How Did The Great Gatsby Change In The 1920s

Changing to the Modern Age of the 1920s

Introduction

The 1920s was a prosperous time period which included many new changes such as technological advances, change in fashion, and music. In Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he exemplifies how during the 1920s it was a prosperous time period where people began to be consumed by the idea of wealth and freedom. In Fitzgerald’s novel, one of main characters is Jay Gatsby who is shown as a self-made man, a person who starts out poor but achieves economic or moral success through hard work and perseverance. Through Gatsby’s journey he altered his destiny from a son of poor farmers to a wealthy man living in West Egg. As Gatsby climbs the social ladder, he alternates himself

Jay Gatsby was one of those men who took this era to his advantage. He was known as the self-made man. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, explains the history of Gatsby, who was James Gatz at the time, he was the son of poor farmers and ran away at a young age. However his true life began when, James Gatz met Dan Cody, when he was rowing out in a row boat to warn rich people that high wind was coming. This event lead to the opportunity Gatz wanted all his life, the man asked for his name. This moment he changed his name to James Gatsby. This was an important part of Gatsby’s life, it was the time period where his past was erased and he received a new identity. Nick describes Gatsby as “….Jay Gatsby…sprang from his platonic conception of himself”(Fitzgerald, 104). Nick tries to show how James Gatz has modeled himself after “Jay Gatsby”, which is a man that Gatsby has created for himself. Gatsby is basically a puppet of James Gatz and imaginations of James Gatz. In addition , Nick describes Gatsby as “He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drum of his destiny, to destiny itself…” (Fitzgerald, 105). In these quotes, it explains how Gatsby is a type of person who writes his own destiny.As the reader can see, Gatsby is a type of person that was created from scratch and climbs the social ladder in order to gain his

During the 1920s, there was a mass-production of consumer goods such as clothes, radios and many others(Thomas 2). Soon media, advertising and propaganda advertised these products to the everyday man(Hen 12).The rapid production of these good, became a necessity to an everyday American (Thomas 2). This lead to a life base on materialistic need of possession (Drowne 2004). Fitzgerald expresses this concept with Jay Gatsby. Nick talks about about Gatsby’s car and states: “I’d seen it. Everyone has seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel...” (Fitzgerald 68). This quote shows that even though an automobile was a very useful tool for transportation, Gatsby uses it with a different purpose. Gatsby uses the cars as a form of advertisements that he is rich. Nick mentions, “I’d seen it. Everyone had seen it…” which shows that Gatsby bought the car are a form of a materialistic representation of himself. Also, Nick describes Gatsby mansion: “…a tower on one side … marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden…”(Fitzgerald 9). Furthermore, through reading in the book, the reader is informed that Gatsby throws huge parties and each time many people come and enjoy their time in Gatsby house. However, Gatsby himself does not enjoy his own mansion or his wealth; he even mentions how he did not even use his pool once this summer. This shows the reader how Gatsby buys all these material