preview

Critical Analysis Of The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays
The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is hailed as a masterpiece of American fiction. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald offers up a commentary on the American society of which he was a part. He successfully encapsulates the mood of a generation during a politically and socially crucial and chaotic period of American history. In fact, The Great Gatsby stands as a brilliant piece of English literature that of which offers a vivid peek into American life in the 1920s. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups with each group having its own problems to contend with, for the sole purpose of leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place America truly was. By creating distinct social classes — old money, new money, and no money — Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism running throughout every stratum of society, and thereby challenging the myth of the so-called “American Dream.” Although the 1920s was supposedly a time of high optimism for Americans, Fitzgerald yet seeks to discredit the supposed idealism of the American Dream; he portrays the much bleaker side of this chaotic era by focusing on its indulgence, hypocrisy, shallow recklessness, and its dangerous consequences, all represented by the novel’s characters. To begin with, the 1920s was the decade of “decadence” and “prosperity” that America has enjoyed at that time. It is its surging economy, however, that has turned the 1920s into a period of easy money, hard drinking, decayed
Get Access