His hopeful quest for these ideals gives him a sense of honour and chivalry; however, it is the “foul dust” (4) of disillusionment and moral decay interfering with his dreams that leads to his undoing. Gatsby’s dreams are “great,” only they blind him from the cruel reality of humans’ inability to repeat the past. It is such disappointment that prompts his demise. Gatsby’s attachment to his past and desperation to attain the false notion of the American Dream compels him into an endless hurtle toward a dead end. Fitzgerald effectively highlights the fallacy of the American Dream through Gatsby’s sincere journey into the wealthy society--and eventually his traumatic decline--as he reaches out to Daisy’s ghostly heart.
The Roaring Twenties as seen by F. Scott Fitzgerald Introduction When you say „The Roaring Twenties” there are a thousand ideas that come in your mind :jazz music, parties, prosperity, wealth, opulence, luxury, consumer society. Also, the first figure that pops up in your mind is F. Scott Fitzgerald. The period between 1920 and 1930 had a great impact on the American history, as it was a time of change in many aspects. I. The 20s The Roaring Twenties were a period of drastic social change and prosperity in the economic department.
As America evolves throughout the twentieth century, so does what people view as important, which adds on to what the American Dream means. The culture of the 1920s encouraged spending and materialism so people sought money, power, and expensive items to make them happy. In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, who is the epitome of the 1920s American Dream, saw that becoming rich and notable was the only way to get his Dream which was Daisy: “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.”(Fitzgerald, ch 7) Furthermore, despite the fact that Tom was born with a silver spoon, he still felt he didn’t have the American Dream because Gatsby was more popular than him: “I know I’m not very popular. I don’t have big parties. I suppose you’ve got to
Daisy is miserable being married to Tom but stays with him anyways cause she is worried what will happen. Also, Jay Gatsby has always loved Daisy Buchanan, and thinks that she will fall for him once she sees how successful he has become. On the other hand Nick doesn’t have much but is happy with what he has and falls in love with a Jordan Baker and doesn’t care if he is rich or not. So in reality it doesn’t matter if you’re rich but if you’re happy. In conclusion, The Great Gatsby is a work of fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald which includes detailed characters, an exploration of universal themes about money and happiness, and the writings of an author with a very interesting life and influence for his writing.
The book also talks about the societal normality of people having affairs. This time period, in the 1920s, was also known as the jazz age, as well as the roaring twenties. Business was booming and the rich were enjoying themselves. This is shown through Jay Gatsby. Jay was a spitting image of the American dream.
The narrator states "His family were enormously wealthy, even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach-but now he'd left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance, he brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest." Daisy chose to marry Tom because of his wealth and power. Fitzgerald writes "There was a wholesome bulkiness about his person and his position and Daisy was flattered." He could offer Daisy prestige in addition to all the old money one could dream of. Gatsby had made his money by illegal means.
Even though Gatsby and Daisy were in love they were separated due to money. Young Jay was a poor man in the army, and Daisy was interested in the rich men like Tom Buchanan. Therefore the inner yellowness of Daisy married the rich man. Daisy’s attractiveness is only external, while Gatsby’s excellence is true on the inside. Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship would not have lasted due to this, and it did not.
Emmanuel Cisneros Mr. Perkowski AP Lang Period 2 The Great Gatsby Themes The Great Gatsby composed by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a famous exemplification of the progressive era of the 1920’s, with its portrayal of the economic boom. Citizens began to expand their personal wealth ways not seen by the common man. The consumer market increased with new home appliances, and people had chances to live with luxury. Americans couldn’t be happier. Despite all the economical improvements, people still couldn’t achieve their aspirations, and suffered heavily attempting to obtain what they desired.
The UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History talks about that time period by saying “The novel reflects the outward glitter and the inward corruption of the Roaring Twenties , also known as the Jazz Age, a decade of prosperity and excess that began soon after the end of World War I (1914–18) in 1918 and ended with the 1929 stock-market crash”(656). This included women wanting to work and be more equal and men who came back from the war just wanted to forget everything. F. Scott Fitzgerald was an author in the “Twenties” and lived a very typical lifestyle at the time. Through his book, “Great Gatsby”, you really get the taste of the era. The analysis of the book through his language, characters and events, it shows how his life was and how people acted at the time.
Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway when he meets Jay Gatsby, who has been trying to achieve wealth so he can feel worthy of the woman of his dreams. Gatsby always dreamed of being rich but was born to a poor farm family. A conflict in the novel is between the new rich, characterized by Gatsby, and the old rich, characterized by Tom, and if the two types of rich are equal. While the novel may seem to take a critical look at the old wealth of America in the roaring twenties if we use a New Historicist approach with a focus on subversion and containment then we see the book in a new light. The New Historicist literary lens takes a look at history as its own piece of literature that has several different interpretations and applying