Gatsby Cultural Lens

The year 1925 landed in the middle of the roaring twenties. In the 1920’s, a lot of things happened such as the prohibition of alcohol, social change where more people lived in the cities, and the overall boom of wealth as the economy grew. This change in the lifestyle of the people sparked a decade of riches. Once accumulating every dollar after dollar, millionaires bought mansions to throw extravagant parties, galas and balls to impress the rich, the richer, and the richest. Not only did money play an important part of this era, but literature also had a significant and vital role. One of the numerous writers was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wanting to capture the twenties in its midst, Fitzgerald wrote the literary classic, The Great Gatsby. The

Great Gatsby portrays the love, fortune, and desperateness shown through the lives of Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, and all in between. The story, however, has its flaws and the feminist, cultural, moral, and race lens are applied to the story show them.
To begin, the feminist lens highlights the sexual stereotypes presented in novels. It also takes into consideration the treatment of women, and how males dominate gender. In the novel, the main female characters include Daisy and Myrtle. First, Gatsby and Tom start fighting. The fight is about Daisy and who she loves. The fight escalates into a screaming match when Tom and Gatsby get heated and leads to Tom indicating that Daisy cannot take care of herself. Tom says “I’m going to take better care of you” (Fitzgerald 133) which means that Daisy does not get the jurisdiction of taking care of herself. Also, in the beginning of the story, Tom refers to Myrtle as “girl” instead of by her name. Since Tom does this, he implies that myrtle is his property. She does not get called by her name because of her status as mistress. Tom does not think of her as anything else because of this. Along with these examples, money also shows the anti-feminist qualities of the 1920’s. To persuade women, money has no sentimental value and help move decisions depending on what value, like when Tom Bribes Daisy with an expensive necklace. Finally, Money also plays a role in the feminist lens because Daisy loves money. Towards the end, Daisy breathes money and only pays attention to money, by Nick’s observations. This observation objectifies Daisy making it seem that money is most important. The feminist lens plays role in how women are portrayed in the twenties. By property, money, and control, women do not have the same sights as men do, which portrays negatively on Daisy and Myrtle throughout this novel.
Secondly, the cultural lens provides structure as to why some people get treated different based on their sex, class, race, or sexuality.

The cultural lens also provides answers to why someone has the power. The first example of this lens is when Nick explains the west and east egg of the city. The west egg represents new money. The new money accumulates recently whereas the east egg represents old money which accumulates over generations. The west and east egg are examples of who has the power in the town. The east egg inhabitants represent more respect because of their inheritance since generations before acquired it. Also, Gatsby has power in the novel due to his money. Gatsby simply says to “go away now” (Fitzgerald 148) and nick obeys, because of Gatsby’s power and the influences he has on people. This example ties into cultural because Gatsby has power over most people due to his wealth and social status. Next, Tom punches Myrtle and breaks her nose. He shows his power of gender to overtake Myrtle which represents the cultural lens because of Tom’s power. Finally, Gatsby’s parties prove that his social status gives him power. Everyone goes to his parties because they know it will remain a great party. Going to them shows that just Gatsby’s presence dictates how powerful he remains next to others. The cultural lens provides an understanding of who has the power and why. Gatsby has the power because his riches, and Tom has the power from his dominance. Both men, however, have power one way or another and that is how the cultural lens shows that the era with its power proves

flawed.
Additionally, the moral lens provides a lesson on the ethical and moral foundation in literature. The characters and setting lay the principles of ethics. In the novel, Gatsby values his love for Daisy higher than his wealth and status. His affection is shown by how he knows that Daisy and Tom love each other. Of course, Fitzgerald uses this to bring up that cheating, no matter how your status or wealth would be affected, is not healthy for one’s relationship with their lover, or even their adulterer. Next, the Valley of Ashes provides an example of another moral lesson of how money can get the best of someone. Nick describes the Valley as a “dismal scene” (Fitzgerald 24) because overwhelming money caused the Valley to become such a desolate place. Also, Myrtle, in her desperate search for money, cheats on her husband with Tom. Myrtle’s attraction to wealth happens with Tom because Tom has the money she desires. Going back to Gatsby’s social status and wealth, Myrtle does the same but she wants a higher status and wealth and does not care how she achieves it. Lastly, Gatsby’s parties show a moral lesson of peer pressure. Everyone goes to the parties because they feel compelled to. He throws the best parties which leads to most people showing up uninvited because they hear it will be an extravagant party. From cheating to peer pressure, the moral lessons taught in The Great Gatsby teach the future audiences of what not to do.
Lastly, the race lens deals with how majorities treat minorities within literature. To begin, Tom declares that the control is up to the “dominant race” (Fitzgerald 13). Buchanan means that the dominant race, white, has control and must keep it. The minorities are treated poorly with this one sentence because he indirectly says that the other races cannot compete with white people. Secondly, Nick mentions that a limo carries three negroes, which supports that Nick did not think that African American people could obtain wealth. Also, Nick expresses how he does not like Meyer Wolfsheim. His description of him includes that he practices Jewish. This description leads to that Nick does not like Jews which discriminates against the minority. Lastly, another minority is women and women do not get treated well in this novel when the men say all girls only know how to act dumb to impress a guy. These examples show the flaws in the novel because women, African Americans, and religions get discriminated within the novel because they represent minorities.
The Great Gatsby viewed through theses lenses gives an understanding of how the 20th century’s views bled through into literature. With feminism, cultural, moral, and race, the lenses provide the answer to the questions such as who has the power and how does class affect social status. Not only do they answer those, but the lenses undercover themes and lessons like not to cheat and do not let money cloud judgment. The lenses help understand that literature stayed flawed throughout years. Without the help of the lenses, readers could not decipher the questions literature poses and the lessons it would teach. The novels would not question enough minds to discover them. All in all, the lenses unearthed that literature was flawed. Literature in the 20th century had its problems such as racial issues, dominance issues, and all in between.