Great Gatsby: Moral Decay of the Nineteen Twenties

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The Great Gatsby written by F.Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1926. The novel is set in the early nineteen twenties in the post world war one era and takes place in the New York on the west and east egg of Long Island. The novel explores the life of the central character, Jay Gatsby. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, tells of Gatsby's ongoing quest to win over the love of Daisy, despite her marriage with Tom Buchanan. Fitzgerald uses ideologies and marginalizes class, education, race and gender to represent the moral decay of the nineteen twenties and of society in general. Without the marginalization of these social groups than the reader would not be able to identify with certain characters and would not be able to either relate sympathetically or callous towards particular characters. Through out the novel the marginalization of women is significantly shown. The effect of marginalizing women within the novel is to represent the social classes of the nineteen twenties and the power and dominance of men in this time, it showed that women needed men in order to fit into society and to make an income. The most significant example of the marginalization of women is shown through Tom and Daisy Buchanan. "Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand" Tom Buchanan breaks Mertyle's nose, his mistress, and in doing so he expresses his power over women and his lack of respect towards them. Within the novel Tom Buchanan represents the whole male population of the nineteen twenties and their views towards women. Daisy also remarks that for a woman to be successful in life they must be pretty fools " that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool ". Daisy is dependan... ... middle of paper ... ... nineteen twenties. Fitzgerald uses ideologies and the use of marginalization of social groups such as gender, class representation, race and education to depict the state of immorality at the time. without this use of marginalization the readers would not be able to indentify successfully with the characters and to feel either sympathetically or carelessly to particular characters. Works Cited http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/ http://classiclit.about.com/od/greatgatsbythe/a/aa_greatgatsbyq.htm http://www.shmoop.com/great-gatsby/quotes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Shore_(Long_Island) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aristocracy http://www.allgreatquotes.com/great_gatsby_quotes.shtml The original novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1926, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald.

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