In the 1920’s, America changed its way of living from being more religiously based to being more materialistic. The idea that social status was directly related to how rich you were and how much you had was very strict in the 1920’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby highlighting the culture and materialism of the 1920’s like the riskier dresses that put more emphasis on the body than the woman’s personality, the boom of the illegal alcohol production a very addictive substance but specifically at parties, a place to flash social status. Gatsby, though, holds extremely expensive and boisterous parties not so that he can flash his money, but to catch the eye of Daisy, the love of his life who lives on the opposite Egg of Long Island. Extravagant parties are used to represent the materialistic life in the 1920’s leaving Gatsby alone and struggling to obtain an emotional connection with Daisy. Large parties are intimate, making people feel physically connected, but leave them emotionally isolated. Jordan comments on how Gatsby’s social-nights are “so intimate” (49) and “at small parties there isn’t any privacy” (49). The intimacy at Gatsby’s events is only physical with members sharing drinks and a night; they are not, though, sharing their pasts, deeper thoughts and all together avoiding connecting on a deeper level. With so many people there, these events are where people only have to physically contribute while small parties require mental and emotional contributions to function. Extravagant parties were so prominent in the 1920’s because, with a materialist mindset, people didn’t have to make emotional connections, only needing to attach to objects while they are near others. The only reasons to go to enormous parties is because the objects were not at your own Rumors are fake stories created by people because they cannot connect to someone emotionally. When there is no emotional connection, there is no incentive or need to share life stories or traits that make up one’s personality. No one knows anything concrete about Gatsby because no one connects with him emotionally due to the fact that no one is invested in others, only objects. In the viewpoint of the individuals partaking in the social events, knowing Gatsby means that, by association, they are like him in high social status and tremendous wealth. If rumors about how “he killed a man once” or how “he was a German spy during the war” were true, that inside informant must be exceptionally close to Gatsby, which people in reality were not (44). Everyone needs emotional connections a psychological and spiritual necessity, Gatsby using Nick to fulfill his needs and to help him form a solid emotional connection with Daisy. Gatsby gets close to Nick, the only one “actually invited” to one of Gatsby’s parties not realizing that, after his relationship with Daisy fails, Nick would be his final emotional connection (41). Nick is the first person to come to a great Gatsby party for him and not for Gatsby’ money, showing the start of an emotional connection-Nick breaking away from the social standard of being blocked or sidetracked by
Nick observes, “On week-ends his Rolls Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains” (Fitzgerald 39).Gatsby not only hosts massive parties, his vehicles collect his uninvited guests so that they can attend his parties with ease.The majority of the guests do not know Gatsby, yet arrive in droves to participate in the surfeit of pleasure. Gatsby believes hosting massive numbers of people will increase his chance of finding someone who can reconnect him to Daisy. As well, his strategy is to have the story of his excess get back to Daisy so she will be impressed with his material wealth. Symbolically, the instruments that provide a reconnection to Daisy are Gatsby’s flamboyant automobiles. Gatsby 's cars represent his need for attention and his lack of a true identity beyond materialism.These failures lead to his eventual
Throughout the tale of The Great Gatsby the reader is treated to a vivid description of Gatsby's parties and his prolific residence. It would appear that Gatsby had everything a person could want. Loads of money and friends and surrounded by the finer things of life. However, the book takes a turn towards its e...
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.
Carraway describes the atmosphere as “spilled with prodigality” (Fitzgerald 44). Gatsby’s fills his parties with wasteful extravagances like alcohol, and his efforts toward love end up as futile. The people, instead of appreciating Gatsby, backhandedly gossip about his past as a German spy, and simply partake in the alcohol being served (Fitzgerald 48). Instead of representing the upper echelon’s of 1920s’ society, in contrast to the poor, the party-goers appear weak, superficial, and unworthy of such acclaim, especially when given their tendency to gossip. With this depiction of the partiers, Fitzgerald showcases the hollow nature of 1920s society, lacking in morality and
Even though he had some thought that the meeting would provoke harmful tensions between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he went along with it anyways, further demonstrating his own innate lack of reservation. Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
Gatsby throws lavish parties to create a image of wealth for those attending. However, the people who show up do not care about Gatsby, rather they care about the “show” he puts on through these celebrations. The party-goers are only seeking an escape, they are lured to the bright lights and excessive alcohol, like moths to a flame. Not ever paying attention to a wondering Gatsby (if in fact they even know
.... (Parkinson 96) This kind of so-called rebellious lifestyle encompasses a part of Gatsby; the part that put ultimate wealth as a life goal and as a way to Daisy. This depiction of Gatsby’s battle for the girl proves that Fitzgerald’s view towards wealth had to have been influenced by the time period he lived in. It also demonstrates the emptiness of values and morals that were so common amongst the majority of the population at that time. This lifestyle spread like a virus to most people because it promised a happy life while being the social norm at the time. It not only included wealth as a goal but sex and women played a crucial role in the average American dream during the 1920’s. For, “wealth and sex are closely related in this vicious and greedy world of plunder, which renders life meaningless by denying any altruism in human endeavor” (Parkinson 110).
