Modern Corruption, the loss of meaning in human existence and the loss of the traditional ways of life

906 Words2 Pages

The period between the First World War and the Second World War brought dramatic change to the values, lifestyles, norms and culture of the American way of life. It also brought a new kind of literary philosophy known as Modernism. Modernism was a movement which portrayed the world of men as a harsh and hostile environment in which life had lost its meaning and the American dream had disappeared completely from reach because of the corrupt world. Many of these modernist revealed their discontent with this new way of life with books and paintings that uncovered the ugliness of the society they lived in. One of the most famous books was the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald which follows a young American man named Nick Caraway in his experience at Long Island and New York during the roaring twenties. The author explores many modernist themes including decadence, resistance to change, social upheaval and excess. Through the chosen quote, Fitzgerald reveals the lousy and careless lifestyles that the wealthy had during the Modern period in order to criticize the morally corrupt and untraditional life’s that many were living because their existence was losing its meaning.
Nick began to read the book after he got drunk for the second time. Nick’s drinking history shows just how traditional and pure like he is during the beginning of the story. However, once he is poisoned or infected by the new way of life he changes. He is no longer a calm and smart young man but a wild and careless one. His drunken period shows just how easy it was to corrupt someone into acting like the rest of society. He later reveals that he had read a “chapter of Simon called Peter” which he was confused on whether it was “terrible stuff or the whiskey distorte...

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...money. Her only reason for living seems to be money which shows how her life is really meaningless and the traditional values are no longer meaningful to her also. This of course is all because of the monetary value that society has put on everything during her time even women themselves.
The Modernism Period was a period full of reckless and shellfish behavior. Modernist writers like Fitzgerald knew how terrible the people were acting during the period and how away they have gone from tradition values. People like Daisy were only living for monetary gain and had a meaningless life with no real love. There were also people like Nick who were pure and still followed traditional values but were later corrupted by society’s way of life. At the end it was the Modernist who shed light to this kind of living so people would understand how dumb and lousy they were living.

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