How Does Fitzgerald Create Identity In The Great Gatsby

Unique prosperity, technological innovation, and wonderful tradition symbolized the era of the 1920s in North America. This decade consisted of an economic expansion and welfare for most of the American’s life. The majority of the population conformed an extravagant society that was commonly known for being wealthy, materialistic, and immortal. That being said, in the novel “The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925, this social group is represented in a particular way conveying the culture of that precious era. The novel develops the idea of the American dream as the vision of working hard to achieve a determined goal and creates a specific identity through characters such as Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy

This illustrates the cultural and historical context of the novel in places such as West Egg, New York, and East Egg represented richness and prosperity in the 1920’s. “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard –it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool…” In this quote, the narrator of the novel, Nick, uses imagery to convey the commodities and housing of economical grown people like Gatsby. In contrast, the author uses another landscape to emphasize the lifestyle of the high class. “A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys…” This miserable place is a symbol of the poor who conform a minority. The American dream is seen in the setting of the novel because the low class is the working class that wants to flourish, while the wealthy people live in the best conditions and still look for a better

“There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour…” When describing Gatsby’s possessions the use of words like “machine,” “two hundred oranges,” and “in half an hour,” give a feature of technologic advance. Only high classes have the commodities to own rapid and efficient apparatus that facilitate the work of the people. Fitzgerald explicitly conveys materialism and wealth of this social class by Gatsby’s possessions. Mysteriously, Gatsby expresses his love for Daisy and his grand pursuit for having her. “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” The quote indicates that Gatsby has his own American dream. The perseverance and hard work to achieve his goal makes him slave of a fantasy that he never realizes. The author wants to show the real meaning of all those words that represent opulence; he creates a character like Gatsby showing that he does not fulfill his happiness with