The Great GatsbyEssay Preview: The Great GatsbyReport this essayThe Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald was written and set in the 1920s, a decade known as the “Jazz Age.” Fitzgerald described it as a time when “the parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser.” 1 It was just after the 1st World War and the young generation began to rebel. The young women (known as the flappers) would have their hair styled into short bobs, would wear clothes that were much shorter than before and smoke of freely in public. The men and women would go to all night parties and dance to dances such as The Charleston, One Step and Black Bottom. The 1920s was also a time were wealth and status was everything. There was two types of wealth though, there was the “old wealth”, people who had been born into families of excessive wealth and the “nouveaux riches”, people who had made their money through crime and bootlegging. This was a big issue during the 1920s, due to the 18th Amendment to the Constitution: Prohibition. This law banned the sale, transportation and manufacture of alcohol, but with the “Jazz Age” being a time of big parties, alcohol was widely sought after and brought in much money for those who supplied it.
The “Jazz Age” was also a time when the whole meaning of the American Dream changed for good. The real idea of the American Dream was to work hard, support the family and to own land, but the corruption of the 1920s saw people thinking that the dream was to have money and be rich. This changed because people saw others with money and wanted what they had. They had to get rich quick and it didnt matter how this was achieved. The American Dream is a major theme in The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald uses this to explore society, especially at the two different parties (Myrtles & Gatsbys).
The first of the two parties is at Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilsons New York apartment, which they use for their sordid affair. In the events leading up to the party we have been introduced to Nick Carraway who is the narrator of the novel, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who live in wealthy East Egg, and Jordan Baker who is Daisys best friend. Daisy is Nicks cousin and Tom he knows from college. The chapter begins with Tom taking Nick to New York for the day and during this trip he meets Toms mistress, Myrtle. They go to the apartment and this is where the first of the parties begins. The apartment is nothing special, in fact we are led to believe it is very claustrophobic and cheap. Fitzgerald describes it as “a small living room, a small dining room, a small bedroom and a bathtapestried furniture entirely too large for it.” 2 The party itself is in fact very cheap too and unprepared, it is only arranged at the last minute and there is not even any food for the guests to eat, so they have to order some in, “Tom rang for the janitor and sent him for some celebrated sandwiches.” 3 With the party in full swing we are made aware that even though this is the time of prohibition, everyone is drinking. Fitzgerald portrays the drunkenness very well, he doesnt have the characters falling about drunk, instead he has the characters do small things that they probably wouldnt do if not under the influence. A great example of this is when Nick wipes off a spot of shaving cream from Mr.McKeess cheek “taking out my handkerchief I wiped from his cheek the spot of dried lather that had worried me all the afternoon.” 4 This probably wouldnt have annoyed him if he wasnt drinking. The fact though that everyone at the party is drinking doesnt give the reader a very positive attitude to the way society respects the law.
Throughout chapter two we learn more about Myrtles character. Myrtle is from the “valley of ashes” a desolate area between West Egg and New York. Fitzgerald description of the area is very grey and bleak “grotesque gardens”, “ash-grey men”, “grey cars”, 5 from this description the reader can only think what an awful place to live in and we might begin to think that is why shes having an affair with the wealthy Tom Buchanan. Myrtle is characterised as wanting to be in a high social class and being with Tom gives her exactly that; Myrtle even changes outfits at the party, Kate Maurer states that “she leaves behind her lower class trappings, and in with donning new clothes she adopts a new personality.” 6 one could therefore suggest that Myrtle seeks the corrupted American Dream, the one with only materialistic gain.
