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
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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
The novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitz Gerald embodies many themes. A major in the story is the pursuit of can be labelled the American Dream. The American Dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and or wealth and fame. By having money, a car, a big house, nice clothes and a happy family symbolizes the American dream. The Great Gatsby shows what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s, which is a time period when the dreams became corrupted for many reasons.
The American Dream suggests that every American citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work. One of the major ways that Fitzgerald portrays this is by alluding to outside events or works of literature specifically from that time period. Another major relationship that develops in The Great Gatsby is between Tom and Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to things such as the World’s Fair and “The Love Nest” to display the eventual dismantling of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Both of these separate plots consolidate under the idea of Gatsby trying to become the epitome of the American Dream, as seen through his strive for a “perfect life.”
this is a pointy contradiction which fits into Fitzgerald’s attempt to use satire to prove the purpose that the dream has died. The novel the great Gatsby uses satire to indicate that the American Dream is dead throughout the roaring twenties. Fitzgerald does this through subtle comparisons and commenting on the valley of Ashes, Gatsby’s parties, Gatsby himself, and Myrtle and George Wilson. The disreputable American Dream has been replaced with greed and the pursuit of cash instead of
The Great Gatsby is a story about a man with old money and that consistently cheats on his wife. Tom and Daisy are both from old money in the Midwest. They get married and moved to the east. Once Tom was uninterested in Daisy, he had a mistress in New York. In the 1920’s F. Scott Fitzgerald had many troubles with his marriage.
Through the early to mid 1900s, the concept of striving to attain more than one is originally born with became predominant in most American societies. During this era, many authors, through literature, began expressing their concern with the rise in materialistic ideals and its effect on society and the individuals living within it, one being F. Scott Fitzgerald. Two of Fitzgerald’s widely-known works of literature, The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”, both heavily elaborate on the effects of the increase in materialism and the ultimate effects of attempting to achieve the American Dream; this is conveyed through the unhappiness of the Dexter and Gatsby despite their perseverance to acquire women of higher social statuses. These texts both reach the conclusion that the American Dream is not within reach of anyone. Fitzgerald’s representation of the unattainable American Dream is demonstrated in The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams” through his portrayal of the materialistic nature of society as well as the characters’ failure to possess the women they love.
All three examples, the American Dream, the upper class and marriage all point to the lesson that not everything that seems perfect on the outside really is perfect. One could have all the riches in the world but still feel as poor as a beggar on the street. Fitzgerald conveyed this to the readers through Gatsby, Daisy and Tom lives through the eyes of an honest, smart and level-headed Nick
The relationships that intertwine with each other in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald all have motivations for either Love, Desire, or Sex. All the major relationships in the book are not stable and have their falling out periods. So begs the question, “What is love?” And “Does money buy love?” as it could be argued for the relationship between Tom and Daisy Buchanan.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald once stated, “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart and all they can do is stare blankly.” Throughout his famous work, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrayed the American Dream. Contrary to the ideology of the “Roaring Twenties” society, he described the American Dream as a delusion. People of the era focused on materialism in order to boost their wealth and status and forgot the importance of their relationships. Several characters within the novel sought to gain a higher status in society.
Gatsby has the American Dream of being successful and wanting to marry the girl of his dreams. However, Fitzgerald argues that The American Dream is a paradox because dreams aren’t supposed to be achieved, and are better off to remain in one’s imagination. For example, Gatsby wants to marry the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Sadly Gatsby sets such a high standard for her that she will never be able to live up to. Gatsby envisions Daisy as the golden girl, and once he put his plan into action, he realizes
The desire for love impairs the moral judgment of the individuals, especially Gatsby in the novel. As much as the readers of 1984 wish to cast Gatsby as a great man for his love for Daisy, his attachment to Daisy is actually nothing more than an illusion as he cannot distinguish his feeling as desire or love. True love is a deep attachment to someone in an unconditional and a sacrificial manner where one is selfless to put the other before oneself and is understanding of the other’s flaws. Yet, Gatsby possesses none of the characteristics. Although Gatsby knows that Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, he hosts dazzling parties and even “[buys] the [mansion] so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald, 78).
The Facade of the American Dream The American Dream is the opportunity for all Americans to live a life of personal happiness and material comfort, but is it actually achievable? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a story of characters working hard to achieve the American Dream, but ultimately they are unable to ever realize their perfect life. The novel makes a strong naturalism argument about the rigid class system in society and the disillusionment of the American Dream.
F.Scott Fitzgerald is an American novelist and a short story writer. He is the author of the famous novel “ The Great Gatsby”, which is written in the 1920’s. The period of the 1920’s is well known as the roaring twenties due to lack of morales and the lowering of standards and expectations, people intended just to have a good time not caring about the outcomes of their and how they will effect their lives. Fitzgerald wants to prove in his novel the death of “The American Dream” it’s just a myth. The author of this novel shows the death of the american dream through the events surrounding Gatsby, and Daisy.
The Corruption of The American Dream in The Great Gatsby In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates society in the 1920’s and the desire for the people with in it to achieve the American Dream, which embodies the hope that one can achieve power, love and a higher economic/social status through one’s commitment and effort. The novel develops the story of a man named Jay Gatsby and his dream of marrying what he describes as his “golden girl”, also known as, Daisy Buchanan, his former lover. Fitzgerald explores the corruption of the American dream through the Characters; Myrtle, Gatsby and Daisy.
Fitzgerald focused on the shift in the American Dream - from being the idea of self-fulfillment, dignity and comfort that is achieved through hard work, to being equated with the pursuit of wealth and power, and identifying happiness with having money. The novel depicts the rise and fall of the concept and describes the causes of its decay. The downfall of the American Dream is most accurately shown through the main protagonist of the story – Jay Gatsby. To reiterate, the American Dream is the concept that anyone can achieve a better life and become self-fulfilled, if they put enough effort to it and make the most of their abilities.
Gatsby then gets involved with the nightmare of the American Dream. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s perfectly as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. This novel shows the lack of social skills in newly made millionaires such as Gatsby that cannot even pick up on an invitation to lunch. This book was enjoyable to read because it set in when America was becoming an economic superpower and it was relatable in some ways.