The Great Gatsby Critical Lens Essay Example

Throughout history information has been passed down through time from generation to generation. Literature is one of the most important aspect of a peoples’ culture that is passed down and inherited. Whether it be myths, legends, cooking recipes, plays, short stories and so on and so forth, writings have been shared through both oral traditions and written records. It is not long before these pieces of literature become the embodiment of that nation. The Russian author, Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, once said “Literature transmits unquestionable condensed experience…from generation to generation. In this way, literature becomes the living memory of a nation”. He is correct in saying this and his quote can be proven true through the use of characterization and setting in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby sets its scene in the Long Island region of New York during the summer of 1922. The time period that this story takes place in is pivotal to how the story unfolds and why the course of events happen in the manner in which they do. The 1920s is known in the United States as a decade of incredible economic success. In this novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald the story focuses on the negative and less known aspects of this era. With the end of the first World war only a few years past in 1918, there was a dizzying and staggering rise of the stock market that led to a sudden and sustained increase in the nation’s wealth. A new found sense of materialism was discovered as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. Fitzgerald provides an accurate judge of American character in The Great Gatsby during the 1920s. His book is a perceptive and astute account of the time in which he obviously studied and then successfully captured the angst of society drama and the sadness of lost love and the promise that lurks just beneath the roar of the twenties. This novel is known the world over today as an accessible door into the history of that