The Roaring Lack of Morality in the 20s Morals were not thought of as a strict moral code during the roaring twenties, and many people found them rather irrelevant. Those whom threw parties, cheated, and lied, were those who were happiest during these times. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, paints a picture of the 1920s by expressing many themes: the need for wealth, the want for love, and the act of betrayal in marriage through the Modern Era. As expressed through the characters in The Great Gatsby, money and materialistic goods are what drove the ranking system during the twenties. The narrator explains to the reader how the characters in this book use their wealth to climb the social chain; His father told him, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the …show more content…
This is affected by the concept of the American Dream. The American Dream is an idea that believes that with hard work, you can achieve anything. Gatsby takes this idea into his past love life when he is told he cannot repeat the past, but he responds with, “‘Can't repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (Fitzgerald 65) The feelings Gatsby possessed for his past love, Daisy Buchanan, were real while also very young and immature. Daisy matured to be with other men while Gatsby spent his whole life and wealth searching for Daisy. The purest form of love shown in this novel was came from George Wilson. His jealousy was shown when he killed Gatsby assuming he was his wife’s lover. Although the guilt was too much for him and he killed himself to be with Myrtle, his wife. These two men are very different, one searching for his lady out of lust, and one killing a man out of jealousy. The intensity and extremes that were achieved were uncalled for, and did not help either of the men win their