The Great Gatsby as a social critique.
The Great Gatsby, a novel that illustrates society in the 1920's, should definitely be considered as a social critique. Scott Fitzgerald wrote this novel to demonstrate the social flaws and the social attitudes in the 1920's and 1930's or the Jazz Age, which is a time of prosperity and a booming economy. In this novel, Fitzgerald is criticizing the corruption of the American Dream, the immorality of the 1920's and injustice in society.The most criticized issue in this novel, is the one of the corruption of the "American Dream". The American Dream was based on the assumption that anyone, no matter what their social class is, could have prosperity if the have effort and skill. This novel is about what happened to this American Dream and how the pursuit of wealth corrupted it. The characters in this novel are in constant pursuit of money, glamour, success and excitement to feel complete about themselves. For example, Tom and Daisy are very materia
This showed how the American Dream pushed people who were crazy about money into crime or any immoral behaviors. Scott Fitzgerald had obviously written the Great Gatsby to be a social critique. listic, they want a big house, expensive items and everything that seems valuable. Those years were known as the Roaring Twenty's, because of the great rise of the economy after World War One and the materialistic and consuming generation. Jordan is another character in the novel the shows immoral traits, such has cheating during one of her golf tournaments or encouraging Daisy to have an affair with Gatsby. His reflection upon the American Dream is the major theme of the novel. He also wanted to portray the moral decay of Jazz Age, and the society's pursuit of materialistic prosperity. In the 1920's people had discovered new riches and freedoms but then began living their lives without a proper sense of morality and ethical codes, disregarding everyone that weren't a part of their new social class. Scott Fitzgerald gives us a good idea on what kind of discrimination that existed in that period against non-whites and women. Scott Fitzgerald wasn't criticizing the American Dream itself, but the death of it. Gatsby needed his enormous mansion, his money and his fame before he could feel confident about winning Daisy back. Fitzgerald portrays this with the use of his characters, like when Tom was having an affair and Jordan who was materialistic and dishonest. By the end of story, it was evident that Fitzgerald was trying to portray the racism and sexism that reflected the American life in the first quarter of the twentieth century. For instance, Jay Gatsby got his fortune through his dealings with organized crime, which was a empty form of success. People were always partying, affairs were a common thing and old values were corrupted by the pursuit of wealth and power.
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