World War I dramatically affected the United States in the 1920s (and, of course, shaped much of the 20th century all over the world as well). This claim suggests that 1920s were marked by the coming out of an impatient society that was led by the adolescents who opposed honorable margins that were constant in the previous age group. Free trial is available to new customers only. ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score, How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League, Is the ACT easier than the SAT? to reacquaint himself with Daisy through massive parties instead prove to be areas where those yearning for liquor could obtain their desired alcohol with little to no regard toward their host; this is exemplified in the fact that Owl Eyes is the only character other than Nick to attend both Gatsbys lavish parties and his funeral. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. For example, it's all well and good to assume that Daisy should leave the boorish Tom, but divorce would have been way more complicated for a woman in the 1920s than it is today. Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more! The smaller European powers were forced into the war as well, based on whatever alliances they had made in the past. Nick and Gatsby, both of whom fought in World War I, exhibit the newfound cosmopolitanism and cynicism that resulted from the war. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz musicepitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday nightresulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. . This happened because of advances in mass production due to the assembly line, and because of rising incomes due to the economic boom. This provision made them perceive themselves as equal to men. In The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald documents these changes through an in-depth exploration of cultural changes such as the rise in consumerism, materialism, greed for wealth, and the culture of loosening morals in the 1920s American society. Fitzgeralds illustration of the American Dream within his characters directly echoed the societys high-esteemed qualities of success and delight. Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,I must have you!". Cars also now created a totally new danger, particularly in combination with alcohol consumption. One woman is not just adequate. Historical context: the giant arm propping up the baby that is your argument. Together with the examples of deceit under Prohibition, Fitzgeralds novel was inspired by the corruption of certain Americans during the 1920s as reflected in the actions and deceit used by the major characters he created. (2022, August 12). By such suggestions that Gatsby was a product of his culture, Nick is able to praise Gatsby for the integrity of his belief . Want to write the perfect college application essay? SparkNotes PLUS The characters Fitzgerald portrays represent distinct social groups who ultimately face their own struggles, demonstrating how uncertain the culture of the 1920s really was. Then, after returning home and realizing Daisy was married and gone, he set out to earn enough money to win Daisy over, turning to crime via a partnership with Meyer Wolfshiem to quickly amass wealth (9.83-7). 1. "There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. Daisy and Tom have similar traits, which support materialist culture that was prevalent in the 1920s American society as portrayed in The Great Gatsby. In the final chapter, Nick calls Tom and Daisy careless people who smashed up things and . Gatsby, like a peacock showing off its many-colored tail, flaunts his wealth to Daisy by showing off his many-colored shirts. She even breaks down in tears after Gatsby shows off his ridiculously expensive set of colored shirts, crying that she's "never seen such beautiful shirts" before (5.118). It would help your argument to talk about the sudden skyrocketing prevalence of cars on the road in the 1920s, connecting them to increased danger, status symbol consumerism, and modern life. At the time when the novel takes place, the U.S. was in the middle of a tremendous economic boom and a soaring stock market that seemed to be on a permanent upward swing. The description of Gatsby's parties at the beginning of Chapter 3 is long and incredibly detailed, and thus it highlights the extraordinary extent of Gatsby's wealth and materialism. Myrtle feels trapped in her marriage, which pushes her into her affair with Tom Buchanan, an affair which grants her access to a worldNew York City, wealth, partiesshe might not otherwise have access to. 1. Continue to start your free trial. (1.17). Because he creates characters that personify the American Dream, juxtaposes western and eastern American cultures, incorporates examples of law breaking under Prohibition, and depicts the corruption of the wealthy, Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as a reflection of Americas culture in the early twentieth century by highlighting the cultures successes and failures. His desire entails acquiring all that is available at disposal. In addition, Gatsby himself also perfectly personifies one who represents all things pertaining to the American Dream: wealth, happiness, and prosperity; he is able to attain his success while chasing after his perfect girl, Daisy. The idea is straightforward: greater income . Characters such as George and Toms wives exemplify the rebellion that is characterized by dwindling moral standards. So money here is more than just statusit's a shield against responsibility, which allows Tom and Daisy to behave recklessly while other characters suffer and die in pursuit of their dreams. Dont have an account? Jordan does not understand the concerns of the need to work hard and genuinely. Both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby have military backgrounds. The Great