Gatsby - Social Commentary
Long Essay - The Great Gatsby - Question 2F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in 1926. It is often regarded as a social commentary on the "upper class" of New York at that time. Fitzgerald reveals the setting as an era lacking of virtually all social values and morals. The wealthy waste their money day by day in an empty pursuit of pleasure. Fitzgerald himself was a wealthy young man in this period, and had experienced this wild, carefree lifestyle and needed a vessel by which to record his frustration at his former self and the rest of the population. This of course, was The Great Gatsby. The novel tells the tale of narrator Nick Carraway describing his experiences in New York in 1922. He describes his wealthy neighbour, a Mr Jay Gatsby, who is lusting after a former love, Daisy Buchanan, wife of Tom Buchanan, an extremely wealthy and imposing man.The narrative is a tale of the 1920's, in particular, a period known as the "Jazz Age". This was a time where a sort of post-World War One shock spread over the populace of America. Until this moment, America hadn't experienced casualties on this great a scale in 70 years, the only wars it had ever been part of being its revolutionary and civil wars. Also, World War One w
New York is seen as a centre of moral decay and social cynicism. The quote below describes the effect of prohibition upon the population. This includes cities such as Chicago, (the former home of the Buchanans). Those of east egg resent and detest those of west egg. Fitzgerald has used Buchanan to represent the lack of morality of these wealthy New Yorkers, in that they don't even bother to help their fellow man, when they are very much able to. It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things. " (World Book, ii)This led to a long period of low economic activity, known as the great depression, which affected almost all nations in the world. ' I hadn't been looking at them, but I did now. For example, Tom Buchanan buys a new car and falsely promises George Wilson that he will sell him his old automobile. " (Johnson, D, 1999, i)Of course, for those in a large city such as New York it wasn't tremendously difficult to bypass these laws, as Gatsby and all his partygoers did regularly. Whilst he does spend some time sinning in the east, he returns west and in a sense, 'repents' his former experiences by telling the story of Gatsby. Here he is describing "The Rise Of The Coloured Empires" by Goddard . Nick Carraway personifies the aforementioned traits rather well. From the book he obtained several ideas, which he later revised and included in his own novel, "Mein Kampf.
Common topics in this essay:
Myrtle Wilson,
Gatsby Conversely,
Eighteenth Amendment,
World War,
Meyer Wolfshiem,
West America,
World Book,
York Fitzgerald,
Jazz Age,
Fitzgerald Buchanan,
west egg,
west america,
jazz age,
revealing values people,
revealing values,
east nick,
values people,
values morals,
fitzgerald experienced,
lack principles,
post war,
|
Acceptance Essays
