Does F.Scott Fitzgerald Accurately Portray The 1920s in The Great Gatsby?

Isaac Atayero

Mr. Geary

English 2 Honors: Section 3

23 February 2011

   The 1920s otherwise known as the Jazz Age is a time of moral decay and enjoyment for Americans. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American novel, The Great Gatsby is about Nick Carraway a young man from the Midwest who moves to the East and adapts to its fast paced and glamorous lifestyle. Fitzgerald accurately portrays elements of the Jazz Age in his American novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through corruption by using characters such as Jay Gatsby and Meyer Wolfsheim in the novel. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through greed by using the characters Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through lack of spirituality by using the characters Gatsby, Tom and Myrtle Wilson. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through the constant pursuit of pleasure by using the characters Gatsby, Tom Buchanan and Myrtle. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through the attainment of wealth by using characters Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan.

   Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through corruption by using characters such as Jay Gatsby and Meyer Wolfsheim in the novel. During the 1920s “the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, attempted to get rid of alcohol. Instead of ending the use of alcohol, “Prohibition prompted the growth of organized crime” (123helpme.com).Wolfsheim, a gangster who mentors Gatsby, teaches Gatsby to become rich by setting up drug stores at which they sell liquors as “bootleggers”( 96). At the time of the Jazz Age bootlegging was considered a crime and bootleggers are known for trying to sell liquor at “speaksies, where illegal alcohol was plentiful” (Applebee). Just like many other actual bootleggers and gangsters at the time, Gatsby and Wolfsheim become wealthy through this mean of corruption. 

  During the 1920s “corruption was rampant; gangsters flourished with the profits from the sale of illegal alcohol” (Applebee).Fitzgerald uses Wolfsheim to accurately portray the corruption of the Jazz Age by causing Nick to chronicle Wolfsheim as “the man who fixed the World Series in 1919” (70). Gambling is another means of corruption that takes place in the Jazz Age that Fitzgerald truthfully portrays in The Great Gatsby by means of Meyer Wolfsheim. The World Series in 1919 is an actual event between two highly competitive teams but “the 1919 World Series was … fixed” (Everstine).According to Brewley’s research The Great Gatsby is an exploration of the American dream as it exists in a corrupt period (38). Fitzgerald accurately portrays this corruption by using an actual event that takes place during the 1920s in The Great Gatsby. After investigation one can concur Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby by means of corruption.

  Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through greed by using the characters Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. During the 1920s “the economy began to turn around” (Abel) and Americans felt the need to have more than they actually need. Daisy, the love interest of Gatsby, loves money and Gatsby even says that “her voice is full of money” (120). Daisy stays with her unfaithful husband because of his money and Gatsby becomes rich because he feels the only way to win Daisy is by becoming rich. Fitzgerald portrays the women of the Jazz age correctly using Daisy to state that “all they think about is money” (31). Myrtle Wilson shows her greed quite often in The Great Gatsby whenever she purchases something. When she leaves the New York train station, she sees an old man selling dogs and she instantly asks for a police dog. The man tells her he only has an Airedale and that the coat is water-proof, but she still wants to buy it. Myrtle, like Daisy, uses Tom to get anything they want and they always want more. The women of the Jazz Age, like Daisy and Myrtle, feel they had to look like “silver idols” (115)because there are “pressures placed on women to conform” (Applebee 994)  so they “marry men for their money” (Buhle 87) not really for love. Upon investigation, the reader can agree that Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby by using the topic of greed.

  Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through lack of spirituality by using the characters Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. Nick chronicles Gatsby throwing “gleaming, dazzling parties” (171) every weekend for people to come and drink and dance without a care in the world. These parties are an example of people doing things and not caring about religious or moral values. During the 1920s “late night jazz parties seem to be normal” (123helpme.com) just like in The Great Gatsby. To further emphasize on the lack of spirituality during the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald causes Nick to chronicle about “the billboard in the valley of ashes” (Maurer). This billboard represents the eyes of God in the book and being in the land of ashes shows that “religion is forgotten by the lost generation” (Glen).Another example of moral blindness is Tom’s public extramarital affair with Myrtle Wilson. This affair shows lust and the fact that the affair is public shows that “the community, as a whole, refuses to condemn unlawful activity and wrongdoings” (Maurer).After the war a lot of things did not make sense to Americans and all the traditional teachings begin to seem outdated. Americans did not believe in the old ways anymore and they feel like they need to rebel against the old ways by becoming less religious. In an address to Ernest Hemmingway about the lack of spirituality of the Jazz Age, Gertrude Stein says “you are all a lost generation”. Americans during the Jazz Age have too much enjoyment to care about spirituality and Fitzgerald portrays this accurately in The Great Gatsby.

  Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through the constant pursuit of pleasure by using the characters Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson in the novel. Applebee and his fellow senior consultants believe that during the 1920s there is an “economical growth, technological advancement and new ways to have fun” (992). According to Applebee and his fellow senior consultants, many Americans during this time do things because they have more money and more things to buy (992) and the same thing happens in The Great Gatsby. The characters in The Great Gatsby do many things for the pursuit of pleasure which lead to sin and moral decay. Tom Buchanan has extramarital affairs with Myrtle Wilson who is also a married woman for pleasure. Tom confesses to his adultery when he says “once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself” (251). Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s house and parties to accurately portray the pursuit of pleasure going on during the 1920s. Gatsby builds a mansion which Nick chronicles as an “amusement park” (41) just to get closer to Daisy. Daisy represents Gatsby’s pleasure and in pursuit of her he builds an extravagant mansion and hosts very elaborate parties every weekend. One can also see Gatsby’s weekly parties as an example of pursuit of pleasure that leads to moral decay and sin. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s by incorporating the constant pursuit of happiness that happens during the time.

  Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through the attainment of wealth by using characters Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan in the novel. Americans during the 1920s have more money than they need so they spent a lot new inventions such as cars. After the war, America experiences an economical bloom through which the rich get richer. For Americans “in the 1920s the United States became a modern middle-class economy of radios, consumer appliances, automobiles and suburbs” (DeLong). Due to his wealth, Nick chronicles that Gatsby throws very extravagant parties at which “his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city” (39). Gatsby’s parties portray to the reader the kinds of parties that the wealthy during the 1920s would have. Tom also shows his wealth when he buys the dog for Myrtle at “an inflated price” (Donaldson 28) and says to the man “here’s your money, go buy ten more dogs with it” (28).Not only do Tom’s actions show a sign of wastefulness but it also shows how wealthy and careless people during the time are. After much research, Bewley believes that Fitzgerald perfectly understood the …view of wealth (39).Fitzgerald accurately portrays Americans in the 1920s accurately through wealth in The Great Gatsby.

  The 1920s, also known as the Roaring Twenties, is a time of moral deficiency and great fun for residents of the United States. In F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s American novel The Great Gatsby, he accurately portrays the times. In his genius work, Fitzgerald attempts to represent the time as it existed; and many scholars agree it is a success. One can agree that Fitzgerald correctly portrays the 1920s in his novel through corruption, greed, lack of spirituality, the constant pursuit of happiness and the attainment of wealth.

          

 

Works Cited

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Bloom, Harold, ed. “F. Scott Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby: Modern Critical Interpretations”. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2004. Print.

Bewley, Marius. "Scott Fitzgerald's Criticism of America." 1954. Ed. Arthur Mizener. F. Scott Fitzgerald : A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall, 1963. Print.

Buhle, Mari Jo. Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1981. Print.

DeLong, Brad. "The Roaring Twenties." Brad DeLong's Website Home Page. University of California at Berkeley; Berkeley, CA, 2 Feb. 1997. Web. 02 Mar. 2011.

Donaldson, Scott. "Possessions in The Great Gatsby." Ed. Harold Bloom. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004. Print.

Everstine, Eric W,. "1919 World Series: Black Sox Scandal." Montgomerycollege.edu. Montgomery College, 1998. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

"The Expatriates of the 1920's :: American America History." Free Essays, Term Papers, Research Paper, and Book Report. 2000. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Gatsby and the Jazz Age :: Great Gatsby Essays." Free Essays, Term Papers, Research Paper, and Book Report. Company, 2000. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Fussell, Edwin. "Fitzgerald's Brave New World." 1952. F. Scott Fitzgerald : A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Arthur Mizener. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall,, 1963. 43-56. Print.

 Glen, Abel. "The Harding/Coolidge Prosperity of the 1920's." Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

 "Greed in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays." Free Essays, Term Papers, Research Paper, and Book Report. Company, 2000. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Works Cited

Maurer, Kate. "The Portrayal of 1920s Society in The Great Gatsby." Associated Content from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com. Yahoo Inc. Web. 25 Feb. 2011. 

 Wanning, Andrew. "Fitzgerald And His Brethren." 1945. F. Scott Fitzgerald : A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall,, 1963. Print.