Impersonal Behavior In The Great Gatsby

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In the 1920s, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby. Set in the euphoric after-war era of the 20s, the book follows Nick Carraway, who tells the story of Jay Gatsby. The US during the 20s, wartorn, lived in a bubble of bliss due to the stock market, the speakeasies brought by Prohibition, and by the constant parties. This bubble clouded the meek reality that the economy declined due to a decrease in demand for US products in Europe while farmers increased their production for exports. During this time, the already notorious idea of the American Dream gained popularity due to Horatio Alger and his “rags-to-riches” stories. Benjamin Franklin first established this sort of story as distinctly American by holding the belief that in America …show more content…

As he starts the narrative, Nick comments on his interactions with other people. He recounts, “Frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon - for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions,” (5-6) Nick has a rude attitude towards those confiding in; he dismisses them assuming their revelations will prove plagiaristic. Avoiding conversation and dismissing others’ intimate revelations connote a reserved, dismissing, a demeaning man. Similarly, society associates industries with the dismissal of the workers. Additionally, Nick remarks that during the summer “There was so much to read for one thing and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air.” (8) Fitzgerald describes the atmosphere with the words ‘health’ and ‘breath-giving’ which give the idea of livelihood and spirit; in addition, the health ‘pulled down’ from the air creates the image of draining the human spirit. This parallels industry which caused much death and suffering to the lower classes. The workers looked pale and ashen from the hard work, malnutrition, and lack of sunlight, which also connotes a loss of the human spirit. Therefore, Nick’s association with business, his impersonal behavior, and his economical lifestyle all parallel the industry’s attitudes, thus suggesting that Nick Carraway represents the

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