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How the economy boom in 1920 effected society
How the economy boom in 1920 effected society
How the economy boom in 1920 effected society
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With the growing importance of wealth and materialism during the roaring ‘20s, riches became one of the most influential factors in a relationship. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is torn between her past lover, Gatsby, who returns with an extravagant house and parties; and her wealthy but cheating husband, Tom. Upon Gatsby’s return, Daisy becomes infatuated with him and his new money, drifting away from her husband for a more successful man. It does not take long once Tom uncovers his wife and Gatsby’s affair that Tom reveals the origin of Gatsby’s wealth: buying up drugstores and selling illegal alcohol over the counter. Astonished and frightened, Daisy retreats into Tom’s arms and abandons the man who truly cares for her. …show more content…
Starting the epigraph, Fitzgerald quotes: “Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her.” As a symbol of wealth, the “gold” is worn upon the head for all to see. It is only when a man wears the “gold hat” and showcases his wealth to the public that women will pay attention and fall in love. Instead of connections and meaningful values, Americans chase after money and materialistic goods. Moving into the ‘20s, they lost interest in the committed and supportive family life and became caught up in the race for the American dream of materialism. Fitzgerald also portrays America’s greed through Daisy when she decides to marry Tom after reading Gatsby’s letter: “When we walked out of the room, the pearls were around her neck [...] Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver” (76). Even though Daisy has an ineffable binding love with Gatsby, she gives up that love for an expensive piece of jewelry. Daisy can no longer wait for Gatsby to build a life full of materialism and riches for them, and instead marries Tom’s family money without even ever fully loving him. Similar to the epigraph, the only irresistible factor that American’s desire is a life of luxury. The traditional family setting is lost in the past, and in its place are grand mansions and custom-made
The dawn of the 20th century was met with an unprecedented catastrophe: an international technological war. Such a horrible conflict perhaps threatened the roots of the American Dream! Yet, most do not realize how pivotal the following years were. Post war prosperity caused a fabulous age for America: the “roaring twenties”. But it also was an era where materialism took the nation by storm, rooting itself into daily life. Wealth became a measure of success and a facade for social status. This “Marxist materialism” threatened the traditional American Dream of self-reliance and individuality far even more than the war a decade before. As it morphed into materialistic visions (owning a beautiful house and car), victims of the change blindly chased the new aspiration; one such victim was Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. As his self-earned luxury and riches clashed with love, crippling consequences and disasters occur. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby delves into an era of materialism, exploring how capitalism can become the face of social life and ultimately cloud the American Dream.
The American Dream is something common to most individuals, however it's one thing that everybody views in several ways. The American Dream is totally different for everybody, however they share a number of a similar aspects of it. The dream relies mainly on the setting of wherever one lives and one‘s social status. for instance, The Declaration of Independence was by Thomas Jefferson, who was an upper class white male. He needed freedom, however freedom for people like himself that were white land owning people. martin luther King, in his I have a Dream speech, also demanded freedom, but mostly for African Americans like him. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his book the great Gatsby, that he wants to eliminate the rich, which he was a section of. every American Dream is somewhat totally different, however all of them relate to the days that one lives in.
In today’s society, people are judged by their values or are frightened to take sacrifices to better benefit their lifestyle. Characters like Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Myrtle are shown as evidence of greed and how wealth surrounds their values. Fitzgerald uses social commentary to offer a glance of an American life in the 1920s. He carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups, but in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving powerful ideas for readers to adapt(add morals characters inhabit). By creating distinct social classes, old money, new money, and no money, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism running throughout every perspective of society. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays characters like Nick, Tom, Daisy, Jordan and Wilson/Myrtle negatively in society and shows how different class system lack morality and social values.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, money plays a large role in the character’s lives. Money is used to change their appearances throughout the novel. All the characters use their money in a different way. Gatsby attempts to use his money to win back his one true love, Daisy. Myrtle Wilson uses money she does not have to change her appearance towards others. But others are used to having wealth, and they are experienced in the ways of being rich. These people include Tom and Daisy Buchanan. The narrator, Nick Caraway, moves east searching for wealth, but never achieves that goal. The entire novel is filled with wealth and riches, but is money to be seen as a privilege or a curse? Characters in The Great Gatsby try to recreate themselves using money.
