After the suffering of World War I in the 1920s, many of the upper class Americans focused on filling their lives with endless joy and concentrating their energies on their own pleasure and comfort to forget about wartime memories. The 1920s era was were money had become the foundation of society due to the American dream, where everyone left behind their horrible past and centralized on becoming wealthy and being the most superlative. As a result, in The Great Gatsby through many rhetorical devices, Fitzgerald uses Nick Carraway as his persona in order to portray that money became too powerful and people became extremely selfish and greedy in the 1920s. For instance, through diction, Carraway adequately describes his disgust of the East in
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is persuaded by gendered norms of the 1920s that expected men to prioritize financial success over all else, and in particular, over the love for a woman. He is a commentary on the friction between societal expectations and personal happiness. Gatsby does everything right: he closes himself off from the woman he loves, Daisy, to become financially successful meanwhile, expecting to reclaim his lost love upon achieving the aforementioned material success. Through the character of Jay Gatsby, the novel illustrates societal pressures for men in this period and how a narrow interpretation of success could ultimately undermine the attainment of a successful life defined more broadly.
The Great Gatsby reveals the truths of the 1920s about corruption, class, society and wealth. Fitzgerald shows the greed of the characters for money and power, especially the character of Daisy Buchanan, a woman who chose money over her love. The protagonist Jay Gatsby rises from poverty to opulence to win his love Daisy back. Nick Carraway, a man who witnesses the life of the pathetic man, Jay Gatsby. Through the characterization of Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald reveals that wealth can pull one in the trap of corruption, dishonesty and one’s loss of self.
Rosealynn B. Hernandez Mrs. Centorame ENG4U1 19 April 2023 Step Back to See the Bigger Picture Wealth, status and privilege are multifaceted societal constructs that habitually contrast human expectations. As fairly moral beings, humans prefer the idea of the treatment they receive being impartial, however, the reality is that different people possess different ranges of privilege. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the narrator, Nick Carraway is a benefactor of the extra privileges afforded to people of the aristocratic class. He is a man who decides to pursue a future that is independent from the inherited riches his ancestors passed onto family. As a result of his new desire for independence, he begins his journey towards both West
The Roaring Twenties, known as the decade of the 1920s in the Western World, consists of dramatic changes in social values. The cultural differences between the 1920s and the Victorian era changes people's behavior, where they become more free-will, youthful and carefree, despite of being more conservative before. People are more open-minded and found satisfaction through the “open pursuit of sex, money, and booze” (Berman 53) as they suggest their wealth and status in the society. New York City had become one of the cities where materialistic wealth has become the key of happiness and the standard to judge people's success, further leading Americans to pursue each other in a negative, acquisitive way. Through the different scenes and characters of the famous novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores how the society twisted the original idea of
Breaking Social Boundaries The era of the 1920s was a pinnacle time in American History and the literature that was produced from this era showcases the social change happening. This was the time of social upheaval where the people were challenging social boundaries. The values that had been sought after in the period before this were becoming less and else prevalent in the new society. There are many viewpoints of this time period so the literature of this time was very diverse and many works showed the changing cultures.
This is why in the 1920’s, the quest for the American dream for hope and prosperity started to decline. The American dream was declining and was demonstrated by the way the characters acted. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby” to show that people are corrupted and using immoral means to gain happiness. This book demonstrates that to the best degree possible, using Gatsby and Daisy as examples of the corrupted side of society and Nick as the honest side.
The American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success, prosperity, and social mobility through hard work, determination, and initiative. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby attempts to achieve social mobility but ultimately fails due to the constructs of old vs new money. An argument is shown that the American Dream is just that, a dream, and that happiness cannot be achieved through wealth. In the novel, the super poor are stuck in their social class, unable to move because they live in the valley of ashes, which represents poverty and the corruption and social decay that came with the lavish and careless lifestyles of the rich.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novel The Great Gatsby, illustrates social class differences in the modern 1920’s society. For example, when we are first introduced to Nick he is talking about how he first came across West Egg and readers are introduced to the setting and the differences between West Egg, where people have to work for their riches, and East Egg , where people are born into their rich lifestyle. The main character named Nick Carraway lives in West Egg, where those who worked their way to the top of the social ladder. East Egg is where is where two other main characters, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, live.
I The American dream is a shared set of ideals that guide the spirit of the United States. These shared ideals include a notion of freedom that ensures all Americans the possibility of upward social mobility, as long as they work for it. I believe that every single character in the novel is inspired from the American dream promises of wealthiness, prosperity and equality. All while the novel itself critiques the notion of the american dream. It’s a hope that everyone and anyone can be successful and be where they want to be in life, as I stated before.
The impact of truth and morality by one’s social class How does one’s social class affect one’s honesty and morality? In the book, Fitzgerald makes commentary on various themes, such as the American dream and the passing of time and so on. Of the various themes being illustrate, none is more developed as the impact of social class on one’s moral identity. The book offers vivid peak into the everyday society in time period of the Jazz age. The idea of one’s morality due to one’s identity is being illustrated and explored in the book, as the author, Scott Fitzgerald suggests that honesty and morality are interconnected with one’s authority and social status.
Arguably one of the most complex works of American Literature, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays a satirical United States taking place in the early twenties in New York. The roaring twenties often portrayed a happy time immediately following World War 1 however, it gave off a false feeling of joy and many people were truly unhappy. Even though Nick Carraway shows a realistic image of himself, The Great Gatsby encompasses an illusion created in this time period and portrays this image through the atmosphere surrounding the actions of its characters; it ultimately shows a conflict against reality, identical to that to the early 20th century. The Great Gatsby shows the upper class and their habits, which involved: carelessness,
1. Society and Class The Great Gatsby is offering a peek into American social life in the roaring 20s. The 1920s is a time of economic growth since the World War One had just ended. Fitzgerald presents a picture of America he observes around him.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .
The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis “They were careless people…” says Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby. In a story depicting the 1920s during a time of prosperity, growth, and the emergence of the America as a major global power, this statement may seem to be contrary. But in reality, Nick Carraway’s description of his friends and the people he knew, was not only true, but is an indication of those who were striving for the American dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream is foolish, the people who pursue it are immoral and reckless, and this pursuit is futile. First, F. Scott Fitzgerald proposes that the American dream is foolish.