Gatsby. If you understand this combination of progress and traditionalism for women's roles, you'll find it on display in The GreatGatsby: Women's suffrage parade in New York City. Zeitz remarks, taking advantage of prosperity that was experienced in a decade, youths threw lucrative parties, got excessively drunk in illegal liquor, and used sexually arousing dancing styles in the vast number of established jazz clubs (23). And, fascinatingly, this is the first moment of the day Daisy fully breaks down emotionallynot when she first sees Gatsby, not after their first long conversation, not even at the initial sight of the mansionbut at this extremely conspicuous display of wealth. Additionally, places and objects in The Great Gatsby have meaning only because characters instill them with meaning: the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg best exemplify this idea. Everything You Need to Know: The Great Gatsby Era, Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, this novel's publication and reception history. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air" (2.56). At the beginning of the novel they move to fashionable East Egg, after moving around between "wherever people played polo and were rich together," and are able to very quickly pick up and leave at the end of the book after the murders, thanks to the protection their money provides (1.17). In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. The jazz age was born during the 1920s era in the American history. This claim implies that they thought that money could make them more authoritative than other people. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. let other people clean up the mess they had made.. Building on the work of Miles Corak, Anders Bjrklund, Markus Jantti, and others, I proposed the "Great Gatsby Curve" in a speech in January 2012 . Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike. A close look at these two distinct societies gives an image of a future fictional American society culture, which is free from corruption and largely not driven by individualism. Increased availability of products for purchasing in the free market led to the widening of the gaps between people of different social economic classes. That was it. Meanwhile, Tom's mistress Myrtle, a car mechanic's wife, puts on airs and tries to pass as rich through her affair with Tom, but her involvement with the Buchanans gets her killed. In The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald documents these changes through an in-depth exploration of cultural changes such as the rise in consumerism, materialism, greed for wealth, and the culture of loosening morals in the 1920s American society. Economic and social immoralities in The Great Gatsby reveal the lost American dream. Or, zoom out toa summary of The Great Gatsby, along with links to all ourgreat articles analyzing this novel! Nick, meanwhile, dates Jordan Baker throughout the book, and though their relationship has its moments of warmth and kindness, both parties generally seem lukewarm and emotionally distant. Thinking about indulging in a little materialism yourself al Gatsby? Politically, the women's rights movement next took up the cause of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal legal rights for women. Myrtle explains that she married George because she thought he was a gentleman, suggesting she hoped hed raise her class status. Despite society's changing nature, the world still hasn't accepted Jordan as an independent person. Ironically, Gatsbys good qualities (loyalty and love) lead to his death, as he takes the blame for killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy be punished, and the Buchanans bad qualities (fickleness and selfishness) allow them to remove themselves from the tragedy not only physically but psychologically. August 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-culture-in-the-novel-the-great-gatsby/. You can see the effects of these historical development several places in the novel: The 1920s saw huge increases in the production and use of automobiles. Gatsby makes his fortune through bootlegging and other criminal activities. In fact, during Chapter 8 when we finally get a fuller recap of Daisy and Gatsby's early relationship, Nick notes that "It excited [Gatsby] too that many men had already loved Daisyit increased her value in his eyes" (8.10). What does this mean? A reinterpreted version of the story about Jay Gatsby's endeavor to become rich, achieve status in the high-society of 1922's Long Island, New York, and get back together with the love of his life - Daisy Buchanan. Daisy and Jordan are both old money socialites, while Myrtle is a working class woman married to a mechanic. These gardeners cleaned the leftovers of the products that had been consumed during Gatsbys parties that were dominated by haphazard expenses. But there are other themes at play here, too. Everyone who comes to the parties is attracted by Gatsby's money and wealth, making the culture of money-worship a society-wide trend in the novel, not just something our main characters fall victim to. for a customized plan. Understanding what the world was like during the time the novel is sethelps you in all sorts of ways: Figuring out an author's assumptions. However, the quest for contentment changed with time to become the search for wealth through excessive insatiability. Ironically enough, Nick resides in West Egg while Tom and Daisy reside in East Egg, this being analogous to where they find their moral values and happiness. You should know about WWI (and its aftermath) because: The war and its devastating after-effects, particularly in Europe, fed into the creation of a new artistic movement: modernism. According to Zeitz, 1920s marked an era in which Americans began to reap from the benefits of increased consumerism (21). Toms unethical conduct is further reflected in several other characters in The Great Gatsby who resort to lying in order to reach success, which ultimately leads to their demise. