Characteristics Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Chuck Palahniuk once said in his novel Haunted,Thats the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the protagonist is a man named Gatsby who is accustomed to the party lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties. The novel follows a group of people living in a fictional town known as West Egg and East Egg.The two towns represent old money and new money. Jay Gatsby overcomes his poor upbringing and earns an enormous amount of money only to be rejected by the old money people. No one really knew Gatsby, so people created terrible rumors about him, but Gatsby was just a man attempting to reconcile with the love of his life. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel said,†¦show more content†¦The Roaring Twenties was known for its parties, however, it caused a lot more trouble than a reason for celebration.The flapper was known as one of the most remembered symbols from the Roaring Twenties; a young woman with short hair who wore short skirts, and drank, this type of woman was known to go against what society expected of them. Women in the 1920s had gained more freedom at last and were finally able to vote. A big influence during the 1920s was The Jazz Age, and new inventions were being introduced rapidly. A significant conflict during the 1920s was Prohibition, and everyone was participating in the corruption of the twenties (Churchwell). The decade where World War I ended and the Great Depression started is known by many names, and people often forget that there is more to the name. In an article by Earl Rovit, he talks about the Twenties and how much has changed and whether or not there are certain distinctions between genres. In his article for Johns Hopkins he wrote, American culture shifted gears dramatically in the twenties, moving from horse and bicycle-pedal power to thrust of the internal combustion engine, even as America itself shuddered into an amazed sense of its newly legitimiz ed position of comparative strength-commercially, industrially, technologically, and militarily-in the world (116). The American Dream is associated with the Twenties, but what exactly is the American Dream? The American Dream isShow MoreRelatedExamples of Modernism in Fitzgeralds Great Gatsby Essay1070 Words   |  5 Pages Great Gatsby Essay The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows many examples of modernism. Fitzgerald shows many modernism techniques like loss of control, alienation, corruption of the American Dream, breaking society’s rules and feeling restless. 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