Conclude ideas that are related between the great Gatsby & modern society and say how things have changed over time
Benjamin Franklin once said “Money has never made man happy, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness." This is arguably one of the most cliché quotes of all time. If money cannot provide happiness, then what exactly can it do? The characters of Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan open a door to a world in which money was the sole motivation for their success and the only reason for their power. When the reader uses a Marxist critical lens during chapter four of F. Scott 's Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, the social hierarchy reveals how Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan utilize the importance of money and social power to manipulate others in their lives.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.
Three works Cited Materialism started to become a main theme of literature in the modernist era. During this time the economy was good causing jazz to be popular, bootlegging common, and an affair meaning nothing (Gevaert). This negative view of money and the gross materialism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby serves to be a modern theme in the novel. Throughout the novel, the rich possess a sense of carelessness and believe that money yields happiness.
for the type of life she wanted to have. Gatsby knew this that is why
The Great Gatsby “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, depicts the vast social difference between the old aristocrats, the new self-made rich and the poor. He vividly interprets the social stratification during the roaring twenties as each group has their own problems to deal with. Old Money, who have fortunes dating from the 19th century, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The New Money made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth. As usual, the No Money gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving them forgotten or ignored.
As depicted by Scott F. Fitzgerald, the 1920s is an era of a great downfall both socially and morally. As the rich get richer, the poor remain to fend for themselves, with no help of any kind coming their way. Throughout Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the two “breeds” of wealthier folk consistently butt heads in an ongoing battle of varying lifestyles. The West Eggers, best represented by Jay Gatsby, are the newly rich, with little to no sense of class or taste. Their polar opposites, the East Eggers, are signified by Tom and Daisy Buchanan; these people have inherited their riches from the country’s wealthiest old families and treat their money with dignity and social grace. Money, a mere object in the hands of the newly wealthy, is unconscientiously squandered by Gatsby in an effort to bring his only source of happiness, Daisy, into his life once again. Over the course of his countless wild parties, he dissipates thousands upon thousands of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to attract Daisy’s attention. For Gatsby, the only way he could capture this happiness is to achieve his personal “American Dream” and end up with Daisy in his arms. Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is somewhat detrimental to himself and the ones around him; his actions destroy relationships and ultimately get two people killed.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s obsessive pursuit of goals suggest that Fitzgerald believe that obsessiveness and constant desires often lead to a wrong psychological impact, destructive of one’s traditions, morals, and would have an unplanned end of the lesson or life.
Much like in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, society treats views and treats people with money differently than those without it. For example, Tom and Daisy get away with the death of Tom’s mistress because of their wealth “His family was enormously wealthy – even in collage his freedom with money was a matter for reproach” (Fitzgerald,23). Further the reason that Daisy had not married Gatsby all those years ago was because he was poor, it was not until he had an enormous house and lots of money “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me” (Fitzgerald ,367). It was not until Gatsby became wealthy did Daisy want to marry him “After she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house” (Fitzgerald, 311). Moreover, Gatsby’s own personal success was based on how Daisy perceived his house “He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well loved eyes.” (Fitzgerald, 260). Critic Karielle Stephanie Gam agrees with this view of success “His wealth is never cloaked; from the mansion, to the weekly parties, to the countless dress shirts and expensive cars, it is evident that Gatsby is rich as sin and is initially, though his inclusion in the nouveau riche, the epitome of the American dream.” (Karielle Stephanie
The world is filled with cheapskates, phonies, and two-faced people. Many use others for their own benefits. In The Great Gatsby, through the motif of superficiality, Fitzgerald critiques the theme that displaying materialism and superficiality can ruin true love and a chance at true love. Objects cannot define a relationship; it should be the feelings developed that defines the relationship of two people. The characteristic of materialism is a barrier for true love between two people. Nick Carraway has just moved to a West Egg, and his mysterious neighbor is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s long living dream is to rekindle his love and relationship with Daisy Buchanan, who is currently married to Tom Buchanan. He attempts to pursue his relationship with Daisy through his unexplained wealth. However, their love couldn’t be true because of their focus on “things” rather than each other.
The obsession with wealth often blinds people from the potential crisis. The crisis of having everything they worked and struggled for redefined if the reality fails them. Just like strivers who chase the American dream, Gatsby also spend his whole life in persue of his American dream, which Daisy was a major component of it. Gatsby’s “American dream” seems actualized when Daisy comments him “resemble the advertisement of the man(Ch7).” But Daisy eventually betrays Gatsby and went back to the arms of Tom. This is the final nail in the coffin, with Gatsby’s dr...