The Great Gatsby. Inspired by the devastation of WWI, writers in The Lost Generationembraced a cynical view of human nature. In the time period immediately following the Civil War until the Great Depression, America experienced a period of rapid growth and fortune, especially located in this novels setting, New York (The Great Gatsby Novels 74). Development Arrested. The journey to reaching a fulfilling life and the American Dream came with struggles, and many people resorted to crime and dishonest behavior as a way to circumvent their actual problems. The Great Gatsby Historical Context | Book Analysis Understanding historical context helps you in all sorts of ways: Having a richer interpretation of symbols, motifs, and themes. Gatsby 's car, outsized and ostentatious, represents Gatsby's flamboyant gestures, love of the material world, and huge capacity to dream. He is guided by a culture of gathering more wealth for individualistic gains than he already has (Zeitz 13). . So how exactly does materialism reveal itself as a theme, how can it help us analyze the characters, and what are some common assignments surrounding this theme? You can thus compare three very different women's experiences to explore how moneyor a lack thereofseems to change the possibilities in a woman's life in early 1920s America. So all three women push the boundaries of their expected societal rolesDaisy's affair with Gatsby, Jordan's independent lifestyle, and Myrtle's affair with Tombut ultimately either fall in line (Daisy, Jordan) or are killed for reaching too far (Myrtle). In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. In the contemporary phenomenon of "Gatsby parties"festivities intended to capture the air of the titular Jay Gatsby's famously lavish, bacchanalian partiesjazz is de rigueur to evoke the 1920s. The aim was to provide a vivid description of the rebelliousness that is associated with the youths of the time. Historical Context Essay: The Great Gatsby and the Jazz Age, Literary Context Essay: Modernism & Realism in The Great Gatsby. In this novel, actual mountain climbing is safer than social climbing. In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, epitomized by the Buchanans tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker. Alongside the juxtaposition of the Midwest and the East, Fitzgerald also reflects the culture of the 1920s with descriptions of Prohibition and the law breaking that came as a result. Every character in The Great Gatsby draws inspiration from the American Dreams promise of wealth and prosperity. Any time someone isdrinking alcohol in the novel, they are doing something illegal, and are clearly in the know about how to get this banned substance. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in 1925, the setting of The Great Gatsby is an island, which is dominated by prosperous, wealthy, and poor communities of East Egg and West Egg. Despite society's changing nature, the world still hasn't accepted Jordan as an independent person. In other words, while he opens the book with his father's advice to remember "all the advantages [he's] had," Nick seems to have a chip on his shoulder about still not being in the highest tier of the wealthy class. How about getting full access immediately? And on Mondays eight servants including an extra gardener toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before." Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). You can connect modernism withthe novel's descriptions of East Egg and West Egg extravagance. In the monied world of The Great Gatsby, class influences all aspects of life, and especially love. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. The overindulgence is perhaps well reflected in The Great Gatsby in Gatsbys parties that are analogous to those that were thrown by the American youths in the 1920s. It was a decade of tremendous wealth in the United States following the deprivations of the First World War. These comments might seem a bit odd, given that Nick admits to coming from money himself: "My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this middle-western city for three generations" (1.5). When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values have not decayed. Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream. WWI was a war of trench warfare, chemical weapons, shrapnel artillery, and other gruesome technologies that had never been seen before. Both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby have military backgrounds. However, even though Gatsby succeeds in acquiring wealth, he is never accepted by the upper class. Print. This began during WWI as more women began to work to make up for the men fighting abroad, and as more professions opened up to them in the men's absence. Everything You Need to Know: History of The Great Gatsby - PrepScholar The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. At the same time, their prominence gave rise to an anti-Semitic backlash, and the revival of the KKK began with the lynching of a Jewish man in 1915. . She indeed admires East Eggs people with mega envy together with intense animosity. However, all positive traits aside, there are aspects of Jay Gatsby that call into question that admiration. But there are other themes at play here, too. