The Great Gatsby Essay
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a man of the roaring twenties and its fast paced lifestyle. The Great Gatsby is a novel of this lifestyle and the American society of that time. There was a great bunch of optimism during this time when many were living a life of luxury or the American dream. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows the greedy and materialistic lifestyle lived and pursued by many Americans in the 1920's through Gatsby's parties, background, and funeral. Though Jay Gatsby has mostly lived the American Dream, his life ends in misery and unexpected death, despite his wealth and success.Gatsby throws extravagant parties in which many people from all over New York come to get drunk and have a good time. Most of Gatsby's guests are not invited, they just show up. While they are there, many people speculate about the identity of their host for no one person really knows the truth. Some have insisted that he was educated at Oxford; some, that he was an ax murderer; and some, that he was a German spy during the war. This just shows how unappreciative the guests are of Gatsby for throwing this party for them. There is tons of food and expensive hors d'oeuvre, plenty of lights, and a real bar indoors w/ all kinds of liquor for all who
"(106)Gatsby's focus has now gone to material wealth from his plans of self-improvement from before. His parents were Midwestern farmers whom he never really accepted as his parents. This novel shows how the American dream had changed over the years of change in society. And Though Gatsby has bought all these books, just because he can, and that is what a wealthy American would do, it does not get him anywhere or improve his life, or most importantly make him any happier. But the question aroused here is, do its contents really mean anything? At one of the parties, Gatsby shows all the guests that pass "Volume One of the 'Stoddard Lectures'" which pertains to cultures of distant lands. Nick tries to get a hold of Tom and Daisy, but they have left town with no forwarding address. Nick knows that Gatsby would have wanted a large funeral and wouldn't have wanted to be alone. The only people that end up showing up to his funeral are Nick, Mr. Gatsby's background is an unusual, yet unique one that shows us the warped view of the American dream and lifestyle of the 1920's. This is the thinking of almost all people who knew Gatsby. Nick immediately hangs up the phone in disgust of the greediness Klipspringer shows. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission. Dan Cody drinks a lot and Gatsby sees the damage drinking can do and is never fond of it from then on. This is ironic because so many people showed up to Gatsby's mansion when he threw the parties. The new emphasis on material wealth rather than self improvement was the end of the old American dream and the start of the shift to the new dream, which Fitzgerald believed led to the decrease of the decency and integrity of American society.
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