Although The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi represent two vastly different cultures and time periods, both explore the social context of those respective time periods. The two authors’ contrasting approaches to uncovering the social dispositions of the two different time periods within which their work takes place reveals two separate themes; in Persepolis, Satrapi highlights and questions the belonging of social class divisions in Iranian society, while in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald denounces the materialism immorality of upper-class society during the roaring twenties. On the topic of social class, both Persepolis and The Great Gatsby, share the idea that you are born into your class; however, the Fitzgerald uses money as a symbol of stability and power, yet mocks the upper class’s carelessness and obsession with wealth in saying “[Tom and Daisy] smashed up things… and then retreated into their money or their vast carelessness,” and also establishes the power of money, as they leave others to “clean up the mess they had made” (179). Capitalism was at its height in the soaring economy of the roaring twenties, strengthening materialism and the underlying belief that money was “everything,”; Fitzgerald’s commentary reveals his scrutiny of materialistic values. Contrarily, in Persepolis, the Islamic government views capitalism as a symbol of “decadence,” yet social class division is still as common as in capitalist societies (Satrapi 4). In the two panels on page 102, Satrapi presents the obvious division in writing, “the key to paradise was for poor people”: impoverished kids are indoctrinated into becoming martyrs for their country and sent into the battlefields to die; despite this, in the bottom panel, we see Marji at her first party, completely unaffected and oblivious to the suffering experienced by the less wealthy. Again, we see Marji’s social standing and wealth protecting her from the darker reality of the war in her country, a product of the social class divisions that her country fought against in the revolution, only resulting in further segregation of the classes; this detail serves as a bolstering of Satrapi’s goal to highlight the divisions of the classes in
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel, the Great Gatsby, during the 1920s. This decade was characterized by economic and cultural change. With the growth of a new class of new money, Americans began to grow tired of the different social standards of the each social rank and attempted to move into a higher class. Fitzgerald focused on this disparity between classes and several class issues, specifically class mobility. In the year 2005, several journalists wrote and published a group of essays known as Class Matters. These essays discuss modern social and economic class structure and associated class issues. An essential theme in each of these novels is class mobility. The Great Gatsby and Class Matters both explore the differences between classes and the lack of class mobility in order and bring attention to the class imbalance.
The emerging inequitable class systems and antagonisms of the nineteen twenties saw the traditional order and moral values challenged, as well as the creation of great wealth for few and poverty for many. The Great Gatsby, written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, explores the causes and effects of the unbalanced class structures. Fitzgerald outlines the idea that the desire to accumulate wealth and status is a common ambition amongst the lower classes; when that desire is reached, the traditional upper class is challenged by the emerging newly wealthy, which finally leads to destructive consequences. By creating rigid class structures, traditional upper class, new wealth, and the poor in The Great Gatsby, it is shown that the desire to further or maintain socio-economic status leads to immoral behaviour such as criminal activity, adultery, and murder.
Wealth can be a noble thing or a dangerous thing, depending on who does what with it. In The Great Gatsby, the wealth of Jay Gatsby was used for a multitude of reasons, the main one being to get the attention of Daisy. In contrast, the Joad family’s wealth, in The Grapes of Wrath, was staying together throughout the loses and hardships. One of the aims of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was to show how money and materialism could change a person again and again until they were hardly the same person anymore. In comparing their work it is clear that Fitzgerald and Steinbeck felt that materialism changed people for the worse. While both of their novels deal with wealth and poverty, each novel conveys its message from a very different perspective-
Bewley, Marius. "Scott Fitzgerald's Criticism of America." Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Great Gatsby. Ed. Ernest Lockridge. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. 37-53.
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald criticises the increase of consumerism in the 1920s and the abandonment of the original American Dream , highlighting that the increased focus on wealth and the social class associated with it has negative effects on relationships and the poorest sections of society. The concept of wealth being used as a measure of success and worth is also explored by Plath in ‘The Bell Jar’. Similarly, she draws attention to the superficial nature of this material American Dream which has extended into the 1960s, but highlights that gender determines people’s worth in society as well as class. Fitzgerald uses setting to criticise society’s loss of morality and the growth of consumerism after the Great War. The rise of the stock market in the 1920s enabled business to prosper in America.