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Therefore, it is not surprising that the consumerist culture, which Scott Fitzgerald criticizes, had emerged. In fact, it seems that the accident may have brought them closer. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. Gatsbyis now seen as both a product of and a record of the 1920s. WWI was a war of trench warfare, chemical weapons, shrapnel artillery, and other gruesome technologies that had never been seen before. Furthermore, the rest of that quote explicitly describes Daisy as "High in a white palace, the King's daughter, the golden girl" (7.106). In the era of writing The Great Gatsby, cultural conventions, which were perceived as out of date died to usher new ones from1920 to 1930s. 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 levels. Clearly, having old money sets you far apart from everyone else in the world of the novel. He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. In 1921 to 1924, the American GDP grew from $ 69bilion to about 93 billion (Woods 213). Cars are tools of recklessness, danger, and violence - there are several car accidents in the novel, the most notable of which is when Daisy runs Myrtle over and kills her in. | 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. Ask below and we'll reply! In other words, wealth is presented as the key to lovesuch an important key that the word "gold" is repeated twice. For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more! His assumption of Gatsby's illegal activities notwithstanding, Nick has the same expectations of integrity from Gatsby and from other men as he does from himself. The novel includes Nick's anti-Semitic description of a Jewish character - Meyer Wolfshiem. If you understand the history of Prohibition, you'll make better sense of some plot and character details inThe Great Gatsby: Police emptying out confiscated barrels of beer into the sewer. Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: PrepScholar 2013-2018. This pessimism is also reflected in the fates of Myrtle and George, who are both trying to increase their wealth and status in America, but end up dead by the end of the novel. This marked a shift both in how black culture was understood and appreciated by the rest of the country and in how womens rights were progressing, as well discuss in the next sections. Summary. As further proof of Nicks morals, he declines Gatsbys reward for reuniting him with Daisy, a risky business deal that would provide Nick with a surplus of money, as he realizes its faults, and he retains his dignity. Tom's restlessness is likely one motivator for his affairs, while Daisy is weighed down by the knowledge of those affairs. Myrtleboth working class and a womanis thus trapped between a rock (her gender) and a hard place (her lack of money), and perhaps for this reason receives the cruelest treatment of all. Print. "American Culture in the Novel "The Great Gatsby"." As such, theGreat Gatsby era is theperiod in 20th century U.S. history nicknamed both the Roaring 20s and the "Jazz Age." In contrast to 19th century writing that tended to reinforce the status quo, modernism rejected old-fashioned ideas like heroism and moral certitude. This situation created opportunities to satisfy the undying appetite for consumption, opulence, and immorality. Car ownership increased mobility between cities and outer suburban areas, which enabled the wealthy to work in one place but live in another. Materialism led to the increased corruption and breakage of the law at will among the rich in pursuit of money. Set in Jazz Age New York, it tells the tragic story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman whom he loved in his youth. The Great Gatsby Themes Wealth Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Societally, divorce became more common. If George Wilson had had the means, he likely would have already left New York with Myrtle in tow, saving both of their lives. to start your free trial of SparkNotes Plus. Retrieved from https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-culture-in-the-novel-the-great-gatsby/. Thus, possession of material wealth was important for the placement of people in a given social class and status. This situation resulted in corruption of the ideal American dream. Why Did Gatsby Fail to Achieve the American Dream? However, even though Gatsby succeeds in acquiring wealth, he is never accepted by the upper class. When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values have not decayed. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby's ego and self-centered personality . Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan! Jews also served in the American military during World War I in very high numbers. Like his fellow modernists, Fitzgerald was deeply critical of the wealth and capitalist success ushered in by the post-war boom, considering the new obsession with money and status shallow. American Culture in the Novel "The Great Gatsby". Subscribe now. . "American Culture in the Novel "The Great Gatsby"." . But that knowledge doesn't dampen his pursuit of wealthif anything, it makes it even more desirable. He also threw parties now and then, which were equally characterized by high consumptions. student. At the same time, the novel itself critiques the notion of the American Dream. Narrator Nick Carraway is . West Egg residents or new money (Fitzgerald and Bruccoli 54) are perceived by East Egg counterparts as upstart outsiders. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. The second nickname refers to this period's changing social norms and daring artistic movements. (See our brief biography of Fitzgerald to learn more.). In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast.