The Great Gatsby and the Great Depression

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The Great Gatsby and the Great Depression

When F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby in 1925, it was impossible for him to predict that only four years later his story would be enacted in real-life during the Great Depression. There are many prophetic symbols in the novel that tie The Great Gatsby and the Great Depression together.

The twenties was a decade full of new financial opportunities in a society unable to adopt so much so quickly. All of the new possibilities, such as credit and loans, led to greater debts and bigger holes to fill. Society began getting too deeply in debt and was becoming increasingly unable to get itself out. So, they began searching for alternate means of wealth. One extremely enticing instrument was the ever-growing stock market. Many people bought stocks low, hoping to sell high when the market peaked. But, as confidence in the stock market's "devotion" to buyers faltered, stockholders began selling as fast as they could. In turn, this rapid selling of stocks lead to the crash in 1929. Gatsby, like a stockholder put all of his "wealth" into Daisy. She was his only hope to escape his "impoverished" past, so Gatsby was left with no choice but to put all of his money into her (like the people of the twenties did with the stock market). When Gatsby and Daisy confronted Tom in the city that hot summer day, Daisy's devotion to Gatsby falte...

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...rs, Inc. 1963. 94-9

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Hickey, Angela D. "Critical Examination: The Great Gatsby." Rpt. in Masterplots: Revised Second Edition. Vol. 5, Frank Magill, ed. California and New Jersey: Salem Press, 1996. 2651-2

Works Consulted

Eble, Kenneth. "The Structure of The Great Gatsby." F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1963. 89-94

"Great Depression in the United States." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. CD-ROM. 2001 ed. Microsoft Corporation. 2001

Phillips, Brian. Sparknotes on The Great Gatsby. 1999. January 5, 2002. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/

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