Good Great Gatsby essay

A detailed Summary of Good Great Gatsby essay

American society during the 1920s was a time of cynicism, loss of values, and was mainly defined by ideological and social battles. World War I was a turning point to society and altered the class structure through ideological reform. After the war, which had been called the war to end all wars by Wilson, people began to lose their sense of ideals resulting from disillusions of the true purpose of the war. This marked the disappearance of faith and common values such as American Dream, the age-old ideal that had so far been the key to America's success, the ideal of working hard to achieve goals, and the replacement of material wealth for spiritual ideals and morals.

The traditionalists, who acquired money through legal means and still retained a strict sense of morality, were reluctant to accept the modernists into their society because they seemed jaded by corruption of materialism. The modernists were the group of people who as a result of their disbelief in morals and values had become dependent on money rather than the betterment of their souls spiritually. The modern aristocrat was characterized by using money as power and by giving in to greed and carefree lives. The main conflict in society was of money

overpowering morality or modernists against traditionalists. Most of the other parts of society had not been caught up in the new fervor of corruption and were still living the American Dream. These people were suppressed by the dominant modern, urban society in which they were ignored by the fast paced, elite upper class. The Great Gatsby examines this dominant society and through the characters that represent the urban society, it portrays subtly criticizes and encourages change in this society. The Great Gatsby as a whole was a great social insight and documentation of the life and ideals of the 1920s. It could be a warning of the dismal future of society if people did not recover their ideals and values and repair the rifts in society caused by competition between different perspectives of morality.

The two deaths at the end, Gatsby and Wilson, symbolize the death of the American Dream. Gatsby's illegal money and drive to impress Daisy once met with false hope led to his downfall from hero. His character showed how the American dream had been distorted by modern society. Wilson, similarly, was goal-oriented, therefore being unable to succeed in society. In a similar situation to Wilson, Gatsby for instance stood in the background at his own parties because his ideals did not fit into this empty world. The difference between the carefree and the dreamers was that most of the dreamers worked toward the future and accepted the past, which the others were trying to escape. Gatsby seems to be a perfect character, carefully planning his actions, though dishonestly, but his flaw is that he chooses to ignore the past and change it to build himself to what he is not: "Can't rewrite the past! Why of course you can!" With Gatsby's realization that his dream is false, he realized that his life was built completely on a false foundation and once it fell his entire life was destroyed with nothing such as his past to support him.

Gatsby's inability to succeed in his goal showed that in this time without some dishonest ways survival was difficult. The Wilsons portray this best because they were a reality of hard workers thus representing the poor working class. This group of people also held on to the American Dream and therefore could not succeed in the society of the day. Even though the Wilsons were poor and could never be accepted into the elite society, Myrtle's affair with Tom shows that people wanted to be recognized by this upper class because of its dominance and this need for acceptance eventually causes her and her husband to lose their lives, ending any dreams or ideals to better themselves.

The Great Gatsby focuses main

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Dream, Jazz Age, Daisy Tom, Wilson Gatsby, Jazz Age-frivolous, Island Nick, Jay Gatsby, World War, Dream Gatsby's, Fitzgerald Fitzgerald, american dream, daisy tom, jay gatsby, society 1920s, urban society, modern society, rich daisy tom, elite rich, rich daisy, class gatsby, money power, american dream move,

Approximate Word count = 1784
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels