An Analysis of Gatsby’s Success and Failure

An Analysis of Gatsby’s Success and Failure

Summary: Why Gatsby failed to achieve Daisy? To some extent, it may be a tragedy of society and Jay Gatsby’s fault. He was born and grew up in an era of decayed social and moral value. Further more, he can’t know himself and others distinctly Jay Gatsby was born in rural north Dakota and spent his childhood there. Because he grew up in the rural area,as usual he could bear trouble and difficulty in his life. But he was not of that kind of poor children. From his early youth, Gatsby despised poverty and longed for wealth and sophistication. He dropped out of St.olaf College after two weeks, Because he couldn’t bear the tiring and difficult job with which he was paying his tuition. He was hunger for wealth ,but he just had the desire which didn’t work.

The year after he dropped out, he worked on Lake Superior fishing for salmon and digging for clams. One day, he saw a yacht owned by Dan Cody who was a wealthy copper mogul and rowed out to warn him about a coming storm. The grateful Cody took young Gtz, who gave his name as Jay Gatsby. On board, Gatsby worked as Cody’s personal assistant. Traveling with Cody to the Barbary Coast and the West. At that time ,Gatsby fell love with wealth and luxury. When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000. But Cody’s mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man. At the same time ,he had gained the skills of making money which was vital to his success, However, his poor background and exorbitant desire for wealth and success were obstacles to him.

After World War I ,the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America like stuffy. The dizzying rise of the social market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. A person from any social background could, Potentially, make a fortune, but the American aristocracy-families with old wealth-scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919,which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand of bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike.