Great Gatsby Analysis

In the society which F. Scott Fitzgerald creates in the pages of Great Gatsby, there are many people who are trying to accumulate wealth for the sole reason of having money for themselves. They do it for personal gains. In the case of Jay Gatsby, he dabbled in illegal bond trading and drug stores in order to make money and to throw lavish parties. All this for the hope that one day his true love, Daisy, would happen to come over and they could get back together. He gives up his entire life only to end in failure pursuing his dream of getting back together with the woman he loved. This helps us understand the type of people who were prevalent in the society of the 1920's

The 1920's in American history were known as the roaring 20's due to the economic prosperity of the time period. People threw lavish parties and bought things that they did not need in order to impress their fellow man. Jay Gatsby is an example of a self-made man during this epoch. Another commonly used phrase to describe these people is, the nouveau riche. These people were not of old money and wanted to prove to people that they were somebody. These people were very materialistic and spent much of their money to show off this new found wealth. Gatsby was no exception. He was a self-made man through and through. He used side street drugstores to illegally sell moonshine to people. He was friends with people who would not hesitate to kill a man if meant that he would make money off of it. This is shown by the cufflinks on Meyer Wolfsheim's shirt, which were human teeth. People did not care about how they achieved their wealth, they only cared if they had it. The American Dream during this time period was that everybody could start off as a nobody, but end up becoming rich and famous. Many people tried to live this rag to riches style of life, but few succeeded. If the people who became rich donated their money to good causes, they would not be shallow and empty. In this case, the people did not...