...In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the major themes was money and social class, and how it affected each of the characters. Jay Gatsby believes in the need for wealth and materialism in order to obtain love from Daisy, but is crushed by a world of unattainable dreams. With the use of money-related diction to illustrate that wealth is pursued for the sole purpose to impress others and to bring happiness, Fitzgerald demonstrates that during the 1920’s, money was most important to people in order to gain social class, but resulted in the complete opposite. Daisy is a good example of how money has influenced her and even changed her throughout the novel. She met Gatsby and fell in love with him despite how he had no money or social class. Once he went off to war, she promised to wait for him, but once she met Tom, she couldn’t resist his wealth, and...
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...really don’t. All they want is your money. Like in the Great Gatsby, Daisy didn’t want to wait for Gatsby because he was poor and had nothing to offer. She then got married to Tom who was very wealthy. Daisy thought she had her life all planned out until she met Gatsby again. He was very rich and he was her first love. Now Daisy has to choose between the past love of her life and the love of her life now. Fitzgerald shows a great way of how some people can change just because of money and lies. By weaving together the motifs of materialism and lies throughout the story, Fitzgerald expresses an important theme. In the start of the rising action, Fitzgerald shows these motifs. Early in the story, Nick is introduced to Catherine at Tom’s party. “Catherine has jewelry all over her body and looks at the furniture very possessive”. Nick soon realizes he doesn’t fit in and wants to leave. They get him to stay with a brib off endless liquor and beer. The motif of materialism comes into play here because they can make a man who has gotten drunk two times in his life stay and...
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...Iranian writer Azar Nafisi once said, “The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby we see the decay of the American Dream through the selfless but selfish acts of the characters. In the Great Gatsby the symbols of the Valley of Ashes, the green light, and materialism show that the American Dream is unachievable. Through the symbol of the Valley of Ashes we see the hollowness and decay of the American Dream. Myrtle had the same dream as everyone who lives in the Valley of Ashes has, they all want to escape the Valley of Ashes to be a part of a higher social class“…Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished,...
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...“The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.” (Azar Nafisi). As Azar Nafisi points out, and as seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, many lower class Americans dream of a better life while falling victim to the cruel, unfair, realities of classism. Fitzgerald criticizes the idea of the American Dream by showing how the elite, members of society coming from the upper 1% live recklessly and frivilessesly, while the destitute lower class struggle to survive among the ashes. According to Fitzgerald, no matter how desperate and determined a person appears, the American Dream is unattainable due to unfair economic standards. Analyzing Fitzgerald’s...
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...Tyler Landry Mrs. Potter American Studies, English July 22, 2015 The Great Gatsby Essay Just after the World War 1, in the US there had been huge changes that involved all aspects of American life, including a tendency towards materialism, changes in clothing, women getting the right to vote gangster life emerging, parties and dances, and most importantly the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s novel define that American dream changed by time; the first time for European living in America was American dream, and originally any discovery which gave them happiness was American dream, but in the ear of 20s mean for American dream has become perverted into desire for wealth by whatever means; thinking that money will bring happiness. The Great Gatsby, was published in this era; therefore; it gives us a vivid portrayal of that time by demonstrating symbols and character behavior the impossibility of American dream. The characters that Fitzgerald describes in his novel all tie in with many aspect of the 1920s lifestyle. The Jazz Age was a tendency toward materialism, and characters are described in the way that shows materialistic tendency. Callahan says “Critics from several different generations have noted how Fitzgerald used his conflicts to explore the origins and fate of the American dream and the related idea of the nation.” (Callahan). Fitzgerald describes Gatsby, the main character in the novel, as a dream achiever, who is looking for wealth and property even...
