‘The Great Gatsby’ was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in, and set, in America during the 1920’s. Like all literature, this novel reflects the time period in which it was written; that is, the American Dream and its decline, social classes and the difference between them, along with World War I. The Elizabeth Browning Sonnets were written during the Romantic era. This was a period of great change and emancipation, which is unmistakably evident in E. Browning’s sonnets. Both Fitzgerald and E. Browning use a multitude of techniques throughout their texts. These techniques have an effect, whether similar or different, on the reader.
The American Dream has no strict definition, however in the twentieth century and in many ways still today, it has become the term which describes an inherent faith in the promise of the new world. It was an age of capitalism and materialism. In the post war period America became an incredibly affluent country, which rapidly industrialized and developed the quality of life. The American dream, through the eyes of Fitzgerald, was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet the 1920’s are depicted in the novel, as a time of decayed social and moral values, corrupting this dream, evident in its overreaching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. This is epitomized in the lavish parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night. As the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpass more noble goals the American Dream reaches its ultimate corruption.
In America during the 1920’s, anyone from any social background could potentially make a fortune. However the American aristocracy, that is the families of old wealth, scorned the newly rich. The novel represent...
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...e to the depths and breadth and height.” It is not physically possible to love someone in such a way. However, by describing her love for R. Browning like this she is positioning the reader to realize the intensity of their relationship.
In closing, both ‘The Great Gatsby’ and the E. Browning sonnets are reflective of the time period in which they were written. ‘The Great Gatsby’ portrays the American Dream and its decline, social classes and the difference between them, as well as World War I. The Elizabeth Browning Sonnets were written during the Romantic era. This was a period of great change and emancipation, which is unmistakably evident in E. Browning’s sonnets. Both Fitzgerald and E. Browning use a multitude of techniques throughout their texts. These techniques have an effect, whether similar or different, on the reader.
Works Cited
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...on materialism and social class. While novel is widely considered a zeitgeist of the time period, it is also a warning for the American Dream. Although the Dream is not Marxist materialism, it is certainly not traditional individualism and freedom. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby poses a question: what is the American Dream?
Throughout the history of America, the classic struggle has been to attain the current “American Dream.” During the 1920s, this ideal included owning a home, car, and dog, and having a good woman. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan are, on the visible surface, an example of this American Dream (Fitzgerald 10). Tom and Daisy are in love and married, with money, a beautiful home, and a wonderful child. They also own a car, and their home is in a very affluent area. In the 1920s, middle-class Americans owned their own homes and cars, and were making their own money. Also in the 1920s, increased wealth was an aspect of the American Dream. The Bull Market of 1919 signaled the initial increase of wealth per capita (Allen 7). A second bull market in 1927, 1928, and 1929 signaled a second major increase in wealth. Fitzgerald’s narrator, Nick Carraway, works in bonds (Fitzgerald 7). In The Great Gatsby, Nick mentions his own books on banking, credit, and investment, as the key to “shining secrets that only Midas, Morgan, and Maecenas knew” (8). Yet another characteristic of the American Dream was a return to belief in the Nativist philosophy; that all inhabitants of America should be 100% White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP), and most of all, not Socialist or Communist in any way (Allen 42). In The Great Gatsby, Tom refers to a book he has recently read, Goddard’s The Rise of Coloured Empires (Fitzgerald 17). This is a mangled allusion to the actual novel The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy, by Theodore Lothrop Stoddard (Maurer 24). One last characteristic of the ...
Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has indisputably been one of the most influential and insightful pieces on the corruption and idealism of the American Dream. The American Dream, defined as ‘The belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone,’ was a dominant ideal in American society, stemming from an opportunist pioneer mentality. In his book ‘The American Tradition in Literature’, Bradley Sculley praised The Great Gatsby for being ‘perhaps the most striking fictional analysis of the age of gang barons and the social conditions that produced them.’ Over the years, greed and selfishness changed the basic essence of the American Dream, forming firmly integrated social classes and the uncontainable thirst for money and status. The ‘Roaring Twenties’ was a time of ‘sustained increase in national wealth’ , which consequently led to an increase in materialism and a decrease in morality. Moreover, the
Written during and regarding the 1920s, ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald is both a representation of this distinctive social and historical context, and a construction of the composer’s experience of this era. Beliefs and practises of the present also play a crucial role in shaping the text, in particular changing the way in which literary techniques are interpreted. The present-day responder is powerfully influenced by their personal experiences, some of which essentially strengthen Fitzgerald’s themes, while others compete, establishing contemporary interpretations of the novel.
“So The Great Gatsby house at West Egg glittered with all the lights of the twenties, there were was always Gatsby’s supplicating hand, reaching out to make glamour with what he had lost be cruel chance...of how little Gatsby wanted at bottom-not to understand society, but to ape it”(21-22). The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald features constant parties, glamorous houses, and extravagance to reveal the values of the characters and the society they live in. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby exemplifies the innate values and morals of its characters and the society in which they live by using continual partying, glamorous houses, and extraordinary extravagance.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life. The occasional insights into character stand out as very green oases on an arid desert of waste paper. Throughout the first half of the book the author shadows his leading character in mystery, but when in the latter part he unfolds his life story it is difficult to find the brains, the cleverness, and the glamour that one might expect of a main character.
