Idealism In The Great Gatsby

1537 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Topic On American Literature

The following three chapters of this thesis discuss the writings of Francis Scott Fitzgerald and his concentration on dreams and wealth. By detailing his significant short stories, namely “Winter Dreams”, “The Rich Boy” and “Babylon Revisited” the thesis will provide interpretations which focus on how money can affect dreams and idealism.
The thesis of this paper is that money, in most cases does not bring what one has anticipated.
Fitzgerald himself was always concerned about wealth and fitting in with wealthier people, at the same time, he was always a dreamer. Readers can find Fitzgerald in his own writings, perhaps more than they can find other writers in theirs.

Fitzgerald’s attitude towards materialism and dreams
Malcolm Cowley in his …show more content…

Although he lived his life in a more extravagant way than others, during his carrier as a writer he learnt that people started to recognize themselves in his stories. His dreams were similar to those of living an ordinary life: he dreamt about becoming a football star, the smartest college student, to be the greatest warrior on the battlefield and finally to become rich and get the top girl, the typical American dream. Cowley suggested that even though Fitzgerald was similar to these people, there is one thing that made him stand out:”It was the emotion he put into his dreams, and the honesty with which he expressed that emotion, that made them seem distinguished” (Cowley 24, 1973). Fitzgerald could make his readers appreciate and believe in the value of the time in which they lived in (Cowley 24, 1973). “The main ingredient of that culture might be defined as naïve but not deterministic belief in the limitless material promises of American life” (Stavola 11). The goal of the era was to make money and make it fast, all the while live a glamorous, pleasurable life. Fitzgerald was an advocate of this life style and like he was, his characters were also preoccupied with money, the idea of becoming wealthy or associated themselves with and enjoyed the presence of affluent people.“Yet money was only a convenient and inadequate symbol for …show more content…

He also had some weaker stories, however, as Dorothy Parker has commented, Fitzgerald could write a bad story, but he could not write badly. As expert, Bryant Magnum noted in his essay, each of his writings has that recognizable Fitzgerald-touch that he just called "the something extra" that other popular short stories lacked (Magnum 1370). Matthew Bruccoli notes in his collection, titled “The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New Collection”, that Fitzgerald recognized that he could use the popular magazines, namely the Saturday Evening Post, as a workshop for his novels, furthermore it allowed him to experiment with themes and techniques while creating short stories, which later would contribute as basis to his novels. For instance, critics have found that “Winter Dreams” and “The Swimmers” led to the making of The Great Gatsby (Bruccoli

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison Of The Novels Of The Great Gatsby And Judy Fitzgerald

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    Francis Scott Fitzgerald, also known under his writer’s name, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is revered as a famous American novelist for his writing masterpieces in the 1920’s and 1930’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about his extravagant lifestyle in America that his wife, Zelda, their friends, and him lived during that era. In fact, a lot of his novels and essays were based off of real-life situations with exaggerated plots and twists. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels were the readers looking glass into his tragic life that resulted in sad endings in his books, and ultimately his own life. F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in a nice neighborhood, but growing up, he wasn’t privileged.

    Read More

  • The Professor's House and The Great Gatsby: Wealth in Post-War America

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Novelists such as Willa Cather and F. Scott Fitzgerald used themes of desire of wealth as a fundamental element to motivate their characters. In their novels, the theme is reflected by the rich Americans who primal desire is to obtain more and more wealth. These characters are so infatuated with and blinded by money that they no longer regard the more noble qualities of life. In each of their works, these authors present intricate, self-conscious characters that desire wealth in order to attain their dreams. In reality, wealth cannot buy people, ideas or even time.

    Read More

  • The Rich in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...e “friends” didn’t even care enough to come back to his funeral. Fitzgerald was a part of the rich. He had a good quantity of money, drank a lot, partied typically, and had affairs. His American Dream associated with the category that he was a part of, similar to Jefferson also King. All of their dreams go with the part of being the society they belonged to. Fitzgerald needed change just like the others too, however he needed to alter who he was. Jefferson and King needed to change different people’s perspective of them.

    Read More

  • The Flaws Of Human Nature In The Great Gatsby

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s visionary writing style during the early twentieth century revolutionized a new style for other writers. “Theme is most dramatically expressed through character, and Fitzgerald used the people he created to convey his personal vision of the world” (Keshmiri 2). As Keshmiri states, Fitzgerald, unlike many other writers at the time, expresses his stories through the development of the characters. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and the Damned illustrate the many flaws of human nature and how these flaws contribute to the downfall of the characters through their obsession with status, their inability to accept reality, and the use of alcohol.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Final Essay

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the use of symbolism and critique, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to elucidate the lifestyles and dreams of variously natured people of the 1920s in his novel, The Great Gatsby. He uses specific characters to signify diverse groups of people, each with their own version of the “American Dream.” Mostly all of the poor dream of transforming from “rags to riches”, while some members of the upper class use other people as their motivators. In any case, no matter how obsessed someone may be about their “American Dream”, Fitzgerald reasons that they are all implausible to attain.

    Read More

  • Examine the contradictions in The Great Gatsby, including its narrative

    2949 Words  | 6 Pages

    Although Fitzgerald glamorises the lifestyles of the rich minority, he also asks us to question how attractive money really is, by conveying. to us the destruction and unhappiness that huge wealth can cause. underneath its dazzling exterior. We are led through the various events of the novel by our narrator. Nick Carraway, who is also Gatsby's neighbour.... ...

