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the decade ofthe 1920s
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The Great Gatsby as a Representative of the Jazz Age
The notorious portrayal of the 1920s is often characterized as an era of abundant prosperity, lavish lifestyles, and “new aged” philosophies. This image, however, was only the surface of a skewed decade filled with deep cultural discord. Underneath all the glitz and glamour of the racy flappers and the fiery jazz bands was a dueling battle of old school Victorian ways versus new aged America (Mintz). This glorious “jazz age,” as Mr. Fitzgerald put it himself, was “an age of miracles, and age of art, an age of excess, and it was an age of satire” (Sickles).
After WWI ended in 1918, The American society experienced an abrupt age of economic and cultural miracles (McDougal Littell Inc 425). What was once a country in great turmoil and despair had rapidly become a country rising into power, wealth, and prosperity. With this great change also came an enormous transformation of the American way of life (412). Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby captured this transformation exceptionally well with its representation of east egg and west egg, as symbols of societies ever-changing cultural views (Fitzgerald 101). Fitzgerald’s “eggs” were two land masses in New York’s Long Island Sound that were separated by a small bay of water. Although they were only a short distance away from each other, the two eggs served as social barriers which were not to be crossed (9). The east egg was reserved for New York’s aristocratic social class that had been brought up in the pre-war Victorian era. It represented the many wealthy family chains who wanted to keep their elite social status and way of life the same, like how it was before WWI (10). The west egg, however, was home to a new breed of Ame...
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...s. Tom and Daisy showed their true colors, by using their social status and the power of money to bail them out of the inevitable truth: their cowardice was to blame for Myrtle and Gatsby’s untimely deaths (Fitzgerald 187). Instead of showing Mr. Gatsby the decency of appearing at his funeral, they simply moved to another home to forget their shameful past (172). Every Saturday Jay Gatsby threw elaborate parties filled with crowds of people, yet at his funeral none of his “friends” were there (Richards). This coincided with the 1920s hedonistic way of life. None the less, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us… tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning- So we beat on. Boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Nick Carraway, qtd. in Fitzgerald 189).
The thought of having an immense sum of money or wealth bring certain people to believe that money can buy almost anything, even happiness, however in reality, it will only lead to lost and false hope. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes a story about a man named Gatsby who is a victim of this so called 'false hope' and 'lost.' Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald clearly demonstrates and elaborates on the relationship between having money, wealth, and one's ethics or integrity by acknowledging the idea that the amount of money or wealth one has attained does affect the relationship between one's wealth and one's ethics whether or not in a pleasant manner. Although money and wealth may not be able to buy a person happiness, it surely can buy a person's mind and action given that a wealthy person has a great deal of power. Fitzgerald analyzes the notion that even though many people dream of being both rich and ethical, it is not possible, and therefore, being poor and ethical is much better than trying to be rich and ethical.
one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest
Jay Gatsby is a mysterious businessman from the nineteen twenties that is an ideal example of the American Dream. He falls in love with a young and vibrant woman by the name of Daisy Buchannan. Their admiration for each other enforces a luminous spark of determination upon themselves. This subsidizes their relationship under struggling circumstances, and changed their lives for the better. Daisy and Gatsby are the only two that truly prospered from their “American Dream” in this novel.
Gatsby’s distinct charisma indicates his struggle against moral corruption and sets him apart from the moral decay evident in the upper class. Owl eyes is very surprised when he finds out all the books in Gatsby’s library are real, “‘The books?...Absolutely real--have pages and everything...It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco’” (45). While most of the upper class uses outward displays of wealth to cover their inner moral corruption, Gatsby uses his extravagant opulence to mask his love for Daisy. In this way his morals and ability to conceal his love prove his willingness and drive to acquire Daisy’s love and acceptance. The majority of the upper class suffers from moral poverty, lacking internal morals to keep them grounded acting out in ways that diminishes their social status. Gatsby is so close to Daisy his whole life yet he is unable to get any closer until their relationship is destroyed forever. “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock...his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him” (180). Gatsby continually reaches out for Daisy with hope and optimism, but the distance between his dock and the Buchanan’s does not get any closer symbolic for the
Jay Gatsby, a mysterious, young and very wealthy man, fatally chases an impossible dream. Gatsby attempts to rekindle an old relationship and has confidence in repeating the past. Gatsby claims that he is going to “fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 117). In a a conversation with Nick, Gatsby discusses how the past can be repeated and how he wants the relationship that he once had with Daisy (Fitzgerald 116). Secondly, Gatsby attempts to exemplify his wealth through fancy cars and stylish clothing. Gatsby shows his clothing to Daisy and informs her that he has a “man in England” who buys his clothes every season (Fitzgerald 97). Illustrating his wealth, Gatsby drives a Rolls Royce that “was a rich cream color, bright with nickel” (Fitzgerald 68). Although Gatsby’s foolish quest of the American dream exemplifies a respectable aspiration, it ends in a tragic death that goes virtually unnoticed. A sharp contrast to the parties , the funeral was sparingly attended and “nobody came” (Fitzgerald 182). Following the ...
