The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In the novel The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays his views on life in the early post world war I society. The 1920s or the “Roaring twenties” was a period of economic prosperity in the United States. This, however, was a success that did not distribute equally among the varying classes, as an increasingly disturbing gap emerged between the rich and the poor. Those with wealth began to lavish themselves with material goods and extravagant lifestyles, while those without sank into the depressing, grotesque scene of poverty. Through a winding story of love and loss, Fitzgerald gives the audience

At its most simplistic form, nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past. It is a subtle phenomenon that is associated with a person or place. Fitzgerald plays this concept into his novel The Great Gatsby, which is narrated by a character named Nick Carraway. Nick tells of his neighbor Gatsby, who goes to extreme lengths to reclaim a lost love. Throughout the novel, Gatsby serves as a conduit for humanity’s nostalgic depictions of the past. He accumulates massive amounts of wealth and even changes his identity in efforts to relive something that has already passed. Fitzgerald draws from this, and conceptualizes how nostalgia distorts a person’s overall perception of being.

The 1920’s were roaring. Throughout this time period, wealth in the United States doubled, expanding the growth in the economic forum. Many Americans chose to move into the quickly expanding city and made the transition into a prosperous and previously foreign “consumer society” (History.com). The traits of greed and materialism are ubiquitous in The Great Gatsby, as well as in the Art Deco era of the 1920’s. These two characteristics can give one confidence, but as demonstrated in the novel, they bring nothing but short-term satisfaction. After which, feelings can run the gamut from desperation to childish behaviors. While greed and materialism have the power to seem favorable, bringing an amplification of social status,

The American dream has been alive since the first settlers moved west, and is without a doubt a notion that guides the course of millions of Americans. However, while few actually achieve great wealth and social acceptance, others can merely dream about moving up the class ladder. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, narrates the story of the incredibly wealthy Jay Gatsby and his dazzling love for Daisy Buchanan during America’s roaring twenties. The narrator Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor, gets to witness the chronicles of the millionaire and his circle of careless friends. Fitzgerald incorporates figurative language to persuade the reader about the evident contrast between the miserable poor class and the lavish upper class of New York city.

To this day and age, nearly 100 years into the future, the 1920s are seen as a decade of good music, outrageous parties, and beautiful people. However, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the degeneration of society and people during that time due to their immaculate wealth and their glamorous lives is captured perfectly. The entire book seems to revolve around one major theme: the decline of the American dream and the perfect society that supposedly came with it. This is set apart from the other themes in the book because instead of being mentioned directly, it is hinted at by means of oratorical words and phrases. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald successfully condemns the corruption of the jazz age through the use of

Parties, flappers, jazz, alcohol, and change are all ways to define the boisterous, extravagant era known today as the Roaring Twenties. Women especially set the stage for transforming society, as they broke tradition and advanced into the world. They earned money for themselves, became independent, and were able to voice their opinion with the freedom to vote. F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the emerging woman and her willingness to break free from social standards and create her own customs in The Great Gatsby. Daisy, a submissive woman, relies on her husband Tom’s money to provide happiness, yet rebels and has an affair with her true love, Jay Gatsby. Jordan Baker mirrors the pretentious and irresponsible flapper personality and challenges gender roles by pursuing a career in golf. Lastly, Myrtle Wilson, an outsider, participates in an affair with Tom Buchanan, yet falls into his trap of violence. All three of these women imitate similar personalities of women in Fitzgerald 's own life. Daisy mirrors Fitzgerald’s unrealistic dream, Ginevra King, and his wife, Zelda, while Jordan resembles Fitzgerald’s friend, Edith Cummings, as they both pursued the career of golf and propelled themselves into society as independent women. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the contrast between the expectations of women’s behaviors before and during the 1920s, while focusing on the emergence of the “new woman” and the new freedoms of women in relation to the

Depending on where a person is in life, that person’s idea of what the American Dream is could be completely different in meaning than another person’s idea of what it is. In the book, The Great Gatsby, by, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is represented by three different places, East Egg, West Egg, and The Valley of Ashes. All three of these places in the novel represent different views of what the American Dream is by the people living in these places, the looks of the people and the cities, and the types of jobs or things people do with their time in these places. There are many colors used to show the ambiance of the towns. The people described living in the town in the book are not similar in morals or appearance and the American Dream is shown in the people and appearance of these three places. The East Egg and West Egg represent the American Dream; West Egg portrays the American Dream while East Egg is the perfect example of what the dream actually is and the Valley of Ashes represents fading dreams and showing what the reality of trying to achieve the American Dream is.

