Examples Of Modernism In The Great Gatsby

During the Dark Ages, much of the arts and sciences were lost, supposedly for good. Then the Renaissance arrived. Art flourished, science was relearned, new discoveries were made, and amazing structures were built. Classical forms of music, literature, painting, and other arts became standard, and people generally had an optimistic outlook on life. However, as time moved on, some people began to have a more cynical, skeptical, and realistic view of the world around them. This was the birth of Modernism. Modernism was an idea and movement that broke classical and traditional norms in art, literature, and science. Modernism arose during the industrial revolution, and it also resulted from the reaction of horror that people had towards WW1. These

Right in the beginning of the novel, Fitzgerald starts to set the scene. Nick, a main character, speaks of where he lives, describing it as “a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay” (Pg. 5). These two pieces of land are located on Long Island. When Nick goes on to say that they have a “dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size” and “West Egg is the ... less fashionable of the two” (5). Clearly, the dissimilarities are things like wealth, social standings, mannerisms, etc. The reader realizes the stark division between these two places, and the depressing reality of segregation and social levels becomes apparent. An example of this segregation is when Jordan contemptuously reduces Nick to someone who “lives in West Egg” (11). Without even getting to know Nick, Jordan immediately assumes that he is something to be looked at with distaste. This immediately depressing attitude helps to build the bleak setting that is New York in this novel. This departs from earlier, more classical texts that immediately build a happier setting, then become darker, then become resolved. Gatsby’s setting stays consistently dark throughout the whole novel, simultaneously causing the reader to reflect on the true message of the text and conveying modernism. Later in the novel, Nick and Tom are driving between East and West egg through the “valley of ashes” (23). Nick gives a depressing account of an overworked, dirty, and poor section of New York situated between two areas of opulence. The black-and-white difference between the rich and poor in this scene strikes the reader, and build an inescapable feeling that no matter how much someone tries to get on top, they will still fall short. This accentuates Fitzgerald’s attempt to use his setting to follow the modernist movement. Finally, towards the end of the novel, Gatsby finally