Great Gatsby Modernism

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows many examples of modernism. Fitzgerald shows many modernism techniques like loss of control, alienation, corruption of the American Dream, breaking society’s rules and feeling restless. Fitzgerald also shows modernism through the fragmented writing.

Authors wanted to revolutionize arts and audience worldwide. This was done by the creation of tools that helped excel the “American Dream”. Some of the major authors in this time included T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein (Modernism). There are two different groupings of modernism, which are modernism and post modernism. In the beginning, “early modernists used elements of experimentation, freedom, radicalism, and utopianism” (Modernism). After the war, “post-modernists, however, rebelled against many modernist elements and instead depicted disillusionment and elements of dystopian ideas—dehumanized and fearful lives” (Modernism). Many different historical aspects influenced the upcoming of the modernist movement such as publications of scientific theories, technological inventions that globalized society, Sigmund Freud’s change in the discipline of psychology, new concepts of ethics, morality, and ideals, and artistic movements (Modernism).

Cultural Criticism is the beliefs and interpretation of cultures in the eyes of other people rather one is more dominant or the others are inferior to them. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” time period was divided up into social classes which were determined on a person’s will. The narrator Nick Caraway is a middle class man trying to make it in life financially, so he decided to move from the East Egg to the West Egg New York to get away from paying 3,000 to 4,000 dollars for renting a house. Cultural criticism explains a meaningful understanding which is shown in the novel with: social status, racism, beliefs, and ethnicity.

Modernism according to Britannica, “as a literary movement is typically associated with the period after World War I. The enormity of the war had undermined humankind’s faith in the foundations of Western society and culture,

The American dream has been around for many years, and which also debuts itself in many American literature pieces. The American dream is the dream and goals of typically aspiring to be a better person by wealth, popularity, and love. There are many variations of the American dream which eventually progress and change during the different time periods. The American dream can also be different according to each individual, even though the American dream is mostly based on the freedom and peace of citizens, and their goals to be more successful. The American dream can also be generalized as material wants such as a big family, house, and car. Scott Fitzgerald is the author of a book called “The Great Gatsby” in order to portray

Gatsby. Penguin, 2014. Print. This novel is an investigation of a double murder that happened quickly after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s return to New York. With evidence from newspapers, letters, and newly found archives, the author describes the new opinions of the readers of The Great Gatsby. The author then interweaved both stories with the hope to solve the mysteries of a murder and the success behind Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. As the author does this, she compares and contrasts the events of the book and the murder to one another.This is a credible source because the author found many direct sources from the time era,

Modernism is when writers proclaimed a new "subject matter" for literature and the writer feels that its new way of looking at life required a new form, a new way of writing. The writers of this period tend to pursue more experimental and usually more highly individualistic forms of

In the The Great Gatsby and by F. Scott Fitzgerald and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry the idea of the American Dream is portrayed evidently within both timeless classics. An overarching dream between both novels is the desire of both the characters to be wealthy and to attain a respectable social standing. Both characters experience conflict in the pursuance of their dream. The American Dream is the idea that if you work hard enough and long enough, anything is possible. Although both characters chase the American Dream of upward social mobility Fitzgerald’s Gatsby does not achieve the American Dream in contrast to Hansberry’s Walter, who does achieve the American Dream due to the differences in the two character's acceptance by society or loved ones.

The Modernist movement began as America began to divulge from the ideals of the Victorian Period. Modernism was provided as a response to the ongoing WWI. New artists divulged into the new writings about rationalism and individualism. Modern artists Wrote about struggles and the conflict between fragmentation and order. As time progressed the modernist movement changed, one subsection of the modernist movement was the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was influenced by the political, social and economic change of the United States during the early twentieth century and left an everlasting impact on African American culture.

The birth of the modernist movement in American literature was the result of the post-World War I social breakdown. Writers adopted a disjointed fragmented style of writing that rebelled against traditional literature. One such writer is William Faulkner, whose individual style is characterized by his use of “stream of consciousness” and writing from multiple points of view.

The American Dream. The idea of fulfilling your life’s dreams, whether to marry, to retire, to buy a house or to fall in love, is a theme commonly shared in both Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In Of Mice & Men, best friends George and Lennie travel from ranch to ranch in the hope of finally earning enough money to buy a house of their own. Yet due to Lennie’s mental disability, difficult situations for him lead to the end of their dream and the end of his life. Alternatively, in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has a life of money and parties – his world is seemingly complete, but the purpose of his social events are to try and catch the eye of his dream girl; Daisy. However, this too ends in defeat, and death. Steinbeck and Fitzgerald constantly portray the dream as unyielding and corrupt, as they are remote and leave the people involved disheartened and remorseful. Both novels are set in analogous times, and both in America, but the lives of the characters are very dissimilar – in The Great Gatsby, they live in New York, a city full of wealth thanks to Wall Street and the thousands of shops as well as the post-war parties of the roaring twenties, whereas in Of Mice & Men they live in an agricultural area with less money and less opportunities, in the dust-bowl of America,

The development of American Literature, much like the development of the nation, began in earnest, springing from a Romantic ideology that honored individualism and visionary idealism. As the nation broke away from the traditions of European Romanticism, America forged its own unique romantic style that would resonate through future generations of literary works. Through periods of momentous change, the fundamentally Romantic nature of American literature held fast, a fact clearly demonstrated in the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald. In an era of post-war disillusionment, when idealism succumbed to hedonistic materialism, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s romantically charged novel,

Hemingway and Modernism Modernism is a literary movement meant to break away from traditional norms by “breaking up the narrative continuity, departing from the standard ways of representing characters, and violating the traditional syntax and coherence of narrative language” (Abrams A Glossary of Literary Terms). Modernists also contrast the stable social order traditionally present in novels, through a thematic representation of an immense panorama of futility and anarchy. Modernist writing became prominent after WWI when the lost generation emerged, the generation of men and women who came of age during WWI and became disillusioned by the vast numbers of deaths in the war and rejected many of the previous ideas of appropriate behavior,

Modernism was a movement that was developed during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Modernism developed due to the changes happening in societies at the time. Around the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century there was a rise in the industrial society’s where there were advancements in technologies and machines, and a rapid growths in cities. This lead to a change in cultural trends and philosophies, which is known as modernism. Modernism was well known for the rejection on traditional way, such as the arts and beliefs. It rejected the idea of realism and religious beliefs. During these years modernism could be distinguished by two aspects, High and Low Modernism.

Modernism is defined in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as "a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression." While this explanation does relate what modernism means, the intricacies of the term go much deeper. Modernism began around 1890 and waned around 1922. Virginia Wolf once wrote, "In or about December, 1910, human character changed." (Hurt and Wilkie 1443). D.H. Lawrence wrote a similar statement about 1915: "It was 1915 the old world ended." (Hurt and Wilkie 1444). The importance of the exact dates of the Modernist period are not so relevant as the fact that new ideas were implemented in the era. Ideas that had never before been approached in the world of literature suddenly began emerging