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The great gatsby compares to the american dream
The great gatsby compares to the american dream
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F Scott Fitzgerald was an amazing writer for his time period and has many historical events under his belt. F scott Fitzgerald’s writing style was a unique style. His novels were and still are very inspiring to the readers. He tied events from the novels he wrote into his own personal experiences. The short stories fitzgerald created were mostly about his wife Zelda, his daughter Frances aka“Scottie”, or even himself. Since he had a extreme alcoholic dependency after his very first book became famous and he found out about his wife’s mental illness, he wrote many, if not all of his books while he was completely drunk, or at parties/social gathering. Not only do “The Great Gatsby” and the 1920s have similar elements of prohibition like, carefree …show more content…
F scott Fitzgerald made his own quote to describe the jazz age, he said "It was an age of miracles,it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.” The Great Gatsby” is one of the most known novels written by Fitzgerald. “The Great Gatsby” didn't become the popular novel it is today until the 1950s. In the novel, prohibition was in the law books at this point and time.Prohibition is when it was illegal to sell and make alcohol, but as always people found a way around the law. In the book the main character Jay Gatsby had the businesses that were disguised as pharmacys that sold booze out of them. After he partnered with someone to create these “pharmaceutical” businesses he started to gain his fortune. When the narrator moved into the house next to him he said that every weekend there was a big party at Gatsby’s house, As was the most wealthy men and women in the roaring 1920s. Also there were these hidden bars, these were called speakeasies. They are still around to this day, but back when prohibition was the law these need to be hidden so that people could drink and not get in trouble. Another similarity between “The Great Gatsby” and the 1920s is the american dream and the flapper. The flapper was the iconic symbol for the roaring 1920s and the jazz age. The flappers at this time were women trying to break out of their traditional role as a “homemakers”. The flappers would wear a short semi tight skirts and shirts, feathers, beads and in some cases feather boas, they would smoke, say“unlady” like things, and had a bobbed haircuts instead of traditional long hair. They started to work out of the house more and bring home money instead of just the men, they also drank at the parties and the
The United States and our government has been shaped entirely from its past. We have learned right from wrong, what has worked and what has failed. The 1920s was a time in our country where the government created a law that upset the people. This decade is often referred to as The Roaring 20’s, The Jazz Age, The Prohibition Era, The Cocktail Era, etc. All these names perfectly describe this time, but it was also a time to learn from the mistake of creating a law that prohibited alcohol. This law played such a huge role in the decade, and has been forever remembered. The Great Gatsby is a romance novel that also hints on the time of prohibition. F. Scott Fitzgerald talked greatly about alcohol and the part it took in The Roaring 20 's. Though
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and is based throughout the ‘roaring 20’s’. Throughout the novel there are affairs and corruption, proving life lessons that the past cannot be repeated. Fitzgerald uses many forms of symbolism throughout the text some of these include; colours, the eyes of T.J Eckleburg, clocks and the East and West Eggs. The Great Gatsby is a story of love, dreams and choices witnessed by a narrator against the ridiculous wealth of the 1920’s.
Many people in the 1920s lived very extravagant lives. The time of the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring 20s” where girls were flappers and the men were bootleggers. People loved to have fun and be carefree. However, alcohol dependence was becoming a problem and many started realizing that. Taking action to stop this was the hard part. Alcohol was corrupting the 1920s even though some did not recognize it. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the corruption during the 1902s through his main character, Jay Gatsby, and his illustration of prohibition.
The Roaring Twenties was a time of excitement for the American people, with cities bustling with activity and a large community that appreciated Jazz, thus creating the title the “Jazz Age.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place in this magnificent age characterized by Jazz and the popular new dance, the “Charleston.” Through the midst of all this new activity, we follow a character named Jay Gatsby through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald’s themes of friendship and The American Dream is seen in The Great Gatsby through Nick and Jay’s companionship and Gatsby’s growth from being a simple farm boy to becoming a wealthy man.
During the 1920s, the social scene was gradually changing because of the Prohibition Law; with the influence of prohibition, new waves of modern gangsters were created, and they were primarily involved in such crimes as “bootlegging” and “bank robbery.” The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote the novel of The Great Gatsby, which focuses on the unachievable love affair between Gatsby and Daisy. In this novel, Jay Gatsby confronts death by getting shot on his back by flaming pistol triggered by Mr. Wilson. However, Mr. Wilson is not the only person who is responsible for Gatsby’s death; Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan are also accountable.
Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that are born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal expectations. In this novel, symbols are used to represent the changing times and create a picture of this era for generations to come. The history, settings, characters, and symbols embedded in The Great Gatsby exemplify life in America during the 1920s.
Thornton, Mark. "Prohibition Caused the Greatness of Gatsby." The Ludwig Von Mises Institute. N.p., 15 May 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
This is conveyed to the reader when Baker is recognized by two girls at one of Gatsby’s parties that she attends with Nick Carraway and they proclaim “You don’t know who we are, but we met you here about a month ago” (Fitzgerald 43). Baker also declares her love for parties as she comments “And I like large parties, they’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy” (Fitzgerald 49). As the Gatsby era was during the time of Prohibition, the period of time that alcohol was made illegal, the alcohol at these parties was bootleg liquor.
Gatsby also displays examples of corruption through his acquisition of wealth. Gatsby's business dealings are not clear. He admits to his neighbor, Nick that he is "in the drug store business" (95). The drug store business during prohibition means that the person is a bootlegger. Bootlegging is a highly profitable business and bootleggers are commonly associates with gangsters who commit harsh and cruel deeds. The society Gatsby wants to be a part of is based on money and power, not faith and love.
Prohibition had the most effect on The Great Gatsby's most notable charachter, Jay Gatsby. Bob Batchelor states in his book Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel, “Gatsby is a deeply flawed hero” (Batchelor 250). Gatsby is a hero because he was able to achieve the American dream by working hard to get to the top. Gatsby, however, was flawed because his dreams revolved around impressing and winning back Daisy. He was so blinded by his love for Daisy that he was not willing to achieve his actual dream. In the Great Gatsby, it is heavily inferred that Gat...
Several individuals mark Gatsby to be a man of great wealth, with a beautiful estate, and an abundance of friends. To illustrate, parties that are hosted at Gatsby’s house are magnificent, filled with professional entertainment, music and dancers, and guests varying from politicians to movie stars. Fitzgerald paints the picture of the parties at Gatsby’s house in great detail in this passage “The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.” (Fitzgerald 44). It can be seen that these were extravagant parties filled with lust and alcohol. The evidence shows that no ordinary man would be throwing parties of this form, only a man with great wealth and resources would pull of such a feat. Furthermore, this was the prohibition era, which meant that alcohol and the consumption of alcohol was illegal. After this brief look into Gatsby’s life, one can understand why he was considered “great”, but to truly understand Gatsby’s greatness, one must look into his
The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920s. There are many 1920s characteristics that are seen in the book. During the party, Nick and Jordan were looking for Gatsby and a man said, “I’ve been drunk for a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library. (Fitzgerald, 46).” The prohibition took place which made people want to drink alcohol more (the reason why there's a picture of alcohol). In the book, it is stated that Nick only got drunk twice in his life. It was innovative because many inventions were made such as Dodge, electric stove, and the T ford. “[I had] an old dodge and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.(Fitzgerald 4)” It was also promiscuous
The 1920’s were a time of social and technological change. After World War II, the Victorian values were disregarded, there was an increase in alcohol consumption, and the Modernist Era was brought about. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a perfect presentation of the decaying morals of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald uses the characters in the novel--specifically the Buchanans, Jordan Baker, and Gatsby’s partygoers--to represent the theme of the moral decay of society.
Gatsby and the Roaring Twenties: A New Historicist Interpretation F. Scott Fitzgerald created a timeless novel about love and wealth when he wrote The Great Gatsby. However, when one closely analyzes the work, it is apparent that he also crafted a social commentary about the state of society and the world during the decade of the 1920’s. Many literary critics and intellectuals have commented on Fitzgerald’s talent in regards to crafting a response to civilization during a specific time period, as well as his ability to blend his personal lifestyle choices into this commentary. “The basis of his work was self-scrutiny, but the actual product was an eloquent comment on the world” (Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896-1940) 369). In order to understand
The novel, The Great Gatsby is one of Western literature’s most well known fictional masterpieces. Taking place in the roaring twenties, The Great Gatsby highlights the sustained economic prosperity and artistic dynamism that was characteristic of the era. The economic boom of the 1920s also allowed for people, like the character Jay Gatsby, to rise up the socioeconomic ladder and easily integrate themselves into a more opulent society. Fitzgerald puts a spotlight on the consumerism that swept the United States by stressing detail when describing Gatsby's parties. Although many of those who lived in East Egg and West Egg flaunted their wealth, Fitzgerald shows us the imperfections to this way of life.