I have chosen to write a commentary on pages 100 to 103, Gatsby's second party because I feel it brings out true messages of the book and it portrays the more realistic, hones, darker side of the supposedly glamorous, high-class parties. It negatively shows how people are knowingly and openly breaking the law (National Prohibition Act), making fools of themselves, and putting on fronts in order to satisfy the equally false and shallow `celebrities' they wish to measure up to. Really, the only people who deserve to be admired are the truly honest ones, who are content within themselves and feel no urge to compete against the insecure status seekers. These people want to be remembered with respect and admiration, but in order to summon up the courage so speak up and be fun yet intelligent they get heavily drunk, forget about manners and etiquette and the plan to seem interesting and end up making utter fools of themselves, thereby being remembered with humiliation and pity. This party shows people as they come across throughout the book; Tom being domineering, Daisy being confused and indecisive and Gatsby still trying his ever best to impress Daisy. We can also witness the anonymity of the guests who are supposedly Gatsby's friends. Gatsby's previous party was elegant, glamorous and cheerful, whereas this one has "turned septic on the air." This party ids the antithesis on Gatsby's previous party.
Several individuals mark Gatsby to be a man of great wealth, with a beautiful estate, and an abundance of friends. To illustrate, parties that are hosted at Gatsby’s house are magnificent, filled with professional entertainment, music and dancers, and guests varying from politicians to movie stars. Fitzgerald paints the picture of the parties at Gatsby’s house in great detail in this passage “The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.” (Fitzgerald 44). It can be seen that these were extravagant parties filled with lust and alcohol. The evidence shows that no ordinary man would be throwing parties of this form, only a man with great wealth and resources would pull of such a feat. Furthermore, this was the prohibition era, which meant that alcohol and the consumption of alcohol was illegal. After this brief look into Gatsby’s life, one can understand why he was considered “great”, but to truly understand Gatsby’s greatness, one must look into his
“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. Such is exemplified by Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan. Their ambitions distinctly represent their class in which Fitzgerald implies strongly about.
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 these novels, Gatsby’s parties and the Everglades are places that show how the 1920’s have great communities and spiritual center. Gatsby loves to throw magnificent parties in hopes of luring Daisy to his home. These parties are very extravagant, with plenty of food and entertainment, “the air is alive with chatter and laughter, [...] and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other 's names”(Fitzgerald 40). This reveals how much Gatsby’s parties bring people together to enjoy each
It is human nature for people to question the character of those around them, and in Gatsby’s case, his friends did not have much information about him. Since little is known about Gatsby, his neighbor, Nick, must depend on misleading rumors about the man of mystery. At one of Gatsby’s glamorous parties, a group of women gossip, “One time he killed a man who had found out that he was the nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil” (61). Other guest place Gatsby as an illegal bootlegger or as a German spy during the war. While some of these stories may be true to his past, most are the outcome of society’s ignorance of Gatsby.
The start of Gatsby’s party is a vibrant, extravagant, exciting facade of wealth and happiness, but over the course of the evening it deteriorates to a series of cries, fights, and over all sadness, illuminating the shallow and vapid behaviors of the upper class. Upon entering the party, Nick describes the party in,“gaudy,[...]bright,[...]joyous,” (44-45) terms, he watches“the lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun” (44). These bright colors represent the image Gatsby wants everyone to see and the happiness that is supposed to come with wealth. The guests enjoy living in this facade of wealth and glamour to distract themselves from the reality of life in the 1920s. As the night goes on, the illusion of happiness fades
Hugh Hefner once said, “I looked back on the roaring Twenties, with its jazz, 'Great Gatsby' and the pre-Code films as a party I had somehow managed to miss.” The parties of the Roaring Twenties were used to symbolize wealth and power in a society that was focused more on materialism and gossip than the important things in life, like family, security, and friends. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan as the epitome of the era. The reader sees these characters acting selfishly and trying to meddle with others’ lives. On the other hand, Nick Carraway, the narrator, acts more to help others and act honestly. Initially the reader sees Carraway’s views towards Jay Gatsby as negative as Gatsby’s actions are perceived as being like the Buchanan’s. As the novel moves forward, the reader notices a change in Carraway’s attitude towards Gatsby. Carraway sees Gatsby for whom he truly is, and that is a loving person who only became rich to win Daisy’s heart. But in this the reader also sees how corrupt and hurtful Gatsby’s actions were to the love of his life. Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy reveals that just as Gatsby’s dream of wooing Daisy is corrupted by illegalities and dishonesty, the “American Dream” of friendship and individualism has disintegrated into the simple pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure.