Great Gatsby Essay

Great Gatsby Essay

The 1920s in America was a time of festivities, glamorous parties and illegal drinking. This was just in the east. The west was the exact opposite to the east. While the east was a place of no moral values, the west held on to more traditional values. It was also a time in which a woman was seen as nothing more than a pretty face and a stay at home mother. It was unacceptable for woman to have an education, she was to be seen but not heard. The Great Gatsby is a great representation of The Roaring Twenties.

In the novel, Gatsby is known for his extravagant parties. At the parties almost everyone was intoxicated, and there was plenty of alcohol to go around. What sets the parties of this era apart from current parties of today is at this time prohibition was taking place. Prohibition is the ban on importing, making, and buying alcohol. This means that for these parties to have such large amounts of alcohol, a large felony would have had to have been committed. What makes this book such an accurate representation of the nineteen-twenties is how a large portion of the book takes place in several of these bootlegging parties. For example, at one of the parties one man is so intoxicated that he crashes the car right outside of the house the party was at. One can get a feel for the intensity of Gatsby’s parties.

Another great way that this novel represents the 1920s is its portrayal of the women. In the twenties, women were viewed badly . Women of the time did not have many options but to stay at home. There weren’t really any opportunities for them than to go out and be social. One character in this story that portrays this role for women is Daisy. She is way ahead of her time, very intelligent. She sees the flaws in the time she lives in, but she knows there is nothing she can do about it. Even Daisy told Nick what she wishes for her daughter’s future: “I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful, little fool.” (Fitzgerald 14). Daisy accepts this fact of life, and wishes that her daughter isn’t cursed with her intelligence, that way she may be able to enjoy her life and the limited possibilities that come with it. Also, in the quote, Daisy hopes that her daughter will be beautiful. This is because Daisy recognizes that beauty in women is valued over intelligence, especially if they want to be married off.

At one point in the book, the contrast between the two sections of America is seen. “That’s my Middle West... the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.” (Fitzgerald 97). What this quote does, is reveal the difference between western and eastern life, The conflict that comes about when westerners (Tom, Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Jordan) live in the east. From this contrast, one can easily imagine what western life would have been like. This makes The Great Gatsby a wonderful representation of the nineteen-twenties.

The Great Gatsby is a very accurate representation of the 1920s. its wild, crazy parties, or the large sum of drinking, the twenties will alway be known for the wild times. Also, the twenties will be greatly known for its gender inequality, with its views on women. Of course, the morally strict western part of the twenties in America. With it’s conventional values, and simpler ways of living. No matter what they are remembered for, the twenties will always be remembered.