Causes of the Great Depression as Depicted in the Great Gatsby

1349 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: economic position of America during WWI

The decade of the nineteen-twenties has been marked as a period of social change. People in post-war America wanted to forget about the horrors of Europe and just enjoy themselves. They wanted good paying jobs and some started their own businesses and companies during this period that are still present today (Stewart 5). President Calvin Coolidge once said that “the business of America is business,” which sums up the mindset of the average American: to make money (O’Neal 58). Once people were able to make quick money through a job, business, illegal alcohol trafficking, or buying and selling stocks, many wanted to be pretentious with their newfound wealth. One book that accurately reflects the ostentatious attitude of people in the twenties is The Great Gatsby. In this novel, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows what it was like to have newfound wealth in the American society, a world where flashy cars, big houses and gigantic parties dominated the scene. Americans in this time period had no idea that the next decade would be marked with poverty and homelessness, a decade forever known in history as the Great Depression. This book contains key reasons as to why this all happened. Causes of the Great Depression as described in The Great Gatsby and through historical documentation, include the mentality of the American people after World War I, frivolous spending and lavish partying, people’s dependence on a stock market with frequent irregularity, and the buying of items on credit and loans.

After the Great War, the people of America were seeking a way to forget the unsightly evils of fighting a gruesome battle: they were looking for fun. Enjoyment for adults was hard to come by with the adoption and enforcement of the eighteen...

... middle of paper ...

..."How Stocks and the Stock Market Work"" Howstuffworks "Business & Money" Web. 20 May 2011. .

Kelly, Martin. "Great Depression - Top Five Causes of the Great Depression." American History

From About. Web. 12 May 2011. .

Muscoreil, Debra Lucas. "Prohibition." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara

Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 4. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 119-120. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 May 2011.

O'Neal, Michael. Decades of American History: America in the 1920s. New York: Facts On File,

2006. Print.

Stewart, Gail B. 1920s. New York: Crestwood House, 1989. Print

Telgen, Diane. “The Great Gatsby.” Novels For Students. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.

Print.

Show More
Related

  • David Kyvig Daily Life In The United States Summary

    1291 Words  | 3 Pages

    David, Kyvig E. Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939: Decades of Promise and Pain. Westport: Greenwood P, 2002.

    Read More

  • The Causes Of The Great Depression

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Great Depression was a period of first-time decline in economic movement. It occurred between the years 1929 and 1939. It was the worst and longest economic breakdown in history. The Wall Street stock market crash started the Great Depression; it had terrible effects on the country (United States of America). When the stock market started failing many factories closed production of all types of good. Businesses and banks started closing down and farmers fell into bankruptcy. Many people lost everything, their jobs, their savings, and homes. More than thirteen million people were unemployed.

    Read More

  • How Did The Great Depression Change American Society In The 1930s

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    Following the decade of economic prosperity and peace of the Roaring 20’s was the 1930’s which is commonly known as the Great Depression, an era of distress and instability that played an effect on altering the social, political, and economical infrastructure of the United States. Before the Great Depression, the United States was a representation of a consumer-driven society, with people loaning money from banks, in order to pay for luxurious items, they could not afford. However, in 1929, the stock market crashed, resulting in the nationwide closures of multiple banks and marked as the begin of turmoil for Americans. With the burden of the nation on the backs of all Americans, the meaning of life was changed and people waited day by day for the government to act and steer the nation back on the track for economic and political stability and progress, to be a

    Read More

  • Factors Effecting the Success of The Ku Klux Klan in America

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    War can have many affects on people and cause serious mixed emotions. The early 1900's can be considered the post-war era. This era was a time of reflection on the evils of war that carried a frightened national feeling, as well as a sense of hate. Dr. John Moffatt Mecklin, one of the leading theorists on the Klan in the 1920's, tells us that "The Klan owes its marvelous growth to post war co...

    Read More

  • Materialism and Manipulation in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Prohibition, a Theme in F. Scott´s Fitzgerald´s The Great Gatsby

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Wealthy during the 1920s are shown to be egotistical people who only care about their own pleasure. New found independence, new technology, and a ban that only make alcohol more tempting certainly makes this prosperous time a moral dystopia. For the first time for many people, they can do almost anything with money; sometimes at the expense of others. The others were forced to live in poverty, endured careless rich people, and get blamed for their mess. Unfortunately for the rich, the Great Depression slap them back into reality and they have to work hard to get back what they lost. Both history and The Great Gatsby shows that money can be a double-edged sword and that there some things money can’t buy, like love and happiness for example.

