The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

“All these materialistic belongings paint a picture of beauty for those chasing this fictitious happiness but in reality they bring life full of stress, jealousy, hubris, and corruption…” (St. Rosemary Educational Institution). When looking back at the exhilarating, and wild 1920’s, it is easy for one to presume it was a time full of economic growth, entertainment, and leisure for the people of America. But alas, hidden underneath the glow of its prosperity, lies a time span full of deceit, fraudulency, and law breaking. Author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, expertly captures this corruption as well as the deluded hopes and dreams of the people in his book, The Great Gatsby. So, During the Roaring Twenties, the decade where The Great Gatsby was depicted,

Many people in the 1920s lived very extravagant lives. The time of the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring 20s” where girls were flappers and the men were bootleggers. People loved to have fun and be carefree. However, alcohol dependence was becoming a problem and many started realizing that. Taking action to stop this was the hard part. Alcohol was corrupting the 1920s even though some did not recognize it. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the corruption during the 1902s through his main character, Jay Gatsby, and his illustration of prohibition.

Music, liquor, and gold, everything you need to make a great party. And, that’s what it was, the roaring twenties, it was a never ending party of financial gain and materialism. However, there were some who viewed it to be a gilded age. They were the Lost Generation, Fitzgerald among them. After the Great War they viewed society as rotten from the inside, gilded gold while systematic problems broiled underneath. This social breakdown masked by wealth and success is nowhere better seen than in Fitzgerald’s greatest work, The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby, if anything, is excellent at exemplifying many moral shortfalls, anywhere from adultery and deceit to bootlegging and murder. The most natural and the most vile of human actions coupled with flawed and disillusioned characters constructs a perfect stage for society to crumble. Gradually, Fitzgerald takes us on a depressing journey while we watch the breakdown of modern, civil institutions.

The novel The Great Gatsby helps generations portray what life was like in New York during the Roaring twenties and the era of Prohibition. (Moss). The Great Gatsby reflects America’s own loss of influence in the face of the crass materialism of the 1920’s (Pavolski). The 18th amendment, the people’s disregardment of morality resulting to lack of spiritual views and the vast corruption during this time period are all displayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald. During this novel color symbolism and other various types of symbolism are portrayed. The influence of money greed and fortune are also vastly displayed throughout this novel. In

To what extent do you agree that Fight Club is an updated version of Great Gatsby that captures the zeitgeist of modernism?

idealistic belief of equality, liberty, and happiness for all to the view that what is most important

Society tends to have a numerous of unarticulated problems that torment its aggregate as a whole. With several issues that rankle from the center of the core to the outside, society continues to ignore the problem. “The Great Gatsby” is a symbolic interpretation on the 1920s America, in particular the demoralization of the American dream in an era of unrivaled material excess. This novel is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and it relates to the determination of the American dream. Desire for the American dream created a loss or moral values through corruption, affairs and being wasteful.

The Roaring Twenties have come to describe America during the time of the Prohibition. In the early 1920’s, when the book is set, World War I had just come to an end. Many people flocked toward the bigger cities from their original small towns. They viewed the big cities as an opportunity to search for excitement and a more modern way of living. Alcohol flowed like rivers in many new American homes and drunkards occupied many prisons and poorhouses. A group of activists made a valiant effort to eliminate alcohol in and attempt to help the country return to the simpler lifestyle. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the corruption of the 1920s through his character Jay Gatsby and his illustration of the evils of prohibition.

The 1920’s were a time of women’s rights, prohibition, automobiles, and cultural conflicts. The 19th Amendment allowed women to vote, and they were allowed more white-collar jobs, along with many dressing as “flapper” girls, which became a big statement in the 1920’s. However, some other freedoms were taken away, such as prohibition, which made it illegal to sell “intoxicating liquors” and then the Volstead Act which caused all bars to close down. Soon this created the underground business of liquor trade. Many Americans had extra money to spend in this era, which allowed the automobile economy to boom, with almost every American owning a car.

