Wealth, Fame, Glamour, and Hope in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Story Themes

As Gatsby reaches out across the bay the green light evades his grasp, the elusive future receding from his myopic viewpoint. Through the course of time America has been referred to as the Land of the free and opportunity, but as times have changed so have American viewpoints. In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald creates a love affair based in 1922 using juxtaposition to create a parallel between realist and idealistic views on wealth to reveal the demise of the American Dream in what is known as the Roaring Twenties.

New York City, overwhelmed with success, money and image in the 1920s was drowning in corruption. F Scott Fitzgerald composed a riveting novel, The Great Gatsby, which follows the journey of several characters dealing with love, greed, confusion and lust during the 1920s. Fitzgerald illustrates the corruption of the American dream by allowing us to follow the downfall of Jay Gatsby, revealing the reality of the American dream.

Babylon Revisited is one of the most analyzed literary works. Many have torn the piece into bits to decipher the underlying meaning of Fitzgerald’s writing. His theme of the past being inescapable is one that is intriguing and used often in his works. Brian Sutton in his literary analysis article in the Explicator shows that Fitzgerald’s use of time is in other works as well such as The Great Gatsby.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is mostly known for his images of young, rich, immoral individuals pursuing the American Dream of the 1920’s (Mangum). This image is best portrayed in his greatest novel, The Great Gatsby, alongside his principal themes, “lost hope, the corruption of innocence by money, and the impossibility of recapturing the past” (Witkoski). Fitzgerald was identified as a modern period writer because his themes and topics were inconsistent with traditional writing (Rahn).

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby focuses on the corruption of the American dream during the 1920‘s. For the duration of this time period, the American dream was no longer about hard work and reaching a set goal, it had become materialistic and immoral. Many people that had honest and incorruptible dreams, such as Jay Gatsby, used corrupted pathways to realize their fantasy. People’s carelessness was shown through their actions and speech towards others. Fitzgerald uses characterization and symbolism from different characters and items to convey the corruption of the American dream.

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.

In The Great Gatsby, the author, F Scott Fitzgerald depicts the post - war roaring 20’s, a time of overwhelming prosperity and a new found sense of hope for the future. While this novel is often perceived as a romance, it is also a criticism on the devastating nature of the elusive american dream. The story of Jay Gatsby is a representation of what had become the values of the individual at the time. With the progression of the early 1920’s the vision of the perfect life, or the american dream, had been skewed. It was replaced with greed, and an abundance of reckless spending in which the wealthier individuals placed their misguided ideas of happiness. In the Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald chooses to expose the hidden truth behind the illustrious concept of the American dream. Through his use of literary devices such as, symbolism, metaphor, and, irony the central idea of the truly unattainable American dream is supported throughout the novel.

In Bryant Mangum’s review of The Great Gatsby, he critiques Fitzgerald and writes about many of Fitzgerald’s works. He mentions that Fitzgerald’s early work was not as strong as The Great Gatsby and even when it first came out, most people were not impressed. This review gives good content about The Great Gatsby but also gives background and thoughts on Fitzgerald. Opinions of other critics and reviews were referred to, which gave a more well-rounded view of who Fitzgerald was and reasons for his writings.

Fitzgerald's dominant theme in The Great Gatsby focuses on the corruption of the American Dream. By analyzing high society during the 1920s through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, the author reveals that the American Dream has transformed from a pure ideal of security into a convoluted scheme of materialistic power. In support of this message, Fitzgerald highlights the original aspects as well as the new aspects of the American Dream in

F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘’who was not only part of the irresponsible and extravagant life of The Roaring Twenties, but he also helped named this era, The Jazz Age with his novels.’’(Mescal Evler 587) The Roaring Twenties gave people the opportunity to become wealthy. Many people at the time of this era were making a lot of money and partying. Fitzgerald most well-known novel, The Great Gatsby, was based on The Roaring Twenties. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes us wonder and speculate whether the pursuit of wealth is a noble aspect of life or does it lead to corruption and shower greed upon an individual.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a classic novel that captures the essence of life in America during the 1920s. Fitzgerald uses techniques and conventions of characterization, setting, symbolism, plot and tone to make timeless comments on the context of this text. comments include the idea that during the 1920s wealth caused the upper class to have destructive power, the working class struggled and suffered under illusion of affluence, there is no escaping society’s rigid social classes and that consumerism causes people to be selfish and act only out of self-interest.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the reader sees a common theme of corruption of the American Dream. In the 1920’s, the times are changing in America and morals are becoming looser and the lifestyle of the wealthy is more careless. New fashion, attitude, and music is what nicknamed this era the “Jazz Age,” greatly influencing Fitzgerald’s writing. He created similarities between many things in pop culture and the journey his characters Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Myrtle are taking to achieve the American dream. Through the use of the lively, yet scandalous, jazz music from the 1920’s, Fitzgerald reflects the attitudes of the characters in The Great Gatsby at the end of innocence and prevalence of

The disillusionment of the American Dream is a frequent but important written theme in the American literature. Fitzgerald’s famous book The Great Gatsby is one of the most important representative works that reflects this theme. F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for his novels and short stories which chronicle the excesses of America's Jazz Age during the 1920s. His classic twentieth-century story of Jay Gatsby examines and critiques Gatsby's particular vision of the 1920's American Dream. The Great Gatsby can be seen as a far-reaching book that has revealed many serious and hidden social problems at that time. As one of the most popular and financially successful

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story that has many different themes. Fitzgerald shows the themes that he uses through his character’s desires and actions. This novel has themes in it that we deal with in our everyday life. It has themes that deal with our personal lives and themes that deal with what’s right and what’s wrong. There are also themes that have to do with materialistic items that we deal desire on a daily basis. Fitzgerald focuses on the themes of corrupted love, immorality, and the American Dream in order to tell a story that is entertaining to his readers.

A comparison of the ways in which Fitzgerald and Bronte present their heroes. (2742 words)