Gatsby has all the money yet he is not happy when he throws gigantic parties at his house. Daisy, the one he tried to lure in with his parties, never cared to show up. The love shown by Gatsby towards Daisy, “’I want to wait here till Daisy goes to bed. Good night, old sport.’ He put his hands in his coat pockets and turned back eagerly to his scrutiny of the house as though my presence marred the sacredness of the vigil. So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight – watching over nothing” (Fitzgerald 145).
In life, we ask ourselves the question what we are? In addition, we also ask ourselves how our perspectives allow us to see this world? These questions are an opening idea’s, which requires the person answering it, to be fully aware of his or her life, and then have the ability to judge it without any personal bias. This is why, in the book that was and is in a sense is still talked about in class, The Great Gatsby, which is a book that follows a plethora of charters all being narrated by, Nick Caraway, a character of the book The Great Gatsby. Nick Caraway is the character in the book which judges and describes his and other character’s actions and virtues. Now we speak of a character whose name is Jay Gatsby or other whys known as James Gatz, which is one of the characters that Mr. Caraway, seems to be infatuated with from the start of the book. This character Jay Gatsby develops a perspective, which in his view seems to justify his actions by the way that he saw the world that he was living in. In this essay, I will explain why the ambitions of a person, can lead them to do things that are beyond there normal character.
Symbolism is the use of giving objects a representative meaning or to represent something other than what it truly is. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby we meet Nick Carroway, the novel's narrator. The novel describes the life of Jay Gatsby when Nick meets him. Daisy, Nick's cousin, is married to Tom Buchanan but is the love interest of Gatsby. Tom, though he claims to love his wife, has a mistress Myrtle. Myrtle and her Husband George Wilson live in the valley of ashes. The novel analyzes the life of Americans, Jay Gatsby in particular, in the 1920's. Many of the items in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby represent something other than what it is.
Amidst the exceedingly prosperous decade of the 1920’s, traditional American lifestyles and principles were interjected by the new superficial and materialistic beliefs closely associated with “The Roaring Twenties.” Undoubtedly, the 1920’s were a decade of change.
In the book The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates how people who seem to have wonderful lives because they are wealthy, can be selfish and poor in character. Those people lead to the decline of the American Dream for Gatsby. The 1920's was the age of prosperity on Long Island and that is why most people assumed that if you were rich and wealthy you had a good life. They also assumed that they had positive personalities. Fitzgerald proved them wrong. " One of the novel's dominant themes involves the decay of traditional American values in a suddenly prosperous society" (Howes). In fact, most of the characters in the novel were major factors to the fall of the American Dream. He exposes the greedy, conceited, and low people who live in it.
"The American Dream is that dream of a nation in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with options for everyone to achieve their dream,” . Fitzgerald demonstrates in the “Great Gatsby” how a dream can become destroyed by one’s focus on only wanting wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream “is a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness,harmony, and beauty” (“Fahey”). In the “Great Gatsby” Nick says “Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry”. The race after the American Dream is a primary theme that was seen throughout “The Great Gatsby”, wrote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and how he represented this theme through his characters and all that they did.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in the year 1925. It is romantic novel between a lot different characters that you get to know in the novel. It is like one big love circle. Daisy Buchannan is married to Tom Buchannan but before their marriage Daisy was in love with a man named Jay Gatsby. Gatsby had to go fight in the war and Daisy never heard or saw of Gatsby again. Only on the day of her wedding Gatsby wrote her a letter explain why he couldn’t see her and that he was coming home, but sadly it was already to late. Daisy was to marry Tom Buchannan and nobody could stop it. Daisy is now in marriage she doesn’t want to be in and she finds out later hat Tom has a mistress in the city. Another side of the novel is about the narrator Nick Carraway. Nick is first cousins to Daisy and they grew up together. Nick knows Tom from Yale they both graduated the same year. Nick moved from the west to West Egg to start over and he shortly discovers that he is neighbors to The Great Gatsby himself. Deeper into the novel Nick and Gatsby become acquainted and become very good friends. Gatsby lets Nick know that him and his cousin Daisy have a past and he would like to schedule to see her but he doesn’t want Daisy knowing that she is going to see him. Nick is told to invite Daisy over for tea and Gatsby just so happens to drop by. This plan is put into full affect and
Also known as the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties, the American people felt that they deserved to have some fun in order to forget the emotional toll and social scars left from the war. The Jazz Age was appropriately named due to the illegal activities and good times, which included music, parties, and flapper girls. Jazz was a new style of music that originated out of the New Orleans area, where one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time – Louis Armstrong – began his career. The energy of jazz was a very new and almost uncomfortable style for the very traditional, rigid family of the 1920s. Young people in particular seemed to enjoy this new music the most, as it made them feel carefree. The energy of jazz was symbolic of the era’s trans...
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.
The East and West Egg are two opposite parts of Long Island. The East Egg is where people of old money reside, like Daisy and Tom, who have inherited the riches of the aristocracy. However, the West Egg is the home of the nouveau riche or new money. It is where Gatsby and Nick reside, who have accumulated great wealth on their own. Fitzgerald contrasts these two places and the characters from each Egg to highlight the cultural clash in the 1920’s between old and new money and the contrasting theme of corruption and morality.