However, because Fitzgerald chooses to reveal these characters so thoroughly and frequently suggests his intentions of critic... ... middle of paper ... ... criticism of the deteriorating of American family structure, the shallowness of American materialism, the power of corruption, and the emptiness of pursuing an American Dream during the decade of the “Roaring Twenties.” Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald illustrates the problems in society during the 1920’s. He criticizes the worsening of family structure by choosing characters that have little or no value of the bond accepted during marriage. He questions the power that accompanies wealth, and reveals the shallow values of the era. Finally, Fitzgerald denounces the pursuing of an American Dream, suggesting that it is unattainable, and merely a fantasy fuelled by the urge to fulfill it. However, he acknowledges its importance to American society. The Great Gatsby is not considered the great American novel solely because it criticizes the lifestyles of the 1920’s, instead, it can be considered a success because it reveals the true meaning of pursuing an American Dream. It presents the idea that an American Dream is not a dream of prosperity, but a dream of perseverance, because the dream will always “beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (172)
Jay Gatsby is a mysterious businessman from the nineteen twenties that is an ideal example of the American Dream. He falls in love with a young and vibrant woman by the name of Daisy Buchannan. Their admiration for each other enforces a luminous spark of determination upon themselves. This subsidizes their relationship under struggling circumstances, and changed their lives for the better. Daisy and Gatsby are the only two that truly prospered from their “American Dream” in this novel.
Characters in books can reveal the author feeling toward the world. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald suggested the moral decline of the period in America history through the interpersonal relationships among his characters. The book indicates the worthlessness of materialism, the futile quest of Myrtle and Gatsby, and how America's moral values had diminished. Despite his newly acquired fortune, Gatsby's monitory means could not afford his only true wish, therefore he cannot buy everything which is important to Daisy. (Fitzgerald, -page 42) What you wish for is not always what you want or not all that glitters is gold.
The classic novel of a corrupt American dream– F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby – makes a bold statement of the era of disintegrating goals and low expectations of Americans commencing in the 1920s. F. Scott Fitzgerald was known to be one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century and many of his literary works have been recognized for their brilliance. This flawless novel being an essential basis for Fitzgerald’s fame and certainly one of my favorites, exemplifies that more worthwhile goals have gone out the window, and wealth truly doesn't buy happiness or in this case love.
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses The Great Gatsby in order to display the wretchedness of upper-class society in the United States. The time period, the 1920s, was an age of new opulence and wealth for many Americans. As there is an abundance of wealth today, there are many parallels between the behavior of the wealthy in the novel and the behavior of today’s rich. Fitzgerald displays the moral emptiness and lack of personal ethics and responsibility that is evident today throughout the book. He also examines the interactions between social classes and the supposed noblesse oblige of the upper class. The idea of the American dream and the prevalence of materialism are also scrutinized. All of these social issues spoken about in The Great Gatsby are relevant in modern society. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses this novel as an indictment of a corrupt American culture that is still present today.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers. Fitzgerald uses the Roaring Twenties as the setting of this novel. The twenties were a time of promiscuity, new money, and a significant amount of illegal alcohol. Fitzgerald was a master of his craft and there was often more to the story than just the basic plot. He could intertwine political messages and a gripping story flawlessly. In the case of The Great Gatsby, he not only chronicles a love story, but also uses the opportunity to express his opinion on topics such as moral decay, crass materialism, individual ethics, and the American dream.
The roaring twenties was a time for happiness and celebration, but the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows a different side of this dynamic decade. Fitzgerald uses a poignant, yet hopeful tone to show the shadier side of the nineteen twenties most refuse to look at, while tying in the brighter side. In The Great Gatsby, the reader is sucked into a story of corruption, and empowerment by the rich hidden by extravagant parties and bright colors. Jay Gatsby, who only dreamt of wealth and love had an ideal dream life, that ideal life could be defined as his “American Dream”. His dreams were later crushed by very powerful people, careless people, people who used and abused others to get their way, no matter the consequences. Those people were Tom and Daisy Buchanan, they were the empowered rich. They crushed Gatsby’s American Dream, by being careless. Gatsby created this extravagant life for one reason, and one reason only; to impress the girl he fell in love with, years ago. The girl he gave his heart to hold forever, but after Gatsby left for war, she married someone else, someone who was from old money, like her. She married Tom Buchanan. Although Daisy was married, Gatsby held onto the hope that they would find a way to be together again, and forever. Close to the end, the reader wonders if matters will work out in Gatsby’s favor or not, but after the tragic accident that bring three dreams to an end, the reader ignores Gatsby’s hopefulness and just hopes for a happier ending, when in reality, nothing ends the way anyone wishes it to.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s when the Jazz Age was at its peak, and immigrants seeking fast fortune set their eyes to the United States to obtain the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s theme throughout the novel is the idea that the American Dream that many individuals set out to obtain a rags to riches story is a myth. Gatsby and George Wilson are portrayals of those who strive to gain wealth as fast as possible, and will do anything in their power to get what they want. As society framed the American dream as an optimistic form of pursuing your goals, Fitzgerald makes a stubble nod and racial hierarchies that were formed from this idea. Though they represent individuals striving for a better life, their goals and social status within the community are immensely different, and their deaths at the end of the novel symbolize the death and decline of the American dream.