“The ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution–which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors–ushered in a period in American history known as Prohibition” (History.com Staff). Overnight, alcohol went from a common drink of choice to an illegal asset that became the heartbeat of bootlegging organizations and organized crime. The otherwise “Roaring 20s” was marred by the gang violence and public unrest that resulted from Prohibition. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the effects of Prohibition are event throughout. The main character, Jay Gatsby, would not be possible without the implementation of Prohibition. Throughout the novel, one can identify the underlying themes of Prohibition that become evident as the reader learns more about the main character and those around him; bootlegging, drinking, and speakeasies are a staple of Fitzgerald’s attempt to place the reader in one of Americas most prosperous and simultaneously criminal eras: the 1920s.

The Roaring Twenties was a period of frivolous days and exciting nights. Times were prosperous and life was good for most. In The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about the fictitious life of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire (Gross 1). The setting of the novel is New York in the twenties, a time, and place, where people were jovial and carefree. In New York, more than anywhere, people did not worry about life's downs, but focused on the highlife and partying. Prohibition made partying difficult, but it prevailed nonetheless. In the novel, Fitzgerald's description of humans was of an appalling nature. He shows them as careless, greedy, and inconsiderate; much like they truly were in this decade. Inevitably he

The 1920s, often deemed the “Roaring 20s,” took place in the middle of the Prohibition Movement. Prohibition was a constitutional ban on the sale, production, and consumption of alcoholic beverages resulting in a large supply of cheap alcohol and a high demand for it. Society was becoming corrupt and inhibited. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, The Great Gatsby, is set in this very time period. The main character, Jay Gatsby, who at first appears to be a wealthy businessman is symbolic of the 1920 society. In the beginning of the novel, Fitzgerald reminds the reader not to judge too harshly, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1). Through Jay Gatsby’s characteristics of deceitful charisma, persuasion, and his fateful death, Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s society as the decline of the American dream.

Post World War I, during the Roaring Twenties, women in The Great Gatsby such as Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan, display the new ideology of women while attempting to reach the American Dream. Women embody the new flapper era and are expected to work for their own money and gain more independence after earning the right to vote. Flappers were seen as significant figures during the Roaring Twenties, as they helped define a new generation for young women who are trying to achieve the American Dream, “[Flappers] were also seen by many as the ideal young woman and was described by author F. Scott Fitzgerald as ‘lovely, expensive and about nineteen’”(Sauro 88). While all three of these women come from different backgrounds, they all yearn for the same thing: status, money, and power. Jordan Baker, Myrtle Wilson, and Daisy Buchanan all represent different portions of the American dream.

The 1920’s, famously known as the Jazz Age, was a major turning point in America’s soaring economy. However, as a result, amassing wealth in exorbitant amounts and throwing extravagant parties became socially acceptable and the conservatism and the old-fashioned values of the 19th century were left behind. The roaring twenties also coincided with the prohibition period which saw bootleggers make millions off the sale of contraband and brought life to underground revelry. Contrary to his predecessors, Scott F Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby (1926), saw this period as a manifestation of materialism within American values, tainting them in his eyes. In the novel, Fitzgerald positions

“The Great Gatsby,” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published in 1925 which was the height of the Roaring Twenties by Scribner’s, meaning everyone strived for changes and innovations to better their community in politics and social aspects. The economy became more demanding for innovative goods, causing the consumer society to prosper rapidly, doubling the growth. Most of Fitzgerald’s books were published within the Roaring Twenties and showed common themes of romance and tragedy such as “The Side of Paradise”, and “Flappers and Philosophers”, which drove more people into reading these romantic, yet bitter pieces. People went from living in frontier and backcountry areas to a more civilized and urban community. Although this was a time period of growth and prosperity within economics and new inventions and innovations, a dark side had cast its shadow upon this era as well. With the government passing the eighteenth Amendment in 1919, alcohol was no longer legal and was prohibited to sell or consume, causing society to grow chaotic and awaken a secretive population of bootleggers, flappers and gangs that secretly drank and sold alcohol to anyone who had an obsessive desire for it. The problem with having bootleggers is that they put a higher price on alcoholic beverages since it was illegal and