Great Gatsby :: essays papers

Great GatsbyThe great gatsby and the fall of the american dream.The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was an icon of itstime. The book discusses topics that were important, controversial andinteresting back in 1920s America. The novel is an exploration of theAmerican Dream as it exists in a corrupt cessation of history. The mainthemes in the book are the decay of morals and value and thefrustration of a modern society. The Great Gatsby describes the decayof the American Dream and the sine qua non for gold and materialism. Thisnovel also describes the gap between the rich and the lamentable (Gatsby andthe Wilsons, westside Egg and the Valley of the Ashes) by comparing thedifferences between the westerly United States (traditional westernculture) and the Eastern United States (m wholenessy obsessed values). On asmaller scale this could be seen as the difference between the West Egg(the new, money) and the East egg (the old money). The 1920s werea time of corruption a nd the adulteration of moral values for the UnitedStates and many other countries. World warfare One had just eradicateed andpeople were reveling in the materialism that came with the end of it,new mass produced commodities such as motor cars and radios werefilling peoples drive focuss and houses, money was more accessible(before the Great Depression). Cars were becoming a social figure inthe 1920s as we can see with Gatsbys five cars, one of which he givesto Nick and one of which kills Myrtle Wilson later on in the novel.Herbert Hoover (an American President) said in 1925 We will root give awaypoverty and put two cars in every garage. The parties that Gatsby heldevery week in the summer were a symbol of the carelessness of the time.Gatsby would hide in the house while the guests, most of whom werenot however invited, would party, eat and racket until the early hours ofthe morning without even meeting the guest or even knowing who he was.People would turn up just to be seen or reported in the localnewspapers In his blue tend people came and went like moths amongthe whisperings and the champagne. This shows the carelessness of theguests. Another quote about the parties refers to the way the guestsdevour the endless supply of food and never give a thought as to whogave it to them. Every Friday five crates of oranges and Lemonsarrived from a fruiterer In in the altogether York- Every Monday these same oranges