...der an intense image of the pretence that he believed the upper-class felt during the 1920s. In literature, the rose is usually a symbol of beauty and love, however Fitzgerald makes the comment that in reality, the 1920s are not entirely the wonderful era they are portrayed to be. While the issue of materialism is still very relevant in a modern-day context, the force behind it is quite different. Materialism is less a result of society’s search for love and happiness in an unethical culture, rather, high wages and relatively inexpensive commodities mean that modern, upper-class society obliges to the world of consumerism simply because it can.
...m that was based more on wealth and possessions and less on hard work and achievement. The fact that he later rebelled against the material 1920s culture shows that he was in fact cautioning against this lifestyle rather than encouraging it.” This more than anything proves Fitzgerald is making a commentary on the corruption of the American Dream rather than simply the tale of wealthy lovers.
In the book, money symbolizes a social evil as it destroys lives of people corrupted by wealth. In the first chapter, Fitzgerald treats money as if it was a cookie cutter for social classes and tells how wealth divides the society into different groups. For instance, East Eggers have "inherited money" whereas West Eggers have newly acquired money. Tom is an example of an East Egger who has "prestigiously" inherited quite a lot of "old" money. Gatsby is a West Egger who by boot legging, swindling and doing favors for others, has acquired "new" money.
.... (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).
Although F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis represent two vastly different cultures and time periods, both explore the social context of those respective time periods. The two authors’ contrasting approaches to uncovering the social attitudes reveal two separate themes; in Persepolis, Satrapi examines social class divisions in Iranian society, while in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald exposes the truths of upper-class society during the Roaring Twenties. Both works highlight the deep divide in wealth between social classes, revealing the failures of social institutions.
“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.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most compelling twentieth century writers, (Curnutt, 2004). The year 1925 marks the year of the publication of Fitzgerald’s most credited novel, The Great Gatsby (Bruccoli, 1985). With its critiques of materialism, love and the American Dream (Berman, 1996), this dramatic idyllic novel, (Harvey, 1957), although poorly received at first, is now highly regarded as Fitzgerald’s finest work (Rohrkemper, 1985) and is his publisher, Scribner 's most popular title, (Donahue, 2013). The novel achieved it’s status as one of the most influential novels in American history around the nineteen fifties and sixties, over ten years after Fitzgerald 's passing, (Ibid, 1985)
There are many themes that are implemented in the Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald uses as a technique to juxtapose two contrasting topics. During this time of the Roaring Twenties, business and economy was booming, however there’s still was a underlying hint of urban corruption and the gap between the rich and poor became greater. Through the technique of juxtaposition, Fitzgerald paints a detailed picture of society in the 1920’s and its cultural clashes. By comparing the characters living in the East and West Egg, Fitzgerald highlights the contrast between morality and corruption in society during the 1920’s. Additionally, his contrasting descriptions of Tom and Daisy’s house to the Valley of Ashes offers a juxtaposition of the rich and poor.
In conclusion, The Great Gatsby reveals the carelessness and shallowness of the characters in the upper class. Society is totally corrupted and the character’s lives revolve around the money and extravagant lifestyles. All of the characters are surrounded with expensive and unnecessary itms, which in turn, dulls their dream of actual success. Scott F. Fitzgerald provides a powerful and everlasting message of a corrupt, materialistic society and the effects that it has on the idea of the American dream.
In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald explores the idea of the American Dream as well as the portrayal of social classes. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct social groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating two distinct social classes ‘old money’ and ‘new money’, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism underlying and moral corruption society. The idea of the American dream is the ideal that opportunity is available to any American, allowing their highest aspirations and goals to be achieved. In the case of The Great Gatsby it centres on the attainment of wealth and status to reach certain positions in life,