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Introduction of the roaring twenties
Critical analysis of the great gatsby
Introduction of the roaring twenties
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Elijah Sorensen
Mrs. Czyz
American Studies
2/12/15
Disillusionment in the 1920’s
The theme of disillusionment was reoccuring throughout the decade of the 1920’s. People who lived in the roaring twenties experienced the disillusionment of women’s rights, wealth, and the ‘American Dream’. Demonstrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby the three themes mentioned can be noticed. Fitzgerald draws from the what he experienced living in that time and writes about the themes he noticed throughout the decade. The book is set in the 1920’s not long after the end of the First World War. It follows the dreams of a man named Jay Gatsby through the eyes of his new friend and neighbor, Nick Carraway. Throughout the book, Gatsby chases
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the glories of his past, trying to relive them once more, however, Gatsby ends up losing everything, including his own life ultimately symbolizing his own disillusion. Fitzgerald’s novel demonstrates the many examples of disillusionment in the roaring 1920’s. The twenties were thought to be a decade of hope and happiness.
With new revolutions on the rise people were more willing to experiment. This new experimentation led to new things such as the sexual movement, atheism, and even women’s suffrage. With the new right to vote women felt that they should have more of a say in the country. The women's rights movement in the 1920’s shaped the way the general population now looked at the woman. With this new right the women of America appeared to be happy, however “there was little political foundation for [new freedoms] and almost no economic foundation...marriage was the only real career available...In the 1920s women's suffrage did not bring women political power (Women in the 1920s).” This supported the disillusionment theme throughout the 1920’s. It is also reflected in Fitzgerald’s novel as well. Daisy, the wife of the very wealthy Tom Buchanan, is what many people would call a trophy wife. Daisy has no way to support herself, she depends on the money that her partner has. Since Daisy is a “financial prisoner” (article 3) she has to pick the person that will be able to support her in the future. As much as Daisy loves Gatsby, she cannot live with him because of his unpredictable business …show more content…
endeavors. The 1920’s brought wealth to many people in America, however, not everyone prospered.
Americans at the time were obsessed with the acquisition of wealth. At the time America was at an all time high and it was possible to make a lot of money with the investments of stocks. The illusion that people were going to stay rich and prosperous forever was shattered when the stock market crashed in 1929. Many “families had lost their money and could no longer support [themselves]. Bright young people who had planned on going to college sometimes found that they could not even finish high school (Why Not be Rich? Money in the 1920s).” The illusion of wealth was short lived for some and children were pulled from school to help their families survive. In The Great Gatsby, the Buchanans are characters who are examples of Americans consumed by their wealth. Fitzgerald reveals that money is not the root of happiness. He shows with the example of Daisy that she is very unhappy with love even though she is wealthy. Just because Daisy has money doesn’t mean that she is happy with the life her and her husband have. From that example that Fitzgerald uses it shows the illusion that being rich forever is not what we as a society should try to
achieve. People in the roaring twenties all had an idea of the iconic ‘American Dream’. It seemed as if everyone was striving to achieve it and “keep up with the Jones’”. The ‘American Dream’ is the feeling of self-fulfillment and success. For many what this really means is achieving wealth and financial independence. People have this understanding that with wealth came happiness and self-worth. It was a normal occurrence for Americans to think this was and “For most Americans at this time getting rich seemed the natural purpose of life (The Loss of the American Dream).” The general feeling amongst people was that one couldn’t be successful or happy unless he or she had money. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, many of Fitzgerald's characters experience the disillusionment of the ‘American Dream’. In the novel, and the decade in general, wealth is glamorous and a source of happiness. He symbolizes the idea of the ‘American dream’ in Jay Gatsby. In order for Jay to achieve the dream, he has to acquire money and Daisy, however, when he gets both he realizes that it was not all that he expected it to be. Jay made up a scenario in his head about him and Daisy being together, but when this became true he realized that it wasn’t what he had imagined and she only loved him for the money he possessed. People who lived through the 1920’s experienced disillusionment in daily life. People who lived in this time saw first hand the disillusionment of women’s rights, wealth, and the very iconic ‘American Dream’. In the novel The Great Gatsby the three disillusionment themes mentioned were incorporated. The disillusionment of women’s rights was shown by the character Daisy by he not being able to provide for herself. The disillusionment of wealth was also present by use of the Buchanan's showing that no matter how much money you get, it doesn’t always bring happiness. Lastly the disillusionment of the ‘American Dream’ was shown in the character Jay Gatsby. Gatsby appeared to have the world, however when his one dream of getting Daisy again became true he saw that it wasn’t how he expected it to be and that she didn’t love him for him, only his money. Scott F. Fitzgerald demonstrated each one of these disillusionments beautifully in his novel and ultimately showed that the disillusionments of the 1920’s set a standard for people that was never obtainable.
Scott Fitzgerald represent the american dream in the great Gatsby is Tom and daisy buchanan.daisy used to love Gatsby before she met Tom,but Gatsby was too por to get married.daisy married Tom buchanan just for his prestige in the upper class and his wealthy “I know you didn’t mean to, but you did do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a ——”(F. Scott Fitzgerald, page 12).diasy nkow that Tom is cheating on her but she is not willing to leave him because of their prestige “Daisy cannot break away from Tom, particularly after she learns that Gatsby’s wealth comes from racketeering”(Burnam).Tom and Daisy are the one represented for Gatsby death and myrtle,and messing everyone live up.but the simply just move out and forget about everyone else.”I couldn 't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made (Page 179).Tom money shield him from being in any danger.he didn 't have to work for it he just inherited from his family when they
In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives the reader a glimpse into the life of the high class during the 1920’s through the eyes of a man named Nick Carraway. Through the narrator's dealings with high society, Fitzgerald demonstrates how modern values have transformed the American dream's ideas into a scheme for materialistic power and he reveals how the world of high society lacks any sense of morals or consequence. In order to support his message, Fitzgerald presents the original aspects of the American dream along with its modern face to show that the wanted dream is now lost forever to the American people. Jay Gatsby had a dream and did everything he could to achieve it, however in the end he failed to. This reveals that the American dream is not always a reality that can be obtained.
During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind.
As depicted by Scott F. Fitzgerald, the 1920s is an era of a great downfall both socially and morally. As the rich get richer, the poor remain to fend for themselves, with no help of any kind coming their way. Throughout Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the two “breeds” of wealthier folk consistently butt heads in an ongoing battle of varying lifestyles. The West Eggers, best represented by Jay Gatsby, are the newly rich, with little to no sense of class or taste. Their polar opposites, the East Eggers, are signified by Tom and Daisy Buchanan; these people have inherited their riches from the country’s wealthiest old families and treat their money with dignity and social grace. Money, a mere object in the hands of the newly wealthy, is unconscientiously squandered by Gatsby in an effort to bring his only source of happiness, Daisy, into his life once again. Over the course of his countless wild parties, he dissipates thousands upon thousands of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to attract Daisy’s attention. For Gatsby, the only way he could capture this happiness is to achieve his personal “American Dream” and end up with Daisy in his arms. Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is somewhat detrimental to himself and the ones around him; his actions destroy relationships and ultimately get two people killed.
The Roaring Twenties was a time of excitement for the American people, with cities bustling with activity and a large community that appreciated Jazz, thus creating the title the “Jazz Age.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place in this magnificent age characterized by Jazz and the popular new dance, the “Charleston.” Through the midst of all this new activity, we follow a character named Jay Gatsby through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald’s themes of friendship and The American Dream is seen in The Great Gatsby through Nick and Jay’s companionship and Gatsby’s growth from being a simple farm boy to becoming a wealthy man.
The Great Gatsby displays how the time of the 1920s brought people to believe that wealth and material goods were the most important things in life, and that separation of the social classes was a necessary need. Fitzgerald’s choice to expose the 1920s for the corrupt time that it really was is what makes him one of the greatest authors of his time, and has people still reading one of his greatest novels, The Great Gatsby, decades
Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that are born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal expectations. In this novel, symbols are used to represent the changing times and create a picture of this era for generations to come. The history, settings, characters, and symbols embedded in The Great Gatsby exemplify life in America during the 1920s.
The Disillusionment of the 1920’s as Revealed in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned
Overall, Fitzgerald does a fantastic job in reflecting the 1920s society onto The Great Gatsby. He mentions discrimination, women changing, war, industrial revolution, prohibition, and every important part that took place during that era. The significance of the “new women “ is that to this day women now have the same rights as men and are now treated equally. In conclusion, events that occurred during the 1920s greatly impacted and influenced our society to the modern world we live in.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a romantic character in both his fiction life and his real life and “…was perhaps the last notable writer to affirm the Romantic fantasy, descended from the Renaissance, of personal ambition and heroism, of life committed to, or thrown away for, some ideal of self"(Voegeli). The inspiration for The Great Gatsby came from the experience Fitzgerald had with a Jewish bootlegger and his symbolism for the book is “never more ingenious than in his depiction of the bankruptcy of the old agrarian myth” (Trask). The realization that America had been changed and transformed into a new world arose. America has become a new world with a new set of traditional beliefs. The beliefs were onset by the growing fields of industrialization and urbanization. America is now a place in which “a revolution in manners and morals was inevitable” (Trask). The trend of this new life style and tradition was reinforced by World War 1 and the writers critiqued the traditional faiths. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald paints a story about love and intrigue. He shows the possibility of movement between the different social classes during the Roaring Twenties in the United States. The American dream was the thought that people who had talent in the 'land of opportunity' could gain success if they followed a set of well-defined behavioral rules. During this time period, Americans believed that satisfaction would automatically follow success. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald raises many important political questions: "What does it mean to live well, and on what terms people can live together?” and it shows America's thoughts and answers to these essential questions (Voegeli). These questions are referring to the different social classes and be...
.... (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).
In the past century in America, one of the decades that has stood out most as a time of change is the 1920s. In a post-war economic boom, the decade was a time of cultural and societal change. Among the parties and the more relaxed way of life, Americans experienced new wealth and luxury. Capturing the essence of the Roaring Twenties is a daunting task, especially because of the many different factors contributing to the decade’s fame. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald managed to capture and define the spirit of the 1920s through his novel. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the characters and events of the novel manifest the trademark qualities of America in the 1920s.
The 1920’s were a time of social and technological change. After World War II, the Victorian values were disregarded, there was an increase in alcohol consumption, and the Modernist Era was brought about. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a perfect presentation of the decaying morals of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald uses the characters in the novel--specifically the Buchanans, Jordan Baker, and Gatsby’s partygoers--to represent the theme of the moral decay of society.
During the 1920's America was a country of great ambition, despair and disappointment. The novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of this decade, it illustrates the burning passion one man has toward his "American Dream" and the different aspects of the dream. Fitzgerald's work is a reflection of America during his lifetime. The Great Gatsby shows the ambition of one man's reach for his "American Dream," the disappointment of losing this dream and the despair of his loss.
The Roaring 20’s or the Jazz Age is memorable for many Americans in terms of big achievements in many aspects of people’s lives and their American dreams. However, there are multiple points revealed undertones of roughness and superficiality, which eventually led to disillusionment. The Great Gatsby echoes with era depictions of the 1920s and portrays the contrast between traditional and corrupted values which are made prevalent through through relations and descriptions of the characters, the theme of the novel, and the setting as a whole.