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An essay about the roaring twenties of America in 1920
An essay about the roaring twenties of America in 1920
An essay about the roaring twenties of America in 1920
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In his novella 'The Great Gatsby', F. Scott Fitzgerald presents class as a personal and definite thing, illustrating how attempts to change your class will lead to tragedy. Jane Austen, in her novel 'Pride and Prejudice', uses class as a criticism of society. Her portrayal of class differs from Fitzgerald's as she presents the idea that class restrictions, while rigid, do not determine one's character and can therefore be overcome. Both novels explore their views on the segregation of classes through the circumstances in the time periods they are writing about. Nick Carraway tells us from the start that he’s tired of the dramas of the upper class. By saying he wants 'the world to be in uniform', the reader knows that class difference will be part of the novella's plot. The first class that Fitzgerald criticises is the rich, particularly those of 'old money'. During the 1920s there were social classes which segregated the people into different groups. The higher social classes during this time had a lot of money, but if you had earned instead of inherited your money you were considered 'new money' and therefore inferior. This relates to the way the working classes are viewed in 'Pride and Prejudice'. British society was stratified in the 18th century and those who earned their money by working were looked down upon. People such as Lady Catherine were worried that the family line would be tainted, ''Heaven and earth – of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?''.The use of the phase ''Heaven and Earth!'' is a statement of dismay and shows the prejudices the upper class had against the lower classes. The materialism of the upper-class is particularly shown through Daisy and Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses the... ... middle of paper ... ...own through Mr Darcy's ''real security'' when proposing to Elizabeth. Despite ''his sense of her inferiority—of its being a degradation'', Mr Darcy had ''no doubt of a favourable answer'', which shows the ignorance of the upper class because he assumes that she will agree just because he is of a higher class than she is. In conclusion, Fitzgerald presents class as a definite thing, and illustrates how attempts to change your class will lead to tragedy. Although he doesn't glamorize it, he portrays the idea that class cannot be altered. This is contrasted in Pride and Prejudice where Austen seems to respect the class system, not when it operates as a dividing power in society, but when it 'acts as a force for morality'. Both endings show that people will always be willing to strive and 'beat on, boats against the current' for a higher class life, despite the outcome.
Class Matters and the Great Gatsby both describe the differences between classes to show how unalike they are. Fitzgerald does this with color symbolism and his characters. He uses several colors as symbols to help him demonstrate the disparity in-between the economic classes. The East Egg homes are described as “white palaces.” The color white stands as a strong symbol of superiority and wealth (Bloom). Fitzgerald describes the valley of ashes as a dull, grey environment. Fitzgerald uses his characters to show the difference in social class. Tom Buchanans is a member of an incredibly wealthy family. Fitzgerald describes Tom as having “two shining arrogant eyes…and a voice full of contempt” (7). Meanwhile, Jay Gatsby, the novel’s protagonist, comes from an incredibly poor family and is described as having an aura of trust and understanding (48). Fitzgerald uses the two contrasting descriptions to show how T...
Chapter 1: Chapter one introduces the reader to the narrator Nick Halloway and most of the other other characters of the story. Including his cousin daisy, her husband tom and their friend jordan - the golfer. Nick comes from a wealthy family; however, doesn’t believe in inheriting their wealth. Instead he wishes to earn his own wealth by selling bonds in the stock market. Chapter one also talks about the separation of the rich. Where the east egg represents the inherently rich whereas west egg represents the newly rich. The people in the east also seem to lack social connections and aristocratic pedigree. Whereas the people in west egg possess all those qualities usually lacked by people in the east.With nick living
There are many themes that are implemented in the Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald uses as a technique to juxtapose two contrasting topics. During this time of the Roaring Twenties, business and economy was booming, however there’s still was a underlying hint of urban corruption and the gap between the rich and poor became greater. Through the technique of juxtaposition, Fitzgerald paints a detailed picture of society in the 1920’s and its cultural clashes. By comparing the characters living in the East and West Egg, Fitzgerald highlights the contrast between morality and corruption in society during the 1920’s. Additionally, his contrasting descriptions of Tom and Daisy’s house to the Valley of Ashes offers a juxtaposition of the rich and poor.
Fitzgerald uses setting to criticise society’s loss of morality and the growth of consumerism after the Great War. The rise of the stock market in the 1920s enabled business to prosper in America. However, although the owners of industry found themselves better off wages didn’t rise equally, causing the gap between the rich and poor to grow markedly. Parkinson argues that the settings “represent [these] alternative worlds of success and failure in a modern capitalist society”. The valley of ashes symbolises this failure and moral decay, acting as a foil to the affluent “world of success”, East Egg, and highlighting that the lower classes must suffer to support its existence. This setting is introduced in Chapter 2 and is described as where “ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”. The personification of the environment creates the sense that these failures are rooted in the land, suggesting that poverty is an inescapable part of American society. This is emphasised through the use of tripling which creates a sense of endlessness. By describing the men who live there as “crumbling through the pow...
During Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, it is apparent to be an absurd time for the wealthy. The shallowness of money, riches, and a place in a higher social class were probably the most important components in most lives at that period of time. This is expressed clearly by Fitzgerald, especially through his characters, which include Myrtle Wilson, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and of course, Jay Gatsby. This novel was obviously written to criticize and condemn the ethics of the rich.
“So The Great Gatsby house at West Egg glittered with all the lights of the twenties, there were was always Gatsby’s supplicating hand, reaching out to make glamour with what he had lost be cruel chance...of how little Gatsby wanted at bottom-not to understand society, but to ape it”(21-22). The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald features constant parties, glamorous houses, and extravagance to reveal the values of the characters and the society they live in. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby exemplifies the innate values and morals of its characters and the society in which they live by using continual partying, glamorous houses, and extraordinary extravagance.
...m that was based more on wealth and possessions and less on hard work and achievement. The fact that he later rebelled against the material 1920s culture shows that he was in fact cautioning against this lifestyle rather than encouraging it.” This more than anything proves Fitzgerald is making a commentary on the corruption of the American Dream rather than simply the tale of wealthy lovers.
.... (Parkinson 96) This kind of so-called rebellious lifestyle encompasses a part of Gatsby; the part that put ultimate wealth as a life goal and as a way to Daisy. This depiction of Gatsby’s battle for the girl proves that Fitzgerald’s view towards wealth had to have been influenced by the time period he lived in. It also demonstrates the emptiness of values and morals that were so common amongst the majority of the population at that time. This lifestyle spread like a virus to most people because it promised a happy life while being the social norm at the time. It not only included wealth as a goal but sex and women played a crucial role in the average American dream during the 1920’s. For, “wealth and sex are closely related in this vicious and greedy world of plunder, which renders life meaningless by denying any altruism in human endeavor” (Parkinson 110).
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, display the customs and beliefs of past society. Both novels project the idea of wealth and high-class but also accentuate the search for love. Fitzgerald emphasizes the harm in devoting one’s life to achieving wealth for the one he loves, as Gatsby believes in order to win over Daisy he must acquire a great deal of money. Austen displays the importance of love over looks and money. She details the happiness Elizabeth is able to receive once she marries the guy who has similar wit and sarcasm. Although the novels were written a century apart, Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby encompass similar ideologies, along with people and beliefs, of the time.
Fitzgerald uses the life and death of Gatsby to illustrate that the new American dream is unobtainable and that no matter how far a person gets in life the dream of satisfaction through materialism is impossible. Daisy and Tom’s marriage was used to demonstrate that even those who are thought to have reached the American dream really still have no true happiness as they each had to search for it in others. These concepts brought forth by Fitzgerald are not to totally bash the human craving for happiness, but to inform them that the new ideas presented by society that they think will bring them happiness are lies. Thus those who go in search of happiness through materialism will always come up empty handed.
The desire for sophisticated social class represented in The Great Gatsby can either destroy or build character and potential in a young person. Due to the fact Fitzgerald’s novel is flexible, the realistic and romanticized attributes can be interpreted in different ways. However, Fitzgerald’s technique utilized when building his social structure plays a major role in the novel’s penetration in high school academic literature.
The rigidity of classes was often an underlying theme in many novels during this time period. For example, The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby both feature the exclusive nature of social classes as a motif. In both The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby, the rigidity of social classes and the desire for social mobility leads to the downfall of several characters, especially Jay Gatsby and Julius Beaufort. Gatsby believes in the aforementioned "American Dream.
Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813 and it depicts key themes in society and the impact these themes had on life for the characters in the novel. One of these themes is social class, which was a chief contributor to the characters problems in the story. Social class is an underlying issue in the lives of the characters and greatly affects the decisions they make during the novel. Every character is aware of the importance of social standing and it becomes a key factor in the development of each individual in Pride and Prejudice. Mrs. Bennet is the mother of five daughters and she is desperate to have them married. Elizabeth wants to marry for love and not social gain. Charlotte is the example of what a woman was expected to be in society and does not agree with Elizabeth and she is content to secure a future. While Lydia runs the risk of disgracing her family by running a riot around town. This is a clear example of social class and the different perspective characters express on the topic.
In her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen brought to life the struggles and instability of the English hierarchy in the early 19th century. Through the heartaches and happiness shared by Elinor Dashwood, who represented sense and her sister Marianne, who stood for sensibility, Austen tells a story of sisters who plummet from the upper class to the lower crust of society and the characters that surround them. Austen juxtaposes the upper and lower classes in English society to give the reader a full understanding of the motivation to be a part of the upper class and the sacrifices one will give up to achieve such status. Austen exposes the corruptness of society, the significance of class and the fundamental building blocks both are to the decision-making surrounding her protagonists, Marianne and Elinor.
Class distinction is one of Jane Austen’s themes in the novel, and the differentiation related to it is evidently depicted. Reading the novel from the first chapter, I realize that the author clearly illustrates that class is what matters most in many of the incidences displayed by the characters. Unless an individual is of a given class, the idea that he or she has money is not valued, since only birth in a certain background is what is of value. When a person openly values money over class, such a person is frowned upon. In general terms, the Novel shows a social world extremely stratified and full of pretension and class struggle.