Fitzgerald 's Pursuit Of Wealth

The 1920s in America, known as the "Roaring Twenties", was a time of celebration after a destructive war. It was a period of time in America characterised by prosperity and optimism. There was a general feeling of disruption associated with modernity and a break with traditions.The Roaring Twenties was a time of great economic prosperity and many people became rich and wealthy. Some people inherited "old money" and some obtained "new money". However, there was the other side of prosperity and many people also suffered the nightmare of being poor. In the novel,The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is portrayed as a wealthy character

The roaring twenties is a time cemented in American history because of the ideas of prosperity that permeated daily life. World War One was complete, and citizens were excited at the new world superpower they had become. Electricity filled urban homes and new commodities, like the radio, made waves. Overall, happiness filled the masses and brought most to ever-increasing levels of hope for the future. This prosperity-aligned culture is famously tied to one book in particular- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Written in the 1920s, Fitzgerald’s tale of glamour and money culture creates a dramatic perspective of the American Dream through the use of pessimist Nick Carraway. While the idea of The American Dream, and the appreciation thereof,

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is the story of the idiosyncratic millionaire Jay Gatsby. It is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner from Long Island who later moves to Manhattan. Gatsby’s life is organized around one desire, Daisy, the woman he loved. This desire leads him on an expedition from poverty to wealth, reuniting with his old love, and his eventual death. In his novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to portray the American Dream where people seek out self-gratification and pleasure. He captures the romance of the roaring twenties with the cars, money, illegal alcohol and the wildest parties one could imagine. Much like the character, Jay Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), wasn’t born into the upper class. While Gatsby is from the lower class, Fitzgerald from the middle class, both end up becoming exceptionally rich, fall into the wildest and reckless life, and use their fortunes to win the love and approval of the women they once loved.

The narrator, Nick mentions that everybody had seen Gatsby's car (Gatsby 63), pointing to the fact that Gatsby flaunted the vehicle and by association his wealth, and Tom flying in polo horses from another city would obviously be outrageously expensive. At several points throughout the novel, Gatsby proclaimed that he was "A Son of God" (Gatsby 125); so Gatsby constantly held himself at a higher prestige than the rest of his peers. Other characters, such as Myrtle, have a lust for money. Essentially being of the middle class, Myrtle's attraction to Tom is not one based on love and affection. Rather, Tom represents something that Myrtle has never had, endless wealth and with this, Myrtle correlates happiness (Bumm 23). The lust for and obtrusive use of money by the characters is an obvious central theme throughout the novel, but as the text draws to a close Fitzgerald emphasizes that money cannot govern human emotions (Expose of America). Gatsby's money fails to entice Daisy away from her husband, and the death of Myrtle is an event that cannot be erased by any amount of money. More then anything, the ending of the novel reinforces to the reader that money is a superficial desire and that, inevitably, it cannot be responsible for bringing happiness or the fulfillment of a dream.

The 1920s gained its nickname, The Roaring Twenties from its wild and carefree lifestyle. The extensive wealth of the time filled most nights with parties, dancing, crazy antics, and illegal alcohol. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, encompassed all of the aspects listed above. Not only did the book express the exciting side of the Twenties, it also expressed lack of morality of the time. According to The Great Gatsby, this lack of morality stemmed from the focus on material items, drinking, and dreaming.

The 1920s is the decade in American history known as the “roaring twenties.” Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of life in the 1920s. Booming parties, prominence, fresh fashion trends, and the excess of alcohol are all aspects of life in the “roaring twenties.”

“In a decade that roared with social amends” it was often referred to as the Roaring Twenties. Two famous literature pieces are very similar connecting key events and issues from this time period. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Ken Allen’s “Roaring Twenties” both utilize conflict, foil and symbolism to help the readers acknowledge the influence of class and money over the characters during the Roaring Twenties.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920’s. The twenties had a lot going on that was great for some people and not for others. The roaring twenties was a time of prohibition and large criminal activity. It also was a great time for the economy because there were more jobs for men who just came out of the war. Women of this time period wore shorter dresses, cut their hair, smoked, swore and were given the right to vote. People spent their money carelessly and partied hard. Others fought for their rights, African Americans had to fight for their right to move into northern cities because people were threatened by other races and their cultures.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was one of the greatest authors during the early 1900s. He wrote five award winning novels and countless more short stories. He was born on September 24, 1896, in Minnesota to an upper middle class catholic family. He wrote for his high school paper which encouraged him to follow his dreams of writing not academics. He died on December 21, 1940, of a heart attack.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was deeply intrigued and impacted by the jazz age, also known as the Roaring twenties. He represented the Jazz era through the razzle dazzle in his famous novel The Great Gatsby by using his unique style with beautifully worded colorful imagery. It brought his stories to life and let all of his readers get a taste of what its like to live in this famous sparkling era. (Oxford 21)

The Roaring 20s, The Jazz age, the 1920s were a time of great prosperity in the United States. The 1920s were an era of change, both politically and socially. Americans began to move into cities, rather than living on farms, and the nation's wealth more than doubled. Buying the same goods, listening to the same music, dancing the same dances, and overall having the same values, people felt united. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, these values are reflected in the characters’ lifestyles. A recurring theme in the novel is that money cannot buy a person’s true happiness, and this theme is exhibited in the various characters actions, choices, and what they value most in their lives.

Throughout the 1920's, Americans had to deal with several issues regarding financial status. The Great Gatsby, a fiction novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the luxurious lifestyle of the roaring twenties, focusing on the high class society in New York City. The story mainly takes place on the outskirts of New York City, on opposite ends of a lake which separates the West Egg from the East Egg. The extremely wealthy Jay Gatsby resides in the West Egg, and is famous for the extraordinary parties he throws every weekend. Across the lake is the mansion of Tom Buchanan, another incredibly wealthy man, and his wife Daisy.

convinced that he will not be able to marry her because his wife is a

Without even meeting Gatsby, Nick delves into a world of delusion and carelessness that marks Gatsby’s party, emphasizing how just mere taste of extravagance and wealth can have such a

F. Scott Fitzgerald, American short-story writer and famous novelist, is well-known for having written The Great Gatsby in 1925, also known as his magnum opus. His personal life was also why many individuals knew about him. He was always known as an alcoholic, and after he finished writing The Great Gatsby, his alcoholic and depression problems got worse, so he tried to keep writing novels, like Tender is the Night, but they were all failures according to the readers (Willett, Erika). When Fitzgerald died, his novels started becoming great American novels, like The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald focused his stories on the Roaring Twenties and the American Dream, which grasped many individuals’ attention. The Great Gatsby was a perfect representation of the American society in that time period. Fitzgerald used his excellent writing skills to criticize Americans and influence them at the same time. All individuals wanted to be wealthy to be able to live a perfect life, but only people that were born in wealthy families could have that privilege in that time period. Immigrants also wanted to achieve their American Dream, but they would have to work very hard to make it happen (Library of Congress). Materialism was the finish line for all Americans. Since they were already wealthy, all they wanted to do was buy more and more. They felt powerful when they owned more things than others. The Great Gatsby gives the readers a “sneak peek” of what life in the U.S. was like in the 1920’s.