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Who Is F Scott Fitzgerald Present The Depression In The Great Gatsby

1292 Words6 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, delves into the American Dream and its challenges during the Jazz Age. Similarly, the Great Depression of the 1930s had a lasting impact on American society, reshaping its core values. This essay will explore the connections between Fitzgerald’s work and the influential era of the Great Depression, highlighting how both address themes of wealth, disillusionment, and societal decay. In The Great Gatsby, characters like Jay Gatsby and Tom and Daisy Buchanan embody the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald vividly depicts the lavish parties, grand mansions, and ostentatious displays of wealth that characterized the time. Similarly, the years leading up to the Great Depression were marked …show more content…

The wide range and quality of the shirts, described as "sheer," "thick," "fine," and "soft rich," mirror the luxurious way of life pursued by the rich during this period. Daisy's overwhelming reaction to Gatsby's grand gesture highlights the attraction and influence of such extravagant displays on people during a time of great prosperity and social change. This statement captures the extravagance and materialism that defined the Roaring Twenties as portrayed in The Great Gatsby. Beneath the surface of wealth and luxury, both "The Great Gatsby" and the Great Depression reveal a deep sense of disillusionment. Jay Gatsby, despite his rich and extravagant lifestyle, is haunted by his unattainable love for Daisy Buchanan and the elusive American Dream. Similarly, the economic collapse of the 1930s shattered the dreams of many, leading to widespread unemployment, bank failures, and poverty. The promise of prosperity gave way to despair. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (Fitzgerald 180). In the final paragraphs of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald captures a deep feeling of disappointment and the fruitless chase after a perfect

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The Moral Decay of the Materialistic Although F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby debuted in 1925– before the Great Depression– it serves as a prophetic exemplification of the the material excess of the 1920s that drowned out signs of the coming Great Depression. The book’s plot follows the bootlegger Jay Gatsby as he pursues his old love Daisy Buchanan through flaunting his new extravagant lifestyle, mainly by throwing ostentatious parties. Yet, in the end, Daisy chooses her unfaithful husband Tom over Gatsby. Through Fitzgerald’s use of wealthy, materialistic characters, he comments on the effect of the material excess of the roaring twenties: moral corruption.

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