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more! The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points, How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer, Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests. Scherer and Ross remark that Americans purchased durable goods in the 1920s, thus increasing their spending on clothes and various mass-produced items (105). "American Culture in the Novel "The Great Gatsby"." . You can view our. The Great Gatsby. But since Daisy is flighty and inconsistent, Gatsby's comment also suggests that wealth is similarly unstable. Fitzgerald himself waspart of a circle of modernists who regularly met inParis (others included Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Sinclair Lewis, and the painters Picasso and Matisse). So Gatsby ultimately provides a pretty harsh, pessimistic view of women's roles in 1920s America. A prime example of such an immoral character is Meyer Wolfsheim who, as Gatsby nonchalantly stated, fixed the World Series back in 1919 (Fitzgerald 73); the character of Wolfsheim acts as a representation of the man who was actually responsible for the crime, Arnold Rothstein. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Like his fellow modernists, Fitzgerald was deeply critical of the wealth and capitalist success ushered in by the post-war boom, considering the new obsession with money and status shallow. Print. Meyer Wolfsheim and Gatsbys fortune symbolize the rise of organized crime and bootlegging. Nick Caraway, a native of Minnesota and an advocate of Midwestern values, narrates it in the first person. A mentionable character representing the American Dream was Jordan Baker and her representation of womens independence. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925. One of the rumors about Gatsby is that he is involved in a bootlegging pipeline of alcohol from Canada - this is a reference to a real-life scandal about one of the places where illegal alcohol was coming from! At the same time, the novel itself critiques the notion of the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby, money is a huge motivator in the characters' relationships, motivations, and outcomes. (one code per order). Read more about how the American Dream is treated in The Great Gatsby and whether the novel is ultimately optimistic or pessimistic about the dream. However, despite her airs, she matters very little to the "old money" crowd, as cruelly evidenced first when Tom breaks her nose with a "short deft movement" (2.126), and later, when Daisy chooses to run her over rather than get into a car accident. Such symbols reflect social challenges such as corruption that arose from the emergence of materialist and capitalist cultures. In contrast to Tom and Daisy's expensive but not overly gaudy mansion, and the small dinner party Nick attends there in Chapter 1, everything about Gatsby's new wealth is over-the-top and showy, from the crates of oranges brought in and juiced one-by-one by a butler to the full orchestra. Money (or the lack of it!) The average student has to read dozens of books per year. In both cases, the marriages seem to be unions of convenience or advantage than actual love. If you're aware of the newness and attraction of cars, you'll notice that inThe Great Gatsby: Death machine, or no, you have to admit that's a pretty cool-looking car. 22 Apr. Toms unethical conduct is further reflected in several other characters in The Great Gatsby who resort to lying in order to reach success, which ultimately leads to their demise. Only the most affluent couple pulls through the events that conclude the book. They were careless people, Tom and Daisythey smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. By Matthew Walther Mr. Walther is the editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal, and a . Myrtles affair with Tom is her approach of taking advantage of him to reach an extravagant lifestyle, Daisy allows Gatsby to take the blame for Myrtles death without regret, and Gatsby changes his whole name and way of life in order to feel personally accomplished; all eventually realize that the happiness they expected to receive in the end resulted in misery, especially with the deaths of Myrtle and Gatsby. Fitzgeralds illustration of the American Dream within his characters directly echoed the societys high-esteemed qualities of success and delight. Another social development wasthe new flapper style. Gatsby's drive and perseverance in obtaining his goal is, in many senses, commendable. Contact us . How do the values and attitudes of the Great Gatsby reflect the Published in 1925, the book is not only an important work of English-language literature, it is an excellent period piece that displays the social, cultural, and political tensions of the 1920s . Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed . This so called Black Sox Fix proved to be an enormous scandal in the early twentieth century as Rothstein, Wolfsheim in the novel, was able to get away with committing the crime with clever and crooked smarts while obtaining a large sum of money. According to Zeitz, 1920s marked an era in which Americans began to reap from the benefits of increased consumerism (21). What ACT target score should you be aiming for? Although her husband is immensely loyal to her, she possesses a strong desire to have everything else. Few characters in literature or indeed life embody an era quite so tenaciously as Jay Gatsby does the Jazz Age.

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