How Does Fitzgerald Use Satire In The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s Satire:

The Mockery of Marriage

The American Dream signifies the glittering things of the world; people’s desires, wants, and hopes they wish to receive from society. F. Scott Fitzgerald shines a light on the unattainable ideal that people express in the early 1920s, criticizing it from early on. His novel follows a middle-class worker, Nick Carraway, and his interactions with society. Along the way, Nick learns of the intimate connection between his cousin, Daisy and neighbor, Gatsby, their relationship symbolizing the American Dream. The entire novel represents the underlying issues found in marriage and the impact they make on the American Dream. Fitzgerald intentionally scorns the American Dream by divulging the conflicts in marriage and the repercussions of infidelity. In the 1920s, a large part of the American Dream was having the perfect family. Fitzgerald derides America’s image of the quintessential family by revealing Tom and Daisy’s marital issues. The ideal was to have a flawless marriage; one that expressed love for not only each other, but their children. Tom and Daisy’s is found to be anything but faultless. Early on, Nick becomes aware that, “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (15). To a reader of that time period, an ideal marriage

A specific pattern follows the married couples found in the novel. In the two main marriages, aristocratic Tom and Daisy, and indigent George and Myrtle, each seem to be teeming with scandal. In Tom and Daisy’s relationship, Tom is loosely involved with Myrtle, while Daisy is invested into Gatsby. For George and Myrtle, Myrtle is pining after Tom, while George awaits her love. In the end, all of the affairs crash and burn, much like the American Dream in society. People realized that the dream was a false advertisement for hope. Fitzgerald unveils that infidelity is a way to escape marital