The American Dream is a concept that has been wielded in American Literature since its beginnings. The ‘American Dream’ ideal follows the life of an ordinary man wanting to achieve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The original goal of the American dream was to pursue freedom and a greater good, but throughout time the goals have shifted to accumulating wealth, high social status, etc. As such, deplorable moral and social values have evolved from a materialistic pursuit of happiness. In “Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity”, Roland Marchand describes a man that he believed to be the prime example of a 1920’s man. Marchand writes, “Not only did he flourish in the fast-paced, modern urban milieu of skyscrapers, taxicabs, and pleasure- seeking crowds, but he proclaimed himself an expert on the latest crazes in fashion, contemporary lingo, and popular pastimes.” (Marchand) This description shows material success as the model for the American Dream. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals the characterization of his characters through the use of symbols and motifs to emphasize the corruption of the American Dream.
Through the use of symbolism and critique, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to elucidate the lifestyles and dreams of variously natured people of the 1920s in his novel, The Great Gatsby. He uses specific characters to signify diverse groups of people, each with their own version of the “American Dream.” Mostly all of the poor dream of transforming from “rags to riches”, while some members of the upper class use other people as their motivators. In any case, no matter how obsessed someone may be about their “American Dream”, Fitzgerald reasons that they are all implausible to attain.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Interpretations- F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Print.
The concept of one’s journey to reach the so called "American Dream" has served as the central theme for many novels. However, in the novel The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays the American Dream as so opulent it is unrealistic and unreachable. The American Dream is originally about obtaining happiness, but by the 1920's, this dream has become twisted into a desire for fame and fortune by whatever means; mistaken that wealth will bring happiness. Fitzgerald illustrates that the more people reach toward the idealistic American dream, the more they lose sight of what makes them happy, which sends the message that the American dream is unattainable. The continuos yearning for extravagance and wealthy lifestyles has become detrimental to Gatsby and many other characters in the novel as they continue to remain incorrigible in an era of decayed social and moral values, pursuing an empty life of pleasure instead of seeking happiness.
The Great Gatsby is an American novel of hope and longing, and is one of the very few novels in which “American history finds its figurative form (Churchwell 292).” Gatsby’s “greatness” involves his idealism and optimism for the world, making him a dreamer of sorts. Yet, although the foreground of Fitzgerald’s novel is packed with the sophisticated lives of the rich and the vibrant colors of the Jazz Age, the background consists of the Meyer Wolfsheims, the Rosy Rosenthals, the Al Capones, and others in the vicious hunt for money and the easy life. Both worlds share the universal desire for the right “business gonnegtion,” and where the two worlds meet at the borders, these “gonnegtions” are continually negotiated and followed (James E. Miller). Gatsby was a character meant to fall at the hands of the man meant to be a reality check to the disillusions of the era.
With new modernist American literature, Americans lose faith in their traditional beliefs and values, including the American dream. Many novels used the concept of the American dream to make people question whether the dream still existed in the mist of the First World War and the Great Depression. In describing the American dream, one is led to believe that the individual is led to self-triumph, and their life will progressively get better and better in America. In Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, the American dream is perceived originally by the thought of discovery and the pursuit of happiness. Money, parties, and relaxed social views came with ease to the American people in the 1920s. However, Fitzgerald demonstrates how the American soldiers re...
...does he master the common form of imagery in description using the five senses, but he also delves into the world of inner human thought and sentiment. Fitzgerald’s imagery dives into the issues that have surrounded human nature throughout history including morality, flaws, instinct, and perspective in a new manner. The reader is taken through a simple story that follows characters in their daily trials involving love, jealously, and leisure, but in doing so through Nick Caraway’s eyes, the deceivingly straightforward actions become much more. From Fitzgerald using his skill to explore human nature through his narrator’s thoughts and observations of the world around him to his use of color imagery to represent more than meets the eye about personality and emotion, The Great Gatsby is truly a novel of the ages that reveals the innermost complexities of human life.
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. The American Dream, a long-standing ideal, embodies the hope that one can achieve financial success, political power, and everlasting love through dedication and hard work. During the Roaring 20s, people in America put up facades to mask who they truly were. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream is simply an illusion, that is idealist and unreal.
Gatsby’s desire to reach the wrongfully coveted American Dream is brought about with his romantic obsession with Daisy Buchanan, a woman he had relationship with before leaving for World War I. Gatsby correctly knew that he needed money to be able to court with Daisy, who is from a wealthy family, so he put into place his perusal of prosperity. Many Americans today, like Gatsby, believe that money is the key to the door leading to a life full of happiness, love, and wonder. Americans enter careers, jobs, and investments that do not suit them in the slightest in an attempt to reach this goal of the seemingly golden lifestyle of celebrities and entrepreneurs.