Pragmatism And Materialism In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In stark juxtaposition to EBB’s abandonment of social conventions, Fitzgerald reflects the roaring 20’s distillation of identity into pragmatism and materialism, forsaking romantic ideals such as spirituality and hope. This is exemplified in The Great Gatsby, whereby the characters seem mute, stranded inside their own clichés and fake monumentalism of an American that imagined itself “a fresh, green breast of the new world”. The colour imagery in “the green light” reflects the infinitely distant hope for personal fulfilment that motivates all who dare to dream. It is also symbolic of the separation between the “East and West Eggs”, seemingly divided between the vacuous playgrounds of the desolate “Valley of Ashes”, this “solemn dumping ground”