The Great Gatsby Cultural Analysis

The novel, The Great Gatsby, is a display of moral values. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. Fitzgerald was a romanticist from the day he was born and was obsessed with achieving wealth due to his upbringing in his lavish childhood neighborhood. He grew up in one of the richest neighborhoods in the country, but he lived in a fairly small house unlike the others. He always tried to fit in with the wealthiest people and stereotypical attitudes they possessed. He attended Princeton University in an effort to do so, but later failed out. The Great Gatsby's character Nick Carroway moves to West Egg, New York in search for riches in the bond business, and shares parallels to Fitzgerald’s life.

The decade was a time of tremendous prosperity and wealth. Following the end of World War I, the industrial prowess of the United States was unleashed for domestic, peaceful purposes. Within a few short years, an economic shift took place as the economy transitioned from wartime production to peacetime production. This allowed for the creation of various new technologies such as the automobile, household appliances, and other mass-produced products led to a vibrant consumer culture, stimulating economic growth. Furthermore, under the administration of three consecutive Republican presidents, the government adopted fiscally conservative policies that fueled private business growth allowing for an era of “New Money” to be birthed. The “New Money” era was one in which the main character of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby, fell head first into. Although the backstory of Gatsby’s come to money story has many versions that appear throughout the novel, it is clear that with the help of the “Roaring ‘20s,” he was able to obtain a substantial amount of wealth. The wealth he obtained however, produced a sense of godlike attributes while throwing lavish parties as his, “Rolls−Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight.” Gatsby’s parties were legendary among the elitist members of the New York City

As many immigrants came, they looked for new opportunities in their economic standing as financial stability is everything to a lower class citizen. In comparison however, the characters featured in The Great Gatsby take their wealth for granted and do not realize that “the apparent accumulation of wealth is really the impoverishment of human nature,” and an expansive collection of assets “and its appropriate morality is the renunciation of human nature and desires – asceticism” (Komlik). The upper class as seen in the 1920s parallels that of The Great Gatsby as each of them share the ideology that the accumulation of wealth is a necessity and a power move. However, the accumulation of affluence only furthers the dehumanizing nature as the rich become so insistent on attaining power and affluence supposedly leading to godlike powers through the social prowess obtainted. According to The Huffington Post, “materialistic values have even been linked with lower relationship satisfaction” (Gregoire) The claim of characters throughout The Great Gatsby that materialistic items create happiness and power is completely fabricated, and gives characters such as Gatsby the hope that through spending exorbitant amounts of money on parties or gifts for Daisy will come back to him the for of power. However, in the novels case, the opposite