Optimism And Pessimism In The Great Gatsby

'The Great Gatsby' is set in the Jazz Age of the 1920's in New York,

An individual 's idealistic world will often be far from the reality of their situation; their own idealistic world in which they wish to live will cloud the truth from their eyes, deceiving them of what their life truly is. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby lives his life under an illusion, the illusion that he is living in his own ideal world in which everything will work out for him. Gatsby, while living his ideal life, throws constant parties, parties so extravagant they can be seen across the bay. Gatsby does this in the hopes that his past love, Daisy, will see these parties and wish to attend. His deluded sense of his reality blind him from the reality that Daisy is

“Without obsession, life is nothing.”(John Waters) Gatsby is obsessed with being successful in life ever since he was little. He was a poor little boy that worked up from nothing, he didn't do it legally though. He did some shady things to get to where he is now and he isnt very proud of it. So he has to lie about his past to if people ask him or stretch the truth for say. So without being obsessed Gatsby wouldn't be very far.

‘The Great Gatsby’ was written in the early 20th Century during the period known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’ or ‘the Jazz age’. It was a time where money was

“feeling of pleasure or contentment” is what happy is defined. Throughout the book “The Great Gatsby” it is focused heavily on the characters' happiness and what they want for their life. I focus on Myrtle Wilson, who seems to just be some mistress who is a bad person because a man is cheating on his wife for her. Myrtle is more than just some mistress, she wants happiness, she wants what she can't have with her husband. Myrtle wants money she thinks that will make her happy, and that could be what truly makes her happy or it will give her the false happiness that she wants. This relates to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs because she's not getting what she needs in her eyes; she wants more than what her husband is giving her and she can get that with Tom.

Many novels are written as a means of scrutinising the details and flaws of a specific society. The author’s purpose is to use the novel as a lens through which they can offer their own critical perception. The highly praised novel The Great Gatsby provides such a view into 1920s America, an era which was often described as the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring 20s,” mainly due to the +and carefree nature of the wealthy. This higher class, who were essentially safeguarded by their money, lived life as if it was an endless party. It is this particular group that F. Scott Fitzgerald mainly targets when providing his criticism

Without using depth of thought, The Great Gatsby is essentially a love story of the impossible forbidden desire between a woman and a man. The primary theme of the novel, however, shows off a much larger, less romantic scope of the novel. Though most of its primary plot takes place over simply a few short months through 1922’s summer, and is set in a small area in relative proximity to Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a a view on the 1920’s in America, and uses a lot of varied symbolism with it, in particular the loss and dismemberment of the American dream in an era literally named after the amount of wealth and industry it produced in material excess. Fitzgerald is able to showcase the 1920s as an era of dying social and moral values, evidenced in its overwhelming pessimism, desire, and unfulfilling pursuit of pleasure. The carelessness of the parties and celebrations that led to wild jazz music, exemplified in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night, eventually was created, in the corruption of the American dream, as the rampant desire for wealth and pleasure surpassed more worthwhile ideals.

Another significant factor that contributes to this aspiration is seen through Daisy Buchanan. In Daisy's case, it is seen that she does not thrive for happiness and is handed all the wealth and beauty without putting in the effort. For her social class, however, she was only given one job which was to be a vision of beauty with a perfect husband and children despite not being truly happy. When Daisy marries Tom, she does so not because she loves him, but because he can promise her a more comfortable and reliable life than Jay Gatsby can. She is stuck between true happiness and being blinded by wealth and comfort. Even though Gatsby want her there for him she is so enclose by Tom’s wealth that she is blind to her true

In the song “Can’t Buy Me Love” written by the Beatles, they claim that they can buy anything there friend desires but it sure can not buy them love (Genius, 1964). In the story, Fitzgerald shows us many examples of Jay Gatsby’s way of living in having a lot of money and he constantly tries to use that money to win Daisy away from Tom, her husband. Just like in the song Gatsby does not achieve the love of his old friend Daisy with money. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” a wealthy man, Gatsby makes strong efforts to win back the heart of his lover, Daisy Buchanan. F. Scott Fitzgerald also demonstrates through the characters of “The Great Gatsby” that money cannot buy one's happiness.

The Great Gatsby is a book that almost proves the phrase “Money can’t buy happiness”

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores the definitions of happiness. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald reveals multitudes of scenarios that describe and define happiness in its purest form. Happiness is revealed as something temporary and difficult to maintain. Furthermore the reader sees the conflicts that arise between Tom and Gatsby and their love and happiness towards life and Daisy. Because of this, Tom and Gatsby play the largest role in describing what happiness is in the novel. Even further, as their characters evolve, the reader is able to understand how happiness evolves as well. Through the tragedy in Tom’s affair, Tom’s craving for drama, and Gatsby’s strong desire for Daisy, it is clear that Fitzgerald wishes to reveal the temporary

What makes people happy in most countries is when they gain more wealth. These values are still true today and as true in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which is held in the 1920’s. Most Americans think that wealth and happiness are synonymous with each other. This belief will continue to fuel an economy and marketplace that persuades consumers into buying products that will provide them “happiness”. Wealth and human happiness have reached an equilibrium in the view of an enormously capitalistic society, contrary to the beliefs of social progressives who believe happiness comes from the heart. Gatsby’s generation of the 20's were the age of a market that was primarily fueled off of the neediness of the average consumer. The same values are present today because our need for flashy products stem from the free market economy in this country. Consumers believe that they need all the things that businesses are attempting to sell to them.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was written in 1925 and set in the thriving town of West Egg in Long Island, New York. This novel follows the story of Nick Carraway, a young man born in the midwest who has aspirations to be involved in the bond business on Wall Street. Nick lives in a smaller house right next door to the mansion owned by the infamous Jay Gatsby. Across the bay, Nick’s cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan live in a nice sized, colonial home. Jay Gatsby grew up on poor farmland in North Dakota. From the moment he met Daisy, he was in love, and he continually strives to have her back by his side. Gatsby is a man full of hope, similar to many other Americans in several other facets of life at this time including wealth, prosperity, and social status. Success in these facets of life, for some, is better known as the American Dream. That is one of the ideals that makes Gatsby so prominent, “from [his] foundational place as part of the literary canon to [his] ubiquity in popular culture. [His] most obvious tie is the American Dream, the broad notion about the United States that each of its people keeps at the center of [their] belief system” (Batchelor, Bob). Gatsby’s idea of the American Dream is what prompts many of his actions throughout the book. However, all of this hope in the American Dream falls short when Gatsby’s life does not go as planned. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby and created the character

“But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock”(Fitzgerald 21).

Dissatisfaction plays a hugely significant role in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. To many people, it is commonly thought that having large amounts of wealth means large amounts of happiness and the ability to achieve anything you want. But if we look at the characters in The Great Gatsby, They are surrounded by money but yet still remain greatly dissatisfied with their lives. They have achieved what millions of people strive and work hard to get, but yet they still are unhappy. It could be because they are simply bored, have a troubled history, or are still trying to achieve some goal. Either way we learn that unhappiness and being unsatisfied is a recurring theme in the characters of The Great Gatsby.