The great Gatsby is too concerned with conveying a picture of 1920’s American society to have relevance to modern readers. With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel and relevant contextual information on both today’s society and society in the 1920’s, give your response to the above view.”
As a heavily contextual literary piece, the great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is regarded as one of the greatest pieces of modern American literature of all time. The book as achieved this status not through its base in the setting of 1920’s America but because of its story and characters can transverse through generations and how its settings and meanings can be applied to most situations and lifestyles experienced by people from all classes and walks of life which is why the great Gatsby is such a greatly loved book.
Like any good author, Fitzgerald uses his surroundings to emphasise his novel and at the time of writing “the great Gatsby” Fitzgerald was part of the “roaring 20’s” so it only made sense that this be the time that Fitzgerald sets the scene of his masterpiece as it must have been easier to write about an era he knows and lives in and simply use that as a backbone for his socially critical ideas. In any good novel that’s all context really is, a means for the author to explain their ideas so that the reader feels as if they have worked out for themselves rather than the author telling them. For example Jesus’ parables are always set in a place that the people he was talking to could understand yet the meaning of these parables are still learned and understood today regardless of context.
The Term Paper on Great Gatsby Fitzgerald Scott Zelda
Dreaming The Impossible Dream: An autobiographical portrayal of F. Scott Fitzgerald as Jay Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby Frances Scott Key Fitzgerald, born September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, is seen today as one of the true great American novelists. Although he lived a life filled with alcoholism, despair, and lost-love, he managed to create the ultimate love story and seemed to pinpoint the ...
I can understand why someone might say that the great Gatsby novel relies too heavily on context as Fitzgerald reminds us time and time again throughout the novel not only that the novel is set in the 1920’s but also how the people act within this time frame. This is significant as it marks the tone of the novel as “live fast and carefree”. The era is just after the war, meaning there was a feeling of happiness in the country and also what appeared to be an economic boom. However these both turned out to be hollow as there remained an ever increasing class divide between rich and poor but also a divide by what was known as the old and new money, Gatsby being part of the latter. This tone is shown throughout the novel mainly through the extravagance of Gatsby’s parties, “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars”. And through the wealth shown by most characters “He’d brought down a string of ponies from lake forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that”. This feeling of national gaiety was synonymous with the social move from religion and morals to money, power and complete lack of morality.
The people who attend Gatsby’s parties are always linked with careless gaiety, shallowness and aimlessness, Gatsby himself is hinted to be involved in crime helps to showcase Fitzgerald’s view of his generation. Yet uses the context of post war America as an excellent setting to properly demonstrate the failure of the American dream through myrtles inability to move up in to the richer classes or more importantly through Gatsby’s failure to win over daisy with his new wealth as he is part of the “new wealth” of America. Not forgetting of course George Wilson whose garage in the depressing valley of ashes struggles to stay afloat.
This despairing lack of fairness in the economy is easily highlighted in today’s society as most of the world is I a struggling economy yet there is a few people regarded as being part of a separate group who are far wealthier than the rest i.e. bankers, politicians. This idea of greed and moral decadence is seen through out the novel. “With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur.” This is also seen from daisy’s comment “what’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon? Cried daisy, and the day after that, and the next thirty years?”
The Term Paper on American Dream Gatsby Daisy People
In what ways does 'The Great Gatsby' present the reader with a critical vision of America as a socially divided and morally chaotic society? For the Pilgrim Fathers the passage to America was to a new Eden. They were striving to achieve a democratic society in which all men could succeed. The poem 'Bermudas' by Andrew Marvell depicts the ideals of the original dream, describing the migration ...
What can be said about the argument for too much context in the great Gatsby is the difference between what was considered shocking then and its comparison to now. Women were known as flappers in the 1920’s as women started to break out of their social stereotype and instead did things that before were unheard of from women such as short haircut’s or “bob’s”, wearing lose fitting dresses that didn’t cover the legs, drinking, smoking and partying. While this may have been quite new and modern back then it is very common place in today’s society so it doesn’t have the same significance as it would have done. Another way in which the context of the novel differs is the idea of cars in the book, which were seen to be an accessory of the rich whereas nowadays most people own a car regardless of class. This can also be linked between the two settings today as those in society who have the latest or newest technology tend to be seen as the wealthier people.
Another difference between the setting of the great Gatsby novel and modern day was the prohibition which prevented the commercial sale of alcohol, which led to the rise of speak-easys’ and organised crime (of which Gatsby was a part of) from which arose the idea of gangsters and mobs. While these aren’t heard of today there is still a lot of crime and binge drinking especially in the more modern youth culture which was also seen in Gatsby’s parties. “It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people.” In conclusion I have found that the context of the great Gatsby has nothing to do with how a reader perceives the novel as with most stories, it’s up to the reader what story they want to see and as mentioned before the great Gatsby has many themes and can be interpreted in many ways, As a love story, a man’s class struggle or even a social satire but as an answer to the question if “The great Gatsby is too concerned with conveying a picture of 1920’s American society to have relevance to modern readers.” Then personally my answer would have to be no this isn’t the case the great Gatsby is a book that can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone.
The Term Paper on Modern Society Today.
What is the most significant challenge to modern society today? I believe that the most significant challenge is balancing national security and people rights and freedoms. After 9/11 the world cracked down on security because they wanted to show the world that we will not be bullied and that the government will protect its people. In the process people were treated terrible and where accused of ...
