How Is The Lost Generation Shown In The Great Gatsby

Kaitlyn Hilyard

Mrs. Tollett

11th Honors English

24, April 2023

The Lost Generation in The Great Gatsby The Roaring Twenties, a time of love, loss, and learning, was a period post WWI when America rested in a state of confusion. After WWI “. . .there arose a group of young persons known as the 'Lost Generation’”(O'Connor 1). Writers of the 1920s wrote novels as reflections of what the reality of the lost society was like. Among these writers was one in particular, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald displays a prominent depiction of what the Lost Generation is, through the corruption of the American dream during the 1920s, and the loss of moral values within society, in his widely known novel The Great Gatsby. The Lost Generation is a name referring

Scott Fitzgerald. Being one of the most notable authors of the time, Fitzgerald writes with a “double vision” that is evidently seen through his heroes, whom he truly called his brothers (Agarwal 34). Growing up in an era knowing both good and bad fortune, Fitzgerald knew wealth. Because of his experienced knowledge on the lives of the wealthy, his character Jay Gatsby, has a sense of fascination for wealth (Agarwal 34). He writes The Great Gatsby as a parallel image of what the broken, lost lives of America post WWI were like. In many ways it is also a reflection on the emotional life which Fitzgerald himself lived. Just as Gatsby tried to win the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, through money, he tried to win the love of his life, Zelda, by selling the novels he wrote, to give her a good life. Fitzgerald also gives readers a taste of the Jazz Age through character behaviors and occurrences within his novel. He captures “the reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music . . . that Gatsby throws every Saturday Night” (qtd. in Smiljanic 2). The narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway, describes Gatsby's parties as “gleaming, dazzling parties'' (Fitzgerald

Decadence is one of the common themes used by writers from the “Lost Generation”, especially Fitzgerald writing about Gatsby's lavish parties (O'Connor 1). Fitzgerald often uses references to alcohol and decadence as coping tools for the characters (Chatila). In their own ways, all of the characters have undealt with issues from their pasts, and Fitzgerald writes them this way because that is how his reality is. Fitzgerald writes some of the 1920s characteristics as “. . . overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure,” all of which display the theme of decadence (qtd. in Smiljanic 2). The theme of decadence is seen early on in the novel when “men and girls came and went like moths” to Gatsby's parties, but when it came time for his funeral none of those people showed up (Fitzgerald). No one showing up to his funeral shows how people only attend his large parties for self pleasure purposes and interest in his wealth. The Buchanans are an example of how decadence affects the already wealthy. Nick says, “Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (Fitzgerald 179). They rely on their money and selfishness to carry them on through life. Fitzgerald uses decadence to better depict the