    Read More

  • Examples Of Idealism In The Great Gatsby

    2068 Words  | 5 Pages

    Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has indisputably been one of the most influential and insightful pieces on the corruption and idealism of the American Dream. The American Dream, defined as ‘The belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone,’ was a dominant ideal in American society, stemming from an opportunist pioneer mentality. In his book ‘The American Tradition in Literature’, Bradley Sculley praised The Great Gatsby for being ‘perhaps the most striking fictional analysis of the age of gang barons and the social conditions that produced them.’ Over the years, greed and selfishness changed the basic essence of the American Dream, forming firmly integrated social classes and the uncontainable thirst for money and status. The ‘Roaring Twenties’ was a time of ‘sustained increase in national wealth’ , which consequently led to an increase in materialism and a decrease in morality. Moreover, the

    Read More

  • Horrors of WWI Reflected in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Writing

    2584 Words  | 6 Pages

    Certain authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, wanted to reflect the horrors that the world had experienced not a decade ago. In 1914, one of the most destructive and pointless wars in history plagued the world: World War I. This war destroyed a whole generation of young men, something one would refer to as the “Lost Generation”. Modernism was a time that allowed the barbarity of the war to simmer down and eventually, disappear altogether. One such author that thrived in this period was F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young poet and author who considered himself the best of his time. One could say that this self-absorption was what fueled his drive to be the most famous modernist the world had seen. As The New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean mentions in her literary summary of Fitzgerald’s works, “I didn’t know till fifteen that there was anyone in the world except me, and it cost me plenty” (Orlean xi). One of the key factors that influenced and shaped Fitzgerald’s writing was World War I, with one of his most famous novels, This Side Of Paradise, being published directly after the war in 1920. Yet his most famous writing was the book, The Great Gatsby, a novel about striving to achieve the American dream, except finding out when succeeding that this dream was not a desire at all. Fitzgerald himself lived a life full of partying and traveling the world. According to the Norton Anthology of American Literature, “In the 1920’s and 1930’s F. Scott Fitzgerald was equally equally famous as a writer and as a celebrity author whose lifestyle seemed to symbolize the two decades; in the 1920’s he stood for all-night partying, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure while in the 1930’s he stood for the gloomy aftermath of excess” (Baym 2124). A fur...

    Read More

  • The Impossible American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    A dream is a deep ambition and desire for something; everybody tries to reach their dreams no matter how far away they may seem. The characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s stories strive for nothing less than “The Great American Dream”. This is the need to be the best of the best, top of the social ladder, and to be happier and more successful than anyone has been before. Fitzgerald writes about this American Dream that every character has but can never achieve; the dream is kept unattainable due to obstacles, the disadvantages of being low on the social ladder, and also the restrictions of having a high social status.

    Read More

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald's American Dream

    1653 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky; I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again.”(Fitzgerald). F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, into a very prestigious, catholic family. Edward, his father, was from Maryland, and had a strong allegiance to the Old South and its values. Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul. His upbringing, affected much of his writing career. Half the time F. Scott Fitzgerald thought of himself as the “heir of his father's tradition, which included the author of The Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key, after whom he was named” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). The other half the time he acted as “straight 1850 potato-famine Irish” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). Consequently, he had typically indecisive feelings about American life, which seemed to him at once “vulgar and dazzlingly promising” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography). This idea is expressed in much of Fitzgerald’s writing. From an early age he had an “intensely romantic imagination” (F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography); he longed for a life of passion, fame and luxury.

    Read More

  • Great Gatsby American Dream

    1092 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thesis: In this passage, Fitzgerald's stylistic choices illustrate his concern with America's path of loneliness and isolation if they continue to pursue a corrupted American dream.

    Read More

  • Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity by Roland Marchand

    1828 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Moral Corruption In The Great Gatsby

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores the idea of the American Dream as well as the portrayal of social classes. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct social groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating two distinct social classes ‘old money’ and ‘new money’, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the underlying elitism and moral corruption of society. The idea of the American dream is the idea that opportunity is available to any American, allowing their highest aspirations and goals to be achieved. In the case of The Great Gatsby it centres on the attainment of wealth and status to reach certain positions in life, which Fitzgerald’s protagonist sets out to achieve even if it means moral corruption.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Book Report

    3257 Words  | 7 Pages

    In writing this book, commonly refered to as the “Great American Novel”, F. Scott Fitzgerald achieved in showing future generations what the early twenties were like, and the kinds of people that lived then. He did this in a beautifully written novel with in-depth characters, a captivating plot, and a wonderful sense of the time period.

    Read More

  • The Ending of the American Dream

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    The unhappy and careless people of both the East and West Egg represent the immorality and corruption that wealth can bring. Gatsby’s dream was ruined by his own materialistic views. His dream of success transformed into a nightmare that ultimately led to his death. Gatsby and the Buchanans are proof that wealth does not equate to happiness or success. Gatsby’s romantic idealism is so great that he does not understand how wealth cannot bring happiness or love. Fitzgerald’s novel is great reminder to those with materialistic views about the detrimental effects the “American dream” can have on society.

    Read More

More about Idealism In The Great Gatsby

Open Document