The Great Gatsby Reflection Essay

nela Sljoka
Casperson 5
AP English 3
28 January 2015
The Reflection of the Roaring Twenties in The Great Gatsby The Roaring 20’s or the Jazz Age is memorable for many Americans in terms of big achievements in many aspects of people’s lives and their American dreams. However, there are multiple points revealed undertones of roughness and superficiality, which eventually led to disillusionment. The Great Gatsby echoes with era depictions of the 1920s and portrays the contrast between traditional and corrupted values which are made prevalent through through relations and descriptions of the characters, the theme of the novel, and the setting as a whole. Fitzgerald lived in the time after WWI where the novel takes place; American life had major
This point becomes clear to the reader when she tells Nick about her daughter, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’ (Fitzgerald, “The Great” 3).Ferrysmawan says “this shows how Daisy thinks about life and how happiness can be bought by not being aware and presumably by having money and being fooled with it.” (Ferrysmawan ). Daisy always preferred wealth over love, she wanted to be happy with money, if she really loved Gatsby she would have waited for him but instead she married Tom because his money. Daisy also portrays the carelessness of the American dream in the situation of the killing of Myrtle and abandoning Gatsby just before and after his death. The fact that she ran over Myrtle without stopping and did not have the bravery to tell Tom shows how Daisy was always thinking of herself and of her own comfort rather than the safety, wellbeing and feelings of others. Myrtle is another depiction of materialism in the novel. The only reason Myrtle had relations with Tom was because of his money and wealth, it lets her escape from the reality of her actual status and gave her the hope that one day she may be with Tom, he is her shot at achieving the American dream and she will do anything to get it. Myrtle was so focused on her dream of wealth that she was
The West Egg, where Gatsby and Nick lived, was seen as “the less fashionable” (Fitzgerald) of the two eggs. Even though the West Egg still contained multimillion dollar mansions since the residents were regarded as “new money” they did not have the same respectability as those who lived in the East Egg which was seen as the “old money.” Both are in the same class but came to the money in different ways, “new money” is new to the wealth and recently obtained it, while “old money” were those who had it in their families for a long time. This leads them to handling their money and relationships differently. The newly rich are portrayed as being “vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste.” (Avery) Gatsby tries to impress others with his money, which lacks class. He drives a fancy car, a Rolls-Royce, has a monstrous mansion by himself, and throws parties non-stop to impress people, and to try to lour Daisy back to him. The old money, people of East Egg, handle their wealth with more maturity, but they then become so used to easing people with the value of their money that they lack consideration for others feelings. Daisy and Tom describe this selfishness. Neither are ever satisfied, and cheat on one another as a result, and they lack consideration for anyone else, they just leave messes for others to clean up. Although new money is less