    Read More

  • Jazz and The Charleston in The 1920's

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lindop, Edmund, and Margaret J. Goldstein. America In The 1920s. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group Inc., 2010. Print.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Stock Market Crash Essay

    450 Words  | 1 Pages

    F. Scott Fitzgerald delineated the Roaring Twenties in The Great Gatsby as “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.” It was the era marked by social changes and splendous parties and self-made millionaires. However, unprecedented to Fitzgerald and many of his contemporaries was that said glamourous lifestyle was built on a precarious foundation. When the stock market crashed in 1929, it put a period to the beguiling era and opened Americans to a horrid epoch. Yet, in actuality, the Stock market crash is an inexorable consequence of a time so reckless such as the Roaring Twenties. Some identified causes of the eventual crash are margin buying, overproduction of goods, and banks investing in stocks with depositors’ funds.

    Read More

  • Great Depression And Its Causes

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    The causes of the Great Depression of the 1920's and 1930's has been argued about for generations. Most people agree on several key topics and that it was the severity and length of time the Depression lasted that was actually the most remarkable. Hoover made many noteworthy attempts to try and solve this crisis, yet in the end it was President Roosevelt and his "New Deal", that brought many Americans hope for the future.

    Read More

  • Main Causes of The Great Depression

    1895 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Great Depression was the worst economic slump ever in U.S. history, and one which spread to virtually all of the industrialized world. The depression began in late 1929 and lasted for about a decade. Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression; however, the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's, and the extensive stock

    Read More

  • Causes Of The Great Depression

    3212 Words  | 7 Pages

    The speculation and the resulting stock market crash acted as the trigger for the already unstable United States economy. Due to the maldistribution of wealth and the unstable economy of the 1920’s, the nation headed into a decade of trouble. In response to its economic difficulties, the United States set up even higher trade barriers with other nations, causing more trouble within the nation. Many of the working class lost their jobs, and since these people did not have savings, they were in big trouble. Unemployment grew to 13 million by 1932 as the country quickly spiraled into a catastrophe. The Great Depression had begun due to the maldistribution of wealth, a bad economy based on over confidence, and the irresponsible erratic of the “bull” stock market.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby and the Great Depression

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    The twenties was a decade full of new financial opportunities in a society unable to adopt so much so quickly.  All of the new possibilities, such as credit and loans, led to greater debts and bigger holes to fill.  Society began getting too deeply in debt and was becoming increasingly unable to get itself out.  So, they began searching for alternate means of wealth.  One extremely enticing instrument was the ever-growing stock market.  Many people bought stocks low, hoping to sell high when the market peaked.  But, as confidence in the stock market's "devotion" to buyers faltered, stockholders began selling as fast as they could.  In turn, this rapid selling of stocks lead to the crash in 1929.  Gatsby, like a stockholder put all of his "wealth" into Daisy.  She was his only hope to escape his "impoverished" past, so Gatsby was left with no choice but to put all of his money into her (like the people of the twenties did with the stock market).  When Gatsby and Daisy confronted Tom in the city that hot summer day, Daisy's devotion to Gatsby falte...

    Read More

  • The Old America vs. The New America

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 1920’s is a period that defines the United States. Conflict and opposing values were increasingly prevalent in the American society. The country was torn between new political practices, views on the role of women, religion, social and artistic trends, science and more traditional beliefs. These were ideologies that were surfacing during the 1920’s. Much tension between the 'new America' and the 'old America' was caused by a number of wars and outbreaks (Lyndon).

    Read More

  • Causes Of The Great Depression

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    The age of the Great Depression was littered with varying stories of extreme poverty rivaled by the contrasting stories of the .1 percent of society that possessed extreme wealth. President Hoover called the depression “a passing incident in our national lives” (cite 1) which proved to be a gross underestimation of the severity of the situation. The previous decades that brought roaring success and expanding technology was thought to be a period of great success that was earned through hard work and fluid government; and so when the economy collapsed blame turned inward and failure felt deserved just the same.

    Read More

  • Review of "SInce Yesterday"

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    Review of Frederick Lewis Allen: Since Yesterday: the 1930’s America. (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1939), 362 pp.

    Read More

More about Causes of the Great Depression as Depicted in the Great Gatsby

Open Document