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...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that takes a different spin on the stereotypical American dream. To say “through the novel, Fitzgerald puts across the idea that the American dream has been corrupted by the desire for materialism” would be accurate. Because “we see that Gatsby had a pure dream, but became corrupt in his quest towards that dream,” this is how the American dream was viewed as corrupt. Throughout the novel Gatsby displays many examples of how his quest towards the dream that was once pure, slowly becomes more and more corrupt. The first showing of corruptness in Gatsby’s dream, which is to marry Daisy, is his unethical means of obtaining a fortune. The stereotypical American dream is working hard for honest money. However, this is not the case for Gatsby. Gatsby attains his fortune through the illegal means of bootlegging. In the novel, the narrator Nick describes Gatsby, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a Son of God—a phrase that, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (The Great Gatsby Chapter 6 pg). This quotation shows how Nick saw Gatsby as trying to transform himself into the ideal person. He even goes as far as to...
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...MaryAnn Patton 28 May 2013 The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby, otherwise known as James Gatz, finds himself in a struggle between a fantasy like dream and power comes to inevitably stand for America itself. Gatsby becomes a mythic figure whose career and fate stand for America, our idealism in the face of materialism has destroyed America's green freshness and left only a valley of ashes. Gatsby personifies the “extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness” says Nick. Both of these descriptions can be transferred to characterize America. These two things are what America was built on. America is the land of the hopeful. America in the 1920s was wanting to be successful in an American city with a beautiful wife and home. However, Gatsby believed that this all could be bought, including the American dream. His ostentatious parties exemplifies the decline of the American dream. On the last page of the novel, Nick Carraway says “And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away…the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams;…something commensurate to his capacity for wonder”. Carraway is creating a picture of the American Dream, saying that versions of it could never be realized through America’s corrupt materialism. The “inessential houses” spoken of, are an example of the corrupt materialism on the once “fresh, green breast of the new world”. The only people who could have their...
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...materialistic vision of a big house, nice car, and living the easy life. As represented in the novel The Great Gatsby and Baz Luhrmann’s, The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was more focused on instant gratification of material things and needing material things as an indication of success. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby and Baz Luhrmann’s, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a renaissance man; a man who has it all but started out with nothing. His plan was to achieve his dream. He was so blinded by his possessions, in front of him, that he could not see that money could not buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrated how a dream can be corrupted by one’s focus on accruing wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream was “ambiguous, contradictory, romantic in nature, and undeniably beautiful while at the same time grotesquely flawed” (Hearne 189). His American Dream had become tarnished and corrupted by the culture of money and opulence that surrounded him. Gatsby was ‘new money’, and his romantic view of the wealthy did not prepare him for the self- absorbed, snobbish, group of people he was about to associate himself with. He threw lavish parties every night, yet he had no real friends to surround himself with. Gatsby bought expensive things and entertained a lot of people, but he was hoping for something more. Nick Caraway realized that Gatsby was involved in a few...
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...The Great Gatsby: The Corruption of the American Dream through Materialism The American dream is an ideal that has been present since American literature’s onset. Typically, the dreamer aspires to rise from rags to riches, while accumulating such things as love, high status, wealth, and power on his way to the top. The dream has had variations throughout different time periods, although it is generally based on ideas of freedom, self-reliance, and a desire for something greater. The early settlers’ dream of traveling out West to find land and start a family has gradually transformed into a materialistic vision of having a big house, a nice car, and a life of ease. In the past century, the American dream has increasingly focused on material items as an indication of attaining success. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money—only a plan for achieving his dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream “is a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70). His American dream has become corrupted by the culture of wealth and opulence that surrounds him. Gatsby is a “nouveau riche,” and his romantic view of wealth has not prepared him for the self-interested...
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...The Great Gatsby is a novel that reflects the 1920’s perfectly. Even though the book was written close to a century ago, its themes and messages are still applicable to today. By reading this story in between the lines, a reader will take away so much more. It is not only the skillfully written words on the surface that are important, but also the hidden meanings that can be found within those words. Gatsby’s frequent parties cover many aspects of the novel as they hold symbolism for Gatsby’s desire for Daisy, “new” money, and materialism. Throughout the story, it becomes evident that Gatsby throws his parties for reasons other than to entertain those around him. Gatsby has an underlying motive which proves his desire for Daisy. During the parties, Gatsby was almost impossible to find. This wasn’t because he was bouncing around socializing, but instead because he was watching the socializing from afar by himself. Nick is the one to witness this habit of his and narrates, “The nature of Mr Tostoff’s composition eluded me, because just as it began my eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes.” (Fitzgerald 51). Gatsby is not drinking or taking any part in his gathering revealing that he does not throw parties to party. It is especially suspicious that Gatsby invites people over to drink and provides them with alcohol even though he is against drinking. It is said in the novel that “It is indirectly due...
