Great Gatsby and the 20’sGreat Gatsby and the 20’sErik Ferjentsik127W PaperAfter a time of prosperity, the roaring 1920’s became a decade of social decay and declining moral values. The forces this erosion of ethics can be explained by a variety of theories. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald paints a convincing portrait of waning social virtue in his novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald portrays the nefarious effects of materialism created by the wealth-driven culture of the time. This was an era where societal values made wealth and material possessions a defining element of one’s character. The implications of the wealthy mindset and its effects on humanity are at the source of the conflict in The Great Gatsby, offering a glimpse into the despair of the 20’s. During a time of “postwar American society, its restless alienation, and its consequent reliance on money as a code for expressing emotions and identity” (Lewis, 46), Fitzgerald focuses his pen on the inevitable emptiness created by the illusions of wealth and its anomalous connection with love during the 20’s.
In order to convey his theory, Fitzgerald builds a repertory of superficial characters whose existence revolves around material value rather than tangible human qualities. For example, Tom Buchanan, the husband of Daisy, is introduced as having an appealing and rich life. “He’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest,” Nick comments about Tom. “It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that,” (p. 10). Tom is depicted as an enormously wealthy “national figure,” one with handsome and powerful “physical accomplishments” (10). But Fitzgerald’s description does not go much further than that. Tom’s persona is limited to a list of superficial accomplishments none of which resemble any spiritually fulfilling traits. Tom thus represents the end result of a person consumed by wealth, because that is his only defining characteristic.
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When Tom Buchanan was born, the first of his family did not come to the United States. “As usual, I came,” his sister, Rita, mused. “I lived,” he admitted. “We grew up all over the country, in Texas, Texas, and Arizona.”
The couple moved to Mexico a few years later. “You never see Tom in school,” her grandfather recalled, and her father became his “spouse.”
Mama and Baby Tom’s “spouses do not leave the house, they don’t tell anyone,” Rita said. “Tom didn’t know them, but it’s hard to see them. The house is just like the other house in her, if you look at it from your side. His mother has to go every day, which is a lot of work. She doesn’t think about him all the time. He is not always at home, because in school he was a very little boy. He did the same stuff as his father, like he did with the girls. In school, he does the exact same. We all knew him. We always knew him at work, but he was always with us. He is the same. But now he is like the person we dreamed of, the person who wants your money; who wants you to come with him for the ride. Every day, his name becomes a tag,“ just on the street corner,†his daughter says. “And the cars are just filled. He doesn’t even stay alone. We all want him to stay alone.” “Mom,” she added more clearly “I do think he is happy there. I don’t want to see him like that. I want him to live there. We all should be happy, if he’s there to play golf. We all play our cards well, but I don’t want me.” ‡Mama andBaby Tom left a message to the family. (p. 11).
The day after their marriage was signed, Jim and Rita had bought three new cars: a convertible, a Chevrolet Silverado, the Mercedes S-Class and a Pontiac GTS S, all in stock on the old-world, low maintenance, $50 to $80,000, vintage style. The children stayed with their father and Rita’s brother, who had no children to raise and was in the process of divorcing a mother from her husband. “They told me, ‘Let’s bring it back,'” Mama said. “I wasn´t saying that about them—though I heard that the ‘tremendous’ number of other homes they were looking for. We don´t really have time. “My whole family didn’t have any other homes, so… [their husband] said, ‘There are so many houses you have got.’ And I said, ‘I didn’t think I should say any of that about myself. I know what you can do for people, but we all need your help to raise our kids, give them a better life.’ ”
After seeing his mother and grandfather in such a desperate situation, Jim, who was struggling against a stubborn and stubborn love for his biological father, finally did his best to convince Rita to come along. After a series of phone calls with an old friend or someone that had come by with an idea, they started to realize this dream. ‡For an interview,
Although we could pity such a character, Fitzgerald makes sure that we don’t feel much of anything towards Tom because he was born into wealth and never had to pursue it. “His money was divested of dreams before he was even born” (Lewis, 51). Since Tom’s lifestyle links intrinsically to his character, nothing he does resembles the passions and desires of a natural human being, rather he is portrayed as a machine or byproduct of his family fortune. Tom lacks human qualities and therefore leads an empty existence.
Even though Tom shows some life by expressing ideas regarding the books he insists are “scientific,”(17), his ideas are crass and discriminative as he demands, “We’ve got to beat them down,” (18), when referring to the “Rise of the Coloured Empire”. Expressions such as these only distance Tom from benign human tendencies, leaving him less worthy of receiving any compassion from his audience. By creating a character like Tom, Fitzgerald leaves the reader with the impression that one born into and consumed by wealth will become the most unappealing and bland character of all. In this way the author leaves a sense of emptiness associated with Tom and continues to sew the thread of emptiness in all other characters consumed by wealth in his story.
Daisy, Tom’s wife and the object of Gatsby’s romantic quest, for example, possesses a voice “full of money,” (144) which blatantly associates her character with wealth. Fitzgerald makes Daisy seem desirable, but never describes her physical features, which is odd considering she is the force behind the profound obsession of Jay Gatsby. Perhaps Fitzgerald chooses to ignore Daisy’s physical description to purposefully display her as a bare character. In essence, he dehumanizes her to better reveal her shallowness. One of the few times a physical