Examples Of Modernism In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby demonstrates Modernism through writing about the search for new values, much like the American dream. Gatsby longs for Daisy much like the average person hopes to one day reach the American dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald also depicts partying and man and wife cheating on each other which were not commonly talked about in traditional literature. Characters show the rejection of old ideas much like women doing things they couldn't do in the past and asserting new freedoms.

Modernism is characterized by a loss in everything that people believe in. The Modernism era was also an era of disappointment, people became concerned with the meaning of things. It was believed that science is the reasoning to everything and the idea of God

This is a common element in many parts of the book and often times the reader or character in the book is blinded by their perception of the character and fail to see the reality of who that character really is. The story provides an example of this early on in the book when Daisy says to Nick, “You remind me of a--rose, an absolute rose.” Nick ,unlike Daisy, is aware of how untrue the statement is and asserts to the reader that he isn't even faintly like a rose. Daisy obviously lives in her own reality and she sees Nick as being something he isn't, but it can be difficult to distinguish how something really is and how something seems. Nick is first introduced to Gatsby as The Great Gatsby, a man shrouded in mystery who throws grand parties and most likely comes from a wealthy background. He has even been rumored to have killed people. As the story progresses we learn that Jay Gatsby's money most likely came from illegal affairs and quite possibly from throwing the World Series of 1919. We also learn that Jay Gatsby is really just Jimmy Gatz who came from a lower class family that lived in poverty and he along with his parents had no formal education. Jay Gatsby was a cover made by Jimmy that he was able to fool everyone with into thinking that the Jay Gatsby that they all thought they knew was real. Fitzgerald’s writing conveyed the modern idea that it

The American dream is an idea that suggests that if you work hard enough for it, you will one day get there and achieve happiness. Jay Gatsby rose from poverty with no backing from his parents and made it big for himself through often shady dealings. He had risen to what many would consider the pinnacle for American success but the one thing he wanted was Daisy. While Gatsby appears to be successful to the common audience, he is ultimately unsuccessful in his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan’s love. When he finally confronts Tom, Daisy’s new husband, Daisy tells him that she is now with Tom and refuses to leave him. Gatsby is at first unable to comprehend the news reasoning to Nick that it was because of the situation she had been put in and that, “she hardly knew what she was saying.” Gatsby is blinded by his dream and doesn't realize that he has lost Daisy. Not only does Gatsby lose his only love, but he also loses his life in chase of the American dream. In the end, his dream killed him and he had no one, not even to attend his funeral. The story points out the falsity of the so called American dream and shows how untrue the whole concept is. The point made in the story is that no matter how hard Gatsby worked, he proved unsuccessful and never got happiness. This point is very modernistic because it implies that a large part of what society used to believe is not true