The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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The Great Gatsby is a short novel written by Scott Fitzgerald. It is set in the 1920’s, and like Fitzgerald, the novel is fervently identified with the Jazz age. The Jazz age was a time of self- indulgence squeezed between World War I and the Great Depression. The theme throughout the novel is recognized as the prestigious “American Dream” which holds a strong and honored place in American history. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s parties, the valley of ashes, and love to show that the ideals of the American dream are deteriorating.
In the West Egg, Gatsby threw huge and extravagant parties hoping one day the love of his life, Daisy from East Egg, would come strolling through the door. Fitzgerald satirizes these parties in order to create a larger picture about the “roaring twenties” (Slater 54). The large parties were a place that was teeming with contradictions displayed. These huge parties were contained with people who were never officially invited and stayed until they were kicked out. The people who showed up were all examples of moral corruption and cared for nothing but the material of goods. People came, trashed Gatsby’s home and then left. The guest treated each other as if they were disposable, just like the money they spent so vigorously. This is the complete opposite of what the American Dream is supposed to be, people were just partying their lives away. Fitzgerald deliberately contributed to the God-like image of Gatsby by withholding him from the novel, which surrounds him with a mythical aura. Rumors would spread about Gatsby because no one has actually seen him." 'I'll tell you a family secret . . . . he used to be the silver polisher . . . in New York that had a si...

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...f others to reach their own personal goals.

Works Cited
Baker, Robert J. “Maecenas and Horace ‘Satires II.8.’” The Classical Journal 83.3 (1988): 212-232. JSTOR. Web. Feb. 17 May. 2014.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925. Print.
Fraser, John. “Dust and Dreams and the Great Gatsby.” The John Hopkins University Press 32.4 (1965): 554-564. JSTOR. Web. Dec. 17 May. 2014.
McAdams, Tony. “The Great Gatsby as Business Ethics Inquiry.” Journal of Business Ethics 12.8 (1993): 653-660. JSTOR. Web. 20 May. 2014.
Pearson, Roger L. “Gatsby: False Prophet of the American Dream.” The English Journal 59.5 (1970): 638-645. JSTOR. Web. 17 May. 2014
Slater, Gregg P. “Ethnicity in the Great Gatsby” Twentieth Century Literature 19.1 (1973): 53-62. JSTOR. Web. Jan. 18 May. 2014.
"Trimalchio." Princeton University. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.

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