The 1920’s was a time of great change to both the country lived in as well as the goals and ambitions that were sought after by the average person. During this time, priorities shifted from family and religion to success and spontaneous living. The American dream, itself, changed into a self centered and ongoing personal goal that was the leading priority in most people’s lives. This new age of carelessness and naivety encompasses much of what this earlier period is remembered for. In addition, this revolution transformed many of the great writers and authors of the time as well as their various works. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emergent trends of the 1920’s. More importantly the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dream and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive for acquiring the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the authors view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.
The Roaring Twenties was America’s golden age. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said,“The parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, and the liquor was cheaper” (“People” PBS). The cultural undertone of the twenties was very different from the times before and during World War I. “ For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms…people from coast to coast bought the same goods…listened to the same music, did the same dances, and even used the same slang” (“Roaring” History). The Twenties was a time of social and cultural change. During this time, things like the automobile and jazz became more popular and mainstream. These things were possible because America
Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that were born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal expectations.
The American Dream. This mentality of individualism, discovery, and the pursuit of happiness has always been and continues to be a staple of American culture. F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novel The Great Gatsby, explores the disintegration of the American dreams in the 1920s in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess through characters, such as Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, and Daisy Buchanan, who are seeking the happiness they desire. However, in order to obtain such happiness, these characters fall into the trap of materialism and decayed moral values. By depicting characters’ emotional isolation as a means of coping with the empty pursuit of pleasure, Fitzgerald criticizes the superficial effect of the unattainable
Fitzgerald uses the life and death of Gatsby to illustrate that the new American dream is unobtainable and that no matter how far a person gets in life the dream of satisfaction through materialism is impossible. Daisy and Tom’s marriage was used to demonstrate that even those who are thought to have reached the American dream really still have no true happiness as they each had to search for it in others. These concepts brought forth by Fitzgerald are not to totally bash the human craving for happiness, but to inform them that the new ideas presented by society that they think will bring them happiness are lies. Thus those who go in search of happiness through materialism will always come up empty handed.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald employs the use of characters, themes, and symbolism to convey the idea of the American Dream and its corruption through the aspects of wealth, family, and status. In regards to wealth and success, Fitzgerald makes clear the growing corruption of the American Dream by using Gatsby himself as a symbol for the corrupted dream throughout the text. In addition, when portraying the family the characters in Great Gatsby are used to expose the corruption growing in the family system present in the novel. Finally, the American longing for status as a citizen is gravely overshot when Gatsby surrounds his life with walls of lies in order to fulfill his desires for an impure dream. F. Scot. Fitzgerald, through his use of symbols, characters, and theme, displays for the reader a tale that provides a commentary on the American dream and more importantly on its corruption.
Regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary The Great Gatsby offers an insight into the American life in the 1920s. The novel exposes that in the 1920’s the American Dream had entered into a state of moral decay. Joshua Zeitz provided insight on this point in the article F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Age of Excess by claiming,“In reality, the nation’s most prosperous decade had been built on a house of cards.” Joshua’s claim can be applied to the American Dream of the 1920’s and how since it “had been built on a house of cards” it would fail. Throughout the novel F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the novel, uses analysis and tone to argue that the American Dream is an illusion. The idea behind the American Dream represents the dream
The Roaring Twenties is considered a time of mass corruption and excessive absurdity. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his novel, The Great Gatsby, to criticize the American society and its values in this era. This criticism is best shown in the behaviour of the people who go to Gatsby's parties; they are careless, rude and only looking out for themselves. It is also shown in the corruption of the police, who are easily paid to look the other way. It is finally apparent in the corruption of friendship and love, the truth being that there is none. This society and its values are self-centered and materialistic, caring very little for consequences and others. Fitzgerald's message is delivered magnificently and causes one to be appalled by the behaviour of the people during this time in history.