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...very American idea of materialism started and changed American Lifestyle 1920’s. Industry was exploding and new innovations such as credit, shopping malls, refrigerator, vacuum cleaners, and radio. These inventions were the “must have” items that everyone was now required to own. But this idea of needing more and not worrying about the consequences, led to the Great Depression, one of the hardest economic times in American history. This idea of mass consumerism and materialism is also apparent in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s character was largely influenced by his wealth and his need for more. Illustrated by Gatsby’s need for Daisy Buchanan that resulted in his decline and ultimately his death....
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...The Great Gatsby is a wonderful story representing the American soul, which successfully portrayed the cheers and tears of the 1920’s, or “roaring 20’s” in United States, the reality under disguised of surreal fantasy of commercialism and materialism. In this story, there were three significant places the storyline breed and grows. Among them, the most significant West Egg, the settlement for Nouveau Riche, filled with residences who believe they achieved the American Dream, but in fact, ruined by the Dream; besides, the East Egg, a place for the proud “old money”, that believe themselves as “born and breed riches”, the upper class, represent the ultimate goal of American Dreams, that is empty and shallow. Last but not least, The Valley of Ashes, sheltered the people who blindfolded by American Dream, spent days and nights to serve the riches and believe that one day they’ll become one, and who at last realized that the dream bring nothing but destruction. First, the nouveau rich settlement in Long Island, the West Egg, is a shelter for sad people who thought themselves work hard enough and achieved the American Dream. In the beginning of the story, the narrator, Nick Carraway told us about his background as an “old money” descendent, but decided to venture out his comfort shelter, in search of a new and independent life. Nick eventually became a neighbor of Jay Gatsby, a rich man who throws party almost every day, in the West Egg. We can see the crassness of the house in West...
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...American Dream in the 1920s On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented...
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...The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that shadows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on the prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story focuses primarily the young and mysterious bachelor Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. The Great Gatsby offers a vivid variety of social commentary, dwelling heavily on the theme of the abandoned American dream, Fitzgerald exposes this due to the apparent blind fixation on the past that the story exhibits with the characterisation of Jay Gatsby. Perhaps none is more sophiscated and well established than the sense of social stratification. The book is regarded as a remarkable piece of writing as it conveys the moral issues different social classes had to deal with in the 1920’s. Through exposing distinct social classes Fitzgerald delivers a strong sense of elitism circulating the society. Fitzgerald’s first method of approach was to create the riches and place them into distinct groups, new money and old money. New money were the people who benefited from the ufrom prohibited business trades such as the illegal selling of liquor Gatsby participated in. Characters in the story that acquired the majority of their wealth through inheritance include Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan and Jordan Baker – these characters are referred to as examples of “old money.” Their family were rich and...
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...Perhaps F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest work, The Great Gatsby is not only a great story, but an insight into the flaws of real life during the "Roaring Twenties." His book has been considered by many a symbol for the "Jazz Age," a time of extraordinary wealth and promise, but Fitzgerald's novel is much more than that, presenting the truth behind the twenties and creating an atmosphere which has earned a permanent place in American literature. Fitzgerald's novel works on many different levels, giving us unforgettable characters and events on one, as well as referring to the problems of American wealth and spirituality on another. However, what is the main point of the book? And most importantly, what on earth is that mysterious green light? Those questions, as well as many others will be answered in this analysis, which will discuss the underlying meaning and symbolism behind The Great Gatsby. "I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone - he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness." (16) So ends the first chapter of The Great Gatsby and brings to our attention the first symbol in this book - that mysterious...
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