F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby and Toni Morrison 's JAZZ both tell the

Consumption and materialism were both taken to new and extreme heights on the eastern coast of America in the Roaring Twenties. Consumption, and especially materialism were always hallmarks of the elite upper class aristocracy of any culture in any time period, but with the new technology, urbanization, the consolidation of funds via the world stock market, and a brand new breed of elite, called millionaires, evolved the upper class culture beyond anything any human had seen before. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald imbues a story with many themes and qualities from his own life, reflected in the parallels between his own history and that of Gatsby and Nick Carraway. With new, unbridled, booming economic growth, what started as the Great American Dream became a vulgar, empty, greedy pursuit of material goods. On top of this rise in national wealth, the addition of disillusioned World War I veterans looking to grab the American Dream and use it to hoist themselves up in the world, and the 18th Amendment’s creation of a thriving and powerful organized criminal underworld gave birth to a new America, with unprecedented levels of consumption and wealth.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone...just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1). The first line of The Great Gatsby illustrates a heartfelt sentiment of treating others respectfully and not judging a book by its cover. However, as the chapter continues, the narrator Nick Carraway, suggests this propensity of tolerance is better used as leverage to entice more people to trust you and tell you their secrets. Nick is privy to the secret lives and untold truths of many rich and powerful people of New York because he could be trusted, whether he wanted to be or not. This is a constant theme throughout The Great Gatsby -- the internal struggle of F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrayed through his characters, of being a kind, honest person content to live his own life versus a grotesquely rich and selfish person who only cared about himself and living the illusive American Dream. The characters created by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby strongly reflect influences of people and events in his life, and demonstrate facets of his personality that dictated how he viewed the world, friendship and love.

Throughout the course of The Great Gatsby Nick seems to have changed for becoming a better person for his experiences on the East Coast.

Is it possible to repeat the past? Can one really recreate something that happened years before? According to Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby it is possible; and it has been done for the book The Great Gatsby itself. The Great Gatsby has been adapted into film many times by various directors; however, there are two that are considered most popular. The first really popular The Great Gatsby was Jack Clayton’s version that was released in 1974, and more recently Baz Luhrmann’s version that was released in 2013. Since the two movies are based on the same book, they have some of the same characteristics, but both movies are distinct. The two different movie directors make the movies distinct by: differences in how the characters are portrayed, the parties that are thrown, and the overall mood of the films.

An often controversial and debated topic within most literature revolves around the morality of certain characters, and whether or not they are deserving of their accepted reputations. These questions come into play during contentious debates such as the infamous “good versus evil” and “angels and demons.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald induces the question of morality. Gatsby, a reserved and wealthy man who seeks the love from a past acquaintance, captures the “Lost Generation” essence as he devotes his life to partying and living an embellished lifestyle. But the question of whether he deserves the adjective “great” often arises. What truly determines if a character is deserving of their reputation? Is it the way people perceive them as a person, or their ability to live up to their expectations? Is it their level of morality, and if so, do their mistakes from the past affect their current determination of morality? Many avid readers would fight to prove the Great Gatsby is in fact not that “great” – maybe more deserving of the name “The Mediocre Gatsby.” But heated debates often spawn from the most controversial characters, illustrating the idea that the reader has the most effect on characterization. Their own interpretation of the writing and how they define morals could be the ultimate determination of a character’s true ethics, and whether a character’s reputation is fitting. In regards to the novel, The Great Gatsby is not deserving of his accepted persona

Chapter two of The Great Gatsby, serves as a pivotal point in revealing the true nature of social culture in the 1920s. The reader is introduced to two very different settings, New York and the Valley of Ashes, each with entirely contrasting social scenes and status’ of wealth. The Valley on one hand, seems to represent the sinister underbelly and moral decay of the wealthy society. Hidden behind the beautiful façades of west and east egg, it is the desolated dumping ground of the upper class. New York on the other is described as a glamorous, bustling city, a playground for the wealthy where they hold their glitzy parties.

Oppressive societies often negatively impact the marginalized citizens, and cause them to have unrealistic views of society. We can clearly see this in both Daisy Buchanan, and Abigail Williams.The marginalization of women causes them to have a distorted view of love. This distorted view of love often leads women to manipulate and influence the actions of those around them. Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Daisy Buchanan from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby live in patriarchal societies where women are viewed as inferior to men. This role leads them to have a distorted and unrealistic view of love, which results in Daisy being viewed as selfish and Abigail’s malicious personality being revealed.