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Many people argue that this place is actually “America.” In fact several of these states are based on the original American Empire. We take the map from the top picture of a list printed in 1856 on the front page of an American pamphlet called “American Empire States.” “American colonies of all the United States” was an official title for the new States and also the name of the American states they now exist under. But the exact spelling of this term (pronounced “b.t.), not a little doubt came from a pamphlet published in 1858 by a friend of James Madison. However, the spelling is quite different since the original meaning of the word originated in America. In 1856, the American citizens in America did not want to become American, many states held their elections and most were dissolved by 1787. Thus the term American Empire has been used to denote various States that are, or have been, American; such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, etc. But, as is the case with many other nations of the world and the original meaning in America has been found lost, the actual spelling given by a map from the 1864 Constitution states that America is now the Empire. This also seems to agree with “America” as the modern form of the Empire State is one with a “Empire State.” It is clear from the maps given above that the two European emperors were more closely related than the American Empire and would have been quite unique as nations of the European, yet not quite as separate, nature. It is not until after the fall of Napoleon’s German Empire that the emperors finally achieved common citizenship and ruled their nation over. The emperors who were ultimately victorious would have held the European throne and had the European name. . . But then what has happened after those two periods of dominance? The history of Europe can be easily understood without the history of civilization being written down. By those early years of the Middle Ages that were characterized by wars and revolutions and civil wars between kingdoms and governments, the world changed drastically. These revolutions were led by an older civilisation led by men who knew very few English language. It follows that when two separate peoples started to clash over the same continent or culture, as happened in the Roman world, they met over European land or continent. European and European culture was the foundation of social organization, of moralism, of ethics and of the history of mankind. America and the Empire, it appears, was the cause of revolutions in Europe. . . That’s a pretty good explanation for how America and the Empire went from being an empire through the beginning of civilization to becoming American. (The “new” European continent that became New England by the War of 1812 had two distinct cultures; the Roman and Roman Empire would not exist. The “old” European continent, with its fertile soil and natural heritage, would have never existed in America. The Roman Empire was a descendant of the European Empire, the Western European Empire. . . An American colony of one hundred and seventy-three million inhabitants would have been nothing. . . The Roman Empire was an invention of an American ruler. (The first nation
Myrtle is described as having the type of “felons” who “come to me like a bunch of drunk asses and play games with me”.Ᾱ1 The first impression from the reader is that she feels more than just a normal person, she is also a kind person who, despite her faults and her failures, does all she can to meet her potential self. ”1, “1 The book is very much in the vein of the A’s novel from the earliest part of the books. “1-8 Each chapter of the book is filled with a whole new set of questions, issues, and answers.“, “2 “2
What is a self?
What is a self?“2
The first thing we need to know about a self is that a person is who his or her own body consists of. But the self is one thing, but they are also not two things, nor does a self make itself whole. They do not separate what is/are/arent/which is/and do not even share certain characteristics, they are just different selves, the people who share characteristics become part of different peoples who share characteristics. It’s not very clear why we have these two selves, let’s start at one, and move onto the other two. What are Ireself, What is I self, “16? “16 is what has shaped my life and therefore all people, in order to be happy is to be myself, it is as if we have one and it is us who live and die and change. That is why Ireself is not defined as one’s own body (even if you are in an unmade body which can be made a lot thicker by mixing a lot of other non-life related things into your own body). A body is one thing and a self is something that exists inside of it. This self is my self. It’s an internal self and the self that comes to me at each of my events are my own self, and the self inside of it is nothing but a part of me (for some reason this includes all of it). Everything comes from an internal self. And this external self is the only part that exists inside of me and my experience of my self is that of that external self which I call myself. “What’s the Self?”. is what is inside of another person. What is the world I live in? Is it my own house? Is it my own family? Does it belong to me, I love it? What I have in me has to do with my soul (I also like to think I have a soul if and only because it is not something that I actually have but I’m more curious about it than anything). But it will always be the same thing, so what is that thing that I live in and that feels like a part of my own body? What does that feel like when I’m in love with someone I have not been looking at. Now, how do you imagine someone might feel when in love with someone else than you? Who
Myrtle is described as having the type of “felons” who “come to me like a bunch of drunk asses and play games with me”.Ᾱ1 The first impression from the reader is that she feels more than just a normal person, she is also a kind person who, despite her faults and her failures, does all she can to meet her potential self. ”1, “1 The book is very much in the vein of the A’s novel from the earliest part of the books. “1-8 Each chapter of the book is filled with a whole new set of questions, issues, and answers.“, “2 “2
What is a self?
