Great Gatsby
Disturbing Things in The Great Gatsby Throughout The Great Gatsby there are many disturbing instances, events, and people. These disturbing things put a lot into perspective such as an individual person's character and the character of society at the time. The society of the 1920's as described in the novel was a time of big spending and materialism. The characters in the novel all seemed to have dominantly bad traits except for Nick. F. Scott Fitzgerald had a reason for putting these things into the novel. The purpose of the disturbing instances in the Great Gatsby is to give the reader a realistic view of the culture of the 1920's , and to allow the reader to decide how they feel about characters that seem to have no positive traits. There were many instances in The Great Gatsby that helped defined the attitude and character of the 1920's, a time of excess and desire for extravagance. A very good representation of this are the parties that Gatsby held. They were very lavish parties that attracted many people, some who didn't know Gatsby and some Gatsby didn't even know. The people there were the ones who were materialistic, into big spending, excess, and extravagance. This was very disturbing
This instance in particular was disturbing by the fact that one invited guest called about his missing sneakers and did not mention anything about Gatsby's funeral, which just furthermore reinforces the attitude of the 1920's. One instance was when Gatsby had just been dropped off in the driveway and Nick told him to come to bed, Gatsby replied: "I want to wait here until she goes to bed. I believe this is the way Fitzgerald intended to describe the disturbing instances in his life through the novel. because people used these parties to boost their social standing and acceptance. " (153) He wanted Daisy all for himself. I believe that Fitzgerald developed Gatsby in this way to allow the reader to decide for themselves rather or not they were to fell sorry for Gatsby or to reject him. This instance showed how the attitude of the 1920's was very individualistic and self-absorbed. As the novel developed, the reader got a more detailed sense of the 1920's culture and way of life. There were many disturbing instances in the novel and there are many disturbing instances in real life also. Gatsby's rag to riches story is also disturbing because though the novel never particularly describes where he made his money, he did make it by unethical ways perhaps by bootlegging which gives more reason to change someone's opinion about him. Out of all the people that showed up at his party and claimed they knew him only a small group of people showed up, Gatsby's servants, his father, and Nick. Fitzgerald introduced these characters in this disturbing manner to allow the reader to decide how they would feel about characters with an enormous lack of ethics. It is not just love but a disturbing obsession. As Nick said, "Sometimes they came and went without ever having met Gatsby at all, they came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission" (45) Complete strangers would just show up uninvited to his parties, something that would most likely not happen in this day and age, but that was the attitude during the 1920's. But in perspective he actually had a lot of faults.
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Acceptance Essays
