F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Portrayal of the Twenties
F. Scott Fitzgerald was accurate in his portrayal of the aristocratic flamboyancy and indifference of the 1920s. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores many aspects of indifference and flamboyancy. A large influence on this society was the pursuit of the American Dream. Gangsters played a heavily influential role in the new money aristocracy of the 1920s. The indifference was mainly due to the advent of Prohibition in 1920. One major societal revolution in this period was that of the “new women,” who expressed new actions and beliefs. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald accurately portrayed his characters Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, and the novel’s eponym, Jay Gatsby, as a part of the society of the 1920s.
Throughout the history of America, the classic struggle has been to attain the current “American Dream.” During the 1920s, this ideal included owning a home, car, and dog, and having a good woman. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan are, on the visible surface, an example of this American Dream (Fitzgerald 10). Tom and Daisy are in love and married, with money, a beautiful home, and a wonderful child. They also own a car, and their home is in a very affluent area. In the 1920s, middle-class Americans owned their own homes and cars, and were making their own money. Also in the 1920s, increased wealth was an aspect of the American Dream. The Bull Market of 1919 signaled the initial increase of wealth per capita (Allen 7). A second bull market in 1927, 1928, and 1929 signaled a second major increase in wealth. Fitzgerald’s narrator, Nick Carraway, works in bonds (Fitzgerald 7). In The Great Gatsby, Nick mentions his own books on banking, credit, and investment, as the key to “shining secrets that only Midas, Morgan, and Maecenas knew” (8). Yet another characteristic of the American Dream was a return to belief in the Nativist philosophy; that all inhabitants of America should be 100% White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP), and most of all, not Socialist or Communist in any way (Allen 42). In The Great Gatsby, Tom refers to a book he has recently read, Goddard’s The Rise of Coloured Empires (Fitzgerald 17). This is a mangled allusion to the actual novel The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy, by Theodore Lothrop Stoddard (Maurer 24). One last characteristic of the ...
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...lapper of the 1920s.
Fitzgerald accurately portrayed the flamboyancy of the 1920s in The Great Gatsby. Many aspects contributed to this flamboyancy and indifference. The pursuit of the “American Dream” contributed to the actions of Americans and to the actions of Fitzgerald’s characters. The advent of prohibition in 1920 also pushed the actions of Americans, real and imaginary. Gangsters and organized crime were an influential force in the young aristocracy of the 1920s. The revolution of new women also greatly impacted society’s twists and turns during the 1920s. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald accurately portrayed these aspects of 1920s American society.
Works Cited:
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday. New York: Harper & Row, 1931.
Behr, Edward. Prohibition Thirteen Years That Changed America. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1996.
Cayton, Andrew, Perry, Elisabeth Israels, Reed, Linda, and Winkler, Allan M. America Pathways to the Present. Needham: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1925.
Maurer, Kate. Cliffs Notes on Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. New York: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2000.
In the aftermath of World War I, the 1920s twinkled on the horizon with the promise of hope. Bookended by the epidemic of 1920 and the The Wall Street crash of 1929, the decade was a time of decadence, frivolity, and escape. Rich or poor, people lived in the moment, loved anything new and the young partied like there was no tomorrow. A readers look into the decade can be found in the era's greatest memoir: The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald. F. Scott Fitzgerald applied the social and political issues of the 1920's and its innumerable characteristics to enhance the plot of The Great Gatsby.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
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