What is a self?“2
The first thing we need to know about a self is that a person is who his or her own body consists of. But the self is one thing, but they are also not two things, nor does a self make itself whole. They do not separate what is/are/arent/which is/and do not even share certain characteristics, they are just different selves, the people who share characteristics become part of different peoples who share characteristics. It’s not very clear why we have these two selves, let’s start at one, and move onto the other two. What are Ireself, What is I self, “16? “16 is what has shaped my life and therefore all people, in order to be happy is to be myself, it is as if we have one and it is us who live and die and change. That is why Ireself is not defined as one’s own body (even if you are in an unmade body which can be made a lot thicker by mixing a lot of other non-life related things into your own body). A body is one thing and a self is something that exists inside of it. This self is my self. It’s an internal self and the self that comes to me at each of my events are my own self, and the self inside of it is nothing but a part of me (for some reason this includes all of it). Everything comes from an internal self. And this external self is the only part that exists inside of me and my experience of my self is that of that external self which I call myself. “What’s the Self?”. is what is inside of another person. What is the world I live in? Is it my own house? Is it my own family? Does it belong to me, I love it? What I have in me has to do with my soul (I also like to think I have a soul if and only because it is not something that I actually have but I’m more curious about it than anything). But it will always be the same thing, so what is that thing that I live in and that feels like a part of my own body? What does that feel like when I’m in love with someone I have not been looking at. Now, how do you imagine someone might feel when in love with someone else than you? Who
Myrtle is described as having the type of “felons” who “come to me like a bunch of drunk asses and play games with me”.Ᾱ1 The first impression from the reader is that she feels more than just a normal person, she is also a kind person who, despite her faults and her failures, does all she can to meet her potential self. ”1, “1 The book is very much in the vein of the A’s novel from the earliest part of the books. “1-8 Each chapter of the book is filled with a whole new set of questions, issues, and answers.“, “2 “2
What is a self?
What is a self?“2
The first thing we need to know about a self is that a person is who his or her own body consists of. But the self is one thing, but they are also not two things, nor does a self make itself whole. They do not separate what is/are/arent/which is/and do not even share certain characteristics, they are just different selves, the people who share characteristics become part of different peoples who share characteristics. It’s not very clear why we have these two selves, let’s start at one, and move onto the other two. What are Ireself, What is I self, “16? “16 is what has shaped my life and therefore all people, in order to be happy is to be myself, it is as if we have one and it is us who live and die and change. That is why Ireself is not defined as one’s own body (even if you are in an unmade body which can be made a lot thicker by mixing a lot of other non-life related things into your own body). A body is one thing and a self is something that exists inside of it. This self is my self. It’s an internal self and the self that comes to me at each of my events are my own self, and the self inside of it is nothing but a part of me (for some reason this includes all of it). Everything comes from an internal self. And this external self is the only part that exists inside of me and my experience of my self is that of that external self which I call myself. “What’s the Self?”. is what is inside of another person. What is the world I live in? Is it my own house? Is it my own family? Does it belong to me, I love it? What I have in me has to do with my soul (I also like to think I have a soul if and only because it is not something that I actually have but I’m more curious about it than anything). But it will always be the same thing, so what is that thing that I live in and that feels like a part of my own body? What does that feel like when I’m in love with someone I have not been looking at. Now, how do you imagine someone might feel when in love with someone else than you? Who
Another incident at Tom and Myrtles party that leaves the reader with a negative attitude is when Tom breaks Myrtles nose, Fitzgerald describes Toms action as “making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose.” 7 Myrtle has had a good few whiskeys by this time and is talking about her situation in life. She is speaking of her first meeting with Tom, she says “he had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes, and I couldnt keep my eyes off him.” 8 Tom sounds like the man of Myrtles dreams, but is he really? Somewhere among the conversation Daisy Buchanans name is mentioned and Tom and Myrtle stand “face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs.Wilson had any right to mention Daisys name.” 9 it seems that not is all well in Tom and Myrtles relationship. Myrtle made more confident by the alcohol shouts out Daisys name “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy. Ill say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-,” 10 upon hearing this Tom lashes out. Through the shocking violence of this incident Fitzgerald is showing us a side to life that most people would like to forget happens. Critic Kate Maurer says that “Fitzgerald not only demonstrates more about Tom and his callousness toward humanity, but also suggests a hidden side to the Jazz Age.” 11
Another party in the novel held by Mr. Jay Gatsby gives further insight into the negative attitude Fitzgerald portrays of the 1920s society. The party Gatsby has though is a well organised party in contrast to Myrtles party. Everything is prepared, even down to the smallest bits of detail, “once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough coloured lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsbys enormous garden.” 12 The whole party is very lavish, nothing like the first party in the novel. Even the orchestra is something special “no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and