The Great Gatsby And Their Eyes Were Watching God

“You shouldn’t answer the phone when we have guests, it’s very rude.” He rolls his eyes, and huffs out a breath of air.

The 1920’s are known as the “Roaring Twenties”, a decade of wealth, cultural progression, and overall a party decade. The stock market was turning average men into millionaires, people strived to embrace cultural, and gender differences, and jazz, dancing, and the iconic Jay Gatsby were centerpieces of the time. Many notable artists thrived during this period: Georgia O’keeffe being one of the most famous artists of her time.

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

Each character from The Great Gatsby is guided by his or her own personal ethics. Not one character from the novel seems to follow Gods path. Although, they may use God’s name in vain, no one ever takes it seriously. In chapter 6, as Nick finally discovers Gatsby’s real history, he expands on Gatsby’s relationship with God, by quoting:

The nineteen-twenties was a turbulent and fascinating decade in American history. The new socioeconomic ideology of consumerism brought unprecedented new luxuries to many homes and also transformed the social and artistic atmosphere of city life, especially in New York City. This city, more than most, is generally considered by academics to have best epitomized the new cultural dynamic of the roaring twenties. New York had earned a reputation of vanity and glamour, mostly due to the explosive combination of new money and new works of art in all its forms. In this capacity, New York was seen as a symbol of extravagance and excess around the world. This brought many people from all sorts of different backgrounds and walks of life to its doorstep, eager to secure their own slice of that tantalizing affluence.

War was absolutely devastating; emotionally and economically throughout the world. Especially after World War I, is was shocking to people because it was the first time anyone had witnessed something so distorting. In America, it changed everyone 's life styles. People became more materialistic and rebellious. 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.

Chapter 1’s mood was suspenseful because there were so many events that started but never finished. Brian has some flashbacks that give the reader some background knowledge that is incomplete which adds suspense and many uprising questions that leave you wondering what happened or what is going to happen. For example, on page 2 and 3, Brian first introduces uncertainty to the reader when he says, “The thinking started. Always it started with a single word. Divorce… A breaking word, an ugly breaking word… he knew about his mother that had caused the divorce, what he knew… the secret.” The way Brian begins the subject, the secret that he knows about the divorce in a very suspenseful way because he leaves the reader wondering questions like:

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is written as a mockery of American ideals, and emphasizes materialism, sexual immorality, and selfishness. Though it appears at first glance to be a love story about Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby is actually a satirical take on American culture, especially in the 1920s. In the 1920s, known as the “Roaring Twenties”, America’s economy was booming, jazz was immensely popular, and alcohol had been banned. Organized crime ran rampant, and Americans seemed to lose their moral values.

A Sense of Self is a unique quality that differs from one person to another and yet may involve multiple identities. Explore the extent to which the protagonists in the texts you have studied appear to possess one or more identities. Refer closely to the texts in developing your response.

The novel The Great Gatsby is written by an American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was published in 1925. This work points out the life of cast of characters living in fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on 24 September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, created three main characters- Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Nick Carraway and showed us his conception of America in the 1920s. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through Nick’s eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and colour the story. The story shows us the endless ocean of love of Gatsby to one woman who he met five years ago. But then they had to separate after Jay 's secession on war. During their seclusion Daisy got

All problems in life must eventually come to a conclusion, but the people in life can help decide more precisely when. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, various significant events occurred at four o’clock. When Gatsby met Daisy for tea at Nick’s house, Gatsby’s extraordinary attempts to attract Daisy were no longer necessary, as he had finally gotten her attention. When Daisy closed her window to Gatsby on the night of Myrtle’s death, she did not express any more passion toward him, indicating that their love had expired. George Wilson murdered Gatsby at four o’clock, ending the life of a man full of passion and the American dream. The resolution of many life events in The Great Gatsby occurred at

The Modern age works reveal that love is an artificial, unrealistic desire as seen through money, status, and women.

William A. Ward once said, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it”. If only this were always true; living would be so simple and easy. The idea behind a dream is that if an individual is ambitious and determined, he/she has a fair chance of fulfilling their goal, and the happiness that comes with it. Essentially, it offers the opportunity of achieving internal pleasure and material fulfillment. The theme of fulfillment of dreams can be seen throughout both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. The narrator in Their Eyes Were Watching God sheds light on the issue of dream fulfillment and explains how gender plays a key role in the achievement of dreams. In the opening paragraphs of Hurston’s novel, the narrator writes, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” The narrator then claims that when men dream,

The 1920s were affected by WWII in several ways, which are shown in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The 1920s was a time period of a great change in people’s behavior and social class. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed novel The Great Gatsby reflects on the 1920s can help summarize the 1920s into three main characteristics, Disillusionment, the Rise in New Money, and Business Replacing Religion.

Another dominant symbol within this novel is the billboard eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg which is in the middle of the valley of ashes, right next to Wilson’s garage staring at the waste that careless capitalism has