The Importance Of Modernism In The Great Gatsby

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.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby focuses on the excitement and adventure of the roaring twenties, a time filled with great economic success and parties said to last the whole decade. New to Long Island and New York, aspiring bond man Nick Carraway becomes infatuated with the lifestyle of his rich peers living the “American dream”. He gains interest in his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, who lives in an incredible mansion and has a vast amount of wealth. Gatsby uses his money to try and steal his love, Daisy Buchanan from her unfaithful husband, Tom. Characters in The Great Gatsby are unhappy and unfulfilled with their lives due to greed manipulating their view of The American Dream. This skewed perception also affects their unreasonable life expectations and their narcissistic thoughts create a larger potential for failure, such as Gatsby’s extravagant plan to steal Daisy Buchanan.

“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so,” once said Charles de Gaulle. This valiant quote by a former president of France accentuates my opinion of the Great Jay Gatsby. From humble beginnings rises our main focus of F. Scott Fitzgeralds’ The Great Gatsby. Young Jimmy Gatz is brought to West Egg from his heavily impoverished North Dakota family. His desire to be something greater than a farmer drove him to fortune and love through any means necessary; his life long obsession, Daisy Fay, infatuates Jay in his own insatiable thirst for her affection. James follows Daisy in the years after he is deployed to World War 1, and when he sees she has married Tom Buchanan he becomes hell-bent on replicating the success Tom has inherited in order to win over Daisy. Through moderately deceitful ways, Jay Gatsby builds his wealth and reputation to rival and even supersede many already lavish family names. Astonishingly, the great Mr. Gatsby, overrun with newfound affluence, stays true to his friends, lover, and his own ideals to his blissfully ignorant end.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.

‘The Great Gatsby’ novel by F. Scott Fitzgeralds is a novel that has symbolic life lessons that have shaped my values and realities of life. This novel is about Nick Carraway, the narrator, that tells the story of Jay Gatsby a millionaire purposing the American Dream at the cost of losing himself. A key quote in the novel demonstrated the reality of wealth doesn’t define a person. But consumes them was illustrated when Carraway first saw Gatsby. “I could have sworn he was

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby truly encompasses every aspect of the Modernist literary movement. However the main character, Jay Gatsby, serves as a polar opposite from the withdrawn, disillusioned characters of the Modernist era. His unwavering sense of hope and his strong faith in others set him apart from the crowd, but will ultimately cause his demise. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s rise to success and eventual fall results from his false ideas of hope, his poor judgement of character, and his inability to move on from the past. Jay Gatsby’s false sense of hope brought him to his level of success, but did not help him in the end.

Jay Gatsby, the protagonist in The Great Gatsby, is faced with the struggle of achieving his dream against the reality of the world (Sanders 109). He acquired his wealth through bootlegging and relations with corrupt individuals. However, he tries to preserve his innocence by recreating his past with Daisy (“Fitzgerald F Scott”). The reality of the world leaves Gatsby with the feeling of emptiness and desperation because his life was consumed with overwhelming wealth and a passionate devotion to a relationship with Daisy, only to have it disappear (Dubose 75). Similar to the Lost Generation, at the end of the novel Gatsby realizes the world is full of deception and cruelty, even after earning great wealth (“Lost Generation”). A Lost Generation is defined as having “developed the idiosyncratic and personal manners” and feeling emotionally and spiritually alienated from the previous generations (Stegner 184). Jay Gatsby symbolizes the Lost Generation which F. Scott Fitzgerald connects to the changing social attitudes such as wealth, love, and the corruption of innocence in The Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, provides a dark and pessimistic outlook into the American life style in 1922. Jay Gatsby, an American wealthy social identity, appears to have it all. But wealth, stature and an extravagant lifestyle seems not to be enough for Gatsby; he still yearns for his old idealistic love Daisy. In an ideal world this has the making of a great love story with a happy ending, but Fitzgerald chose to carry the story as a reflection of the American era the book is set in. An era consumed by appearances and excess and overall pursuit of the American dream.

“Anyone can find the dirt in someone. Be the one that finds the gold.”(Proverbs 11:27) The Great Gatsby takes place in the roaring 20’s. The 1920’s was a good time in America, the country was flourishing and money was plentiful. During this time,the prohibition, alcohol was illegal which led to bootlegging or the illegal production and distribution of alcohol. The most popular music of the time was Jazz hence the 20’s nickname, the Jazz Age. Jazz was most commonly played at parties. Nick Carraway expressed modernism, was characterised by the author and expressed judgment of other characters.

The American Modernism period progressed in the 1900s and ended sometime in the late 1965. It was the time after the Industrial Revolution, where people swarmed to the cities to get riches and success. During the Roaring 20s and the American Modernism period, many people believed that money and material things made up success and determined how successful someone was. In the movie, The Great Gatsby, many of the people let materials determine where they go and who they went with. The money, houses, and cars are allusion appearances, the people seem happy to society, but in reality they are dissatisfied, in despair, and are having affairs.

In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the story is identified as a modernist novel. The book is in a modernist point of view, where the world isn't portrayed as reality. Modernism is a rejection of realism, which believed that science will save the world and where the concept of science and social determinism is idealized. The first hint of modernism in The Great Gatsby is shown by Nick Carraway. Nick is the narrator of the story, and an unreliable one because he narrates the story in fragments.

Modernism in literature is the pessimistic voice of hope, during the twentieth century the world was in turmoil. F .Scott Fitzgerald while attending Princeton University decided his services are to better put to use as a Commission Infantry Officer. While F. Scott Fitzgerald had a different experience than the rest of the country, he did not go to WWI, during his career in the military the war ended shortly after. During this troubling period many only had so few. With this as a catalyst it gave birth too many writers whom during the era are not as revered but only to be appreciated posthumously. F. Scott Fitzgerald only truly found success once in the grave. While his works did achieve recognition they could not live up to his standard of them.

During the early 20th century the art and literature world shifted to a period known as Modernism. This new period of the Modern world focused on a complete change from the ways of the pre-modern world.The pre-Modern world implemented ideas of faith, clear sense of identity, and meaningfulness. While the Modern world focused on loss of faith, confused sense of identity, and futility. F. Scott Fitzgerald embodied the Modernistic style of writing implementing multiple if not all aspects of Modernism in order to convey messages to his readers.Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby draws on aspects of Modernism in order to warn against discontentment that may ensue.

What is Modernism? This term was usually referred to as the literature era of the 1920’s. During the “Roaring Twenties”, as most would say, was the time of flappers, gangsters, and the beginning of some of the most renowned literature known to the United States. One of the famous books written in this time was The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925.

Modernism in literature is the voice of hope. During the twentieth century, the world was in turmoil. One very well known author from this period, F .Scott Fitzgerald, did not begin his career as a writer. While attending Princeton University, Fitzgerald decided he could be of service to his country as a Commissioned Infantry Officer. However, Fitzgerald, unlike the majority of his counterparts, he did not go to Europe to fight in World War I, because the war ended shortly after he joined the military. Following World War I, many in the United States and abroad were struggling financially. These conditions acted as a sort of catalyst, giving birth too many writers who were not appreciated during the era they pertained to, but were to be revered posthumously. F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of those authors. While his works did achieve some recognition while he was alive, it was not nearly as much as he aspired to.