The advent of modernism entails a series of reformation in culture, arts, music, literature and applied arts. It is during this trend that the thought encouraged the ability of human beings to improve and reshape their environment. The story Great Gatsby was written in 1925, in an era where America was amidst massive cultural revolution. This way, the author was able to extract the current American trend, towards his writing, thus possessing the main tenets of modernism that was a popular thought during this era.
An aspect of modernism considered in the novel is the depiction of war as means used by Gatsby for social mobility. In this period, to reject the old American way and develop it into something that shall provide him gains. He used his involvement in world war as a vehicle to attain his ill-gotten wealth. He met Daisy, the girl he thought was “the only nice girl he has known”, and the conflict starts there. The girl Daisy was a picture of young, classy and extremely materialist and the only way he knew to win her is to become rich and powerful.
Another tenet of modernism is exemplified in the Americans’ extravagant and luxurious lifestyle and spending patterns that followed after the World War and as coping mechanism from the slump they experienced during the Great Depression. The author captured this thought through personifying Gatsby’s character, the one who made him self rich as a means of winning back the woman he loved, which happened to be a girl who was extremely lured by physical wealth.
The Essay on Cold War Or New War American Foreign Policy Since 9 11
The Cold War can be most aptly characterized as an ideological conflict between two superpowers which enveloped and polarized the world for fifty years. It was a conflict between communism and capitalism, the Soviet Union versus the United States. Both nations foreign policies were shaped in order to retain and increase the influence of their respective ideologies whilst restricting the spread of ...
This depiction in the story connotes the situation that American modernism has gone through – people were searching for wealth and sought for expensive acquisitions that will give them a status of prestige and glamour. Another thing included in the novel is the author’s depiction of how the thoughts on modernism entailing the rejection of culture and its old ways has affected the way people think during this era wherein most people were corrupted on the prerogatives of wealth accumulation.
Wealth being seen as the sole answer and measure of success. The story also denotes the downfall of American dream. The story highlighted the death of Gatsby as a metaphor to the fall of materialist dream. His violent death signified that richness and wealth does not fully compensate the innate human needs. It is an onset for the collapse of American dreams anchored on the basis of materialism.
As the modernism implies rejection of culture, or in a way reformation of the old ways, in the modern state of America however, it seemed to work in the detriment of the society. The influx of goods that came after the First World War and Great Depression changed the way of life for the Americans and implanted the lavishly natured American dream, affixed solely on the accumulation of physical wealth. The author of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald had been successful in portraying the situation during this era through the novel.
The symbolisms and metaphorical representations between the characters and the real life actors in the society is effective in narrating the situation and assessing its effects on the culture and mindset of the people. Bryant Mangum, “The Great Gatsby,” Encyclopedia of the Novel, ed. Paul Schellinger, London and Chicago: Fitzroy-Dearborn, 1998, pp. 514-515. Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. October 10, 2007 <http://gutenberg. net. au/ebooks02/0200041. txt>
