Thesis Statement: In “The Great Gatsby”, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, explores how the social classes of the twenties affected society negatively as a whole, creating a corrupt thought of what the “American dream” truly is.…
The mystery behind Jay Gatsby allows for him to become one of the most intriguing members of the upper class. As Gatsby’s background unravels, it becomes clear that Fitzgerald chose Jay Gatsby as the main character because he defies every social normality in the 1920’s. By Fitzgerald’s writing, the reader realizes that Gatsby’s mindset separates him from others. Everything Gatsby has accomplished in the past five years is because of his dedication, ambition, and integrity in following in his dreams which Fitzgerald greatly admires. The social class one is born into is the one they belong to their entire life, unless you are Jay Gatsby. Although Gatsby attempts to convince people that his entire life has consisted of lavish and wealthy things,…
The 1920’s was a decade full of careless spending, lavish lifestyles and the American dream. Anyone from anywhere could make it in life if they just worked hard enough. The 1920s proved to be a prosperous time for many, in fact so many people thrived in this decade that almost everyone thought that they would eventually grow to be very rich themselves. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the sumptuous lives of the wealthy and the economic boom in America shaped the characters, plot, and setting of the novel. The effortless spending of the time influenced the lives of the characters as well as the background of the story.…
On the surface, The Great Gatsby reads as a story of thwarted love between a man and a woman. The real theme of the novel, however, encompasses a highly symbolic meditation on 1920’s America as a whole, and, in particular, the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920’s as an era of decaying social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby himself hosts every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the…
At first, the female characters in Fitzgeralds "The Great Gatsby" seemed to be rather dissimilar. Daisy was the angelic and innocent beauty, Jordan was the androgynous golfer, and Myrtle was the sensuous and vivacious seductress. One was from the holy heavens above, another from the sinful depths below, and the last from the neutral in between. Seems like a good balance, however, as the story progresses, we see more and more that the angle is a fallen one, and that the human is a demon in disguise. All three women in this novel use men in some form to get what they want. Looking at the depictions of the female sex in this novel, I believe that, yes, Fitzgerald was a misogynist.…
The Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” is a chronicle of its times. Times of prohibition, bootleggers and economical prosperity, but also the times of people still recalling the World War I, those who try to forget its horror and compensate all the harms suffered, with the life full of luxury. The period of 1920s, so called Roaring Twenties, is the time when the United States experienced cultural revolution. The lifestyle changed and the old values, such as morality disappeared, replaced by money and corruption. As the one who lived in that era, F. S. Fitzgerald became a strong critic of his contemporary’s lifestyles. One of the major themes of the novel is the criticism of the society for its trend to waste everything.…
Given all of the crimes that were committed in the 1920’s, why does Fitzgerald focus his attention so much on prohibition and gender roles? The era of the 1920’s was a time of prosperity and corruption throughout society. Some wealth was gained through honest work while other wealth was earned through greed, organized crime, and other illegal acts. In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he displays multiple accounts of prohibition, gender roles and organized crime and shows how they were present in everyday life.…
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the idea of feminism is completely diminished in this materialistic world of the 1920’s where women are looked down upon and depicted as weak, submissive, and live off men to ensure a quality life. This book portrays women as inferior to men and have no stance in political or social issues however much they are adored by men like Tom Buchanan or Jay Gatsby. The narrator, Nick Carraway, characterizes these men as superior beings with their wealth and career supporting their achievements. Whereas the women are represented by their beauty along with their ability to attract men with no regards to what they have accomplished in terms of literature or education. This novel may have been written…
Scott Fitzgerald outlined the events and lifestyles of the roaring 20s through his writings “The Great Gatsby” and “The Jelly Bean”, readers learn that wealth and class effected all the decisions and events that occurred. Jim and Gatsby, from the two works, had drastically different lives but had a lot in common when it came to people and how their story ended. Both used wealth and status as a way of gauging someone’s worth, both of them saw wealth and property as a way to get the girl and both ended up losing it all together. By using foreshadowing, irony and symbolism, F. Scott Fitzgerald captures the way of life during the 1920’s and the importance of…
After finishing The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald readers are able to see that genders in the story play a huge roll in how your American experience is shaped. In Chapter 7 of the story, we get a lot of evidence that being a woman at this time meant that you were treated worse than men and not given as many opportunities. The quote from above is from the scene in The Great Gatsby where Gatsby, Tom, Nick, Daisy, and Jordan are all in the same room and Gatsby gets the confidence to tell Tom that Daisy never truly loved him. There is a very aggressive tone given in this scene from Fitzgerald because Daisy is being put on the spot in front of two men that very angry at one another and are likely to break out into a fight screaming at each other. On top of being mad at each other in this scene the author…
“I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” This is from when Daisy and Nick are having a redundant conversation. It demonstrates one of the key elements of the novel: a classic inferior role for women in the Roaring Twenties. Daisy’s quote suggests an awareness of some superb emerging obstacle, and a following impression of submission. Daisy feels individually persecuted by the world she lives in; there is damaged aspiration inside her, resulting from some type of failure. It also proposes that Daisy is very conscious of her own feminism, and the place that femininity holds in the particular historical situation. Daisy seems to have unenthusiastically allowed herself to have the lifestyle she has been given, yet there is a slight longing gleam of hope in her heart. Although she appears shallow at times, the hidden intelligence of her character should not be forgotten. In many ways, this quotation…
As life and time goes on, people’s view start to shift and change. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the movie Chicago by Rob Marshal, in the 1920’s women are portrayed as money hungry and they go after men so they can upgrade themselves and feel like they have control in something. When manipulating men, women are trying to take advantage of their vulnerability and all allow women to advance much faster in life.…
Class structure in the 1920’s was between rich and poor. The rich saw the poor as animals and they thought they could do what they wanted because they have money. The poor would try to get rich or act rich to try to fit in with the “popular” crowd. In “The Great Gatsby” there are many examples of class structure. Fitzgerald uses scenarios and characters that represent the social classes in the 20’s such as Jay Gatsby and how he acquired his wealth and how the valley of ashes compares to the east and west eggs.…
In the light of this comment, discuss ways in which Fitzgerald presents female characters in The Great Gatsby.…
¨ The best thing a girl can be in this world, [is] a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 21), expressed by the empowering Daisy Buchanan, introduces readers to the unjust story where women are not portrayed at the same level as men. Gender inequality played a factor during the Jazz Age, where women were viewed as being incapable of having intelligence and strength. The Great Gatsby, a novel authored by F.Scott Fitzgerald takes place during the time of the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald does not fail to do an incredible job at using female authority as an important role towards the end of this thrilling story. As tragic deaths come to play and plot twists are unraveled, the source of all the drama found in this novel are the main female characters. While…