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Social Norms In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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The 1920’s also famously known as the Jazz Age was a period of economic prosperity and shaking up social mores. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes characters, symbols, and motifs to illustrate the themes of love, marriage, and wealth to describe how the 1920’s was an era of social norms being broken. First of all, the theme of love blindsides people to see the truth. For instance, Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for five years since he went into the military. Once Gatsby finally got to meet Daisy for the first “he literally glowed; without a word or gesture of exultation a new well being radiated from him and filled the little room” (Fitzgerald 89). Meeting Daisy again made his dream a reality and he can show Daisy how …show more content…

For example, Tom affair is revealed throughout the book without people finding out it was Myrtle Wilson. Then when Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy are all together Tom reveals “once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back” (Fitzgerald 251). By admitting he had an affair, he thinks he can win Daisy back saying he always loved her initially. Either way this infers he had many flings before Myrtle and doesn’t take the commitment of marriage seriously. Moreover, Tom’s nature of taking marriage lightly starts when he takes Nick to the valley of ashes and notices “there is always a halt there of at least a minute and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan’s mistress” (Fitzgerald 24). Just like Tom, Myrtle treats marriage as if commitment in this era meant nothing. Even though Tom and Myrtle love each other, they constantly have a trail of lies following them. The Valley of Ashes isn’t only where the Wilsons’ live, but also symbolizes the secrets buried deep down. As Tom and Myrtle's relationship is exposed to Nick, he gets invited to their party at an apartment Tom owns to have a place to stay with Myrtle. As Nick gets introduced to new people he witnesses Tom’s aggressive nature towards Myrtle. Tom ends up hitting Myrtle’s nose when she calls Daisy name in a heated argument. This scene ends up being the start where violence occurs throughout the scene, building up Tom’s hostile control over women. Even though he loves Myrtle, he doesn’t want Daisy to find out about the affair causing him to resort to violence when he thinks Myrtle will jeopardize his marriage. Marriage is suppose to be a commitment with the one you love, but Fitzgerald uses the theme of marriage to convey the loose morals in the

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The dynamics of Daisy and Tom’s relationship become evident- Daisy is suppose to pretend that her family is faultless while Tom is free to fool around with his mistress openly. Tom and his mistress, Myrtle, openly throw their relationship in Daisy’s face as we can see by the time that the Buchanan’s phone had rung. Myrtle had called at dinner which is when she knew Daisy and Tom would be together. This shows an obvious disrespect for Tom’s wife, Daisy, which Myrtle could only have learned from Tom. Later on in chapter 7 Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, Tom and Jordan all head into town.

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One example of the manipulation that Tom uses is the things he tells Myrtle about Daisy. “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic and they don’t believe in divorce. Daisy was not a Catholic and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie” (Fitzgerald 33).

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Myrtle is married to George Wilson, an old, boring man. Tom does not try very hard to hide his affair, except from his wife. He takes Myrtle out and shows her off to his friends, including Nick. Daisy, knowing of her husband’s affair without telling him, feels no guilt in her affair with Gatsby. The book comes to a climax when Gatsby attends a get together with Tom, Daisy, Nick, and Jordan in New York.

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