The Jazz Age and the American Dream: Scott Fitzergalds The Great Gatsby

The decade of the 1920s in the United States was defined as the Jazz Age or The Roaring Twenties, terms with
positive connotations referring to a period of economic prosperity and social, artistic and cultural dynamism. In this
period jazz music blossomed, normalcy returned to politics after World War I, a new kind of woman was born, the
flapper, mass culture and consumerism flourished and technology developed, and corruption and organized crime
widespread.
The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity and a
break with traditions. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. However, the Wall Street Crash of
1929 put an end to the happy years and made way for the Great Depression.
In political terms, the 20s were characterized by a return to normalcy and stability after the Great War, with three
republican presidents throughout the decade. The US government had a limited role in international affairs, they didnt
want to spend more money in wars. Also, the government supported rich people and cut taxes for the wealthy,
however, there were no protection for individuals and the poor classes became unprotected. In addition, it was a period
of peace and economic prosperity in which consumerism and industry flourished.
In social terms, it was a period of inequality, corruption and organized crime, in which social, racial and religious
fundamentalism increased. Through the prohibition of the 10th amendment of the US constitution from 1920 to 1933
the public sale of alcohol was prohibited. Consequently, speakeasies, the ones who found the way to commerce with
alcohol illegally, became wealthy and gangsters monopolized the selling of beverages. Apart from that, other illegal
activities became frequent, specially gambling (black sox scandal).
The new woman, the flapper. There was a generational gap between the "new" women of the 1920s and the previous
generation of Victorian mothers. The "new" woman was less invested in social service than before, in tune with
the capitalistic spirit of the era, and ready to compete and to find personal fulfillment. They achieved the right to vote,
their working conditions improved, were sexually liberated, interested in fashion and tried to enjoy themselves.
The 20s were the decade of the birth of consumerism and mass culture;
Mass production made technology affordable to the middle class and new inventions such as electricity, the car, the
radio, the television or magazines promoted the expansion of culture. The automobile, movie and radio
industries skyrocketed during the 1920s. Of chief importance was the automobile industry. Before the war, cars were a
luxury. In the 1920s, mass-produced vehicles became common throughout the U.S.
Radio and TV advertising became the grandstand for mass marketing. Its economic importance led to the mass
culture that has dominated society since. It was the time of mass marketing and advertisement in which big billboards
were all around the cities, as Dr. T.J. Eckleburgs eyes in The Great Gatsby.
The literature of the 20s: The Lost Generation.
The "Lost Generation" refers to a sense of moral loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s, a
disillusioned postwar generation characterized by lost values, lost belief in the idea of human progress, and a mood of
futility and despair leading to hedonism.
After war, their faith in the moral guideposts that had earlier given them hope, were no longer valid...they were "Lost."
Although the term originally referred to the survivors of the war who had been unable to settle back into the routines
of peacetime life, writers adopted it to refer to the whole anonymous horde of young Americans abroad, particularly
those with literary or artistic inclinations. These authors wrote novels and short stories expressing their resentment
towards the materialism and individualism rampant during this era. Some of the most important members of the lost
generation were Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot or F. Scott Fitzgerald.
F. Scott Fitzgerald: life and works
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Minnesota, he was educated in a catholic school, and after leaving University
without graduating he joined the army but was discharged in 1919. He earned recognition as a writer with This Side of
Paradise and became affluent thanks to his play The Vegetable in 1922. He married Zelda Sayre in 1920 and they had
a problematic relationship, in addition, Fitzgerald became an alcoholic, and it is documented that he always wrote
sober and that alcohol became a major part of his life.

Zelda developed mental disorder and by 1931 Fitzgeralds writing became an off and on practice because he was
taking care of his wife, eventually they divorced in 1936. In 1937 he signed with MGM studios in Hollywood and
continued writing until 1938, two years before his death in 1940.
Fitzgerald thought that he was a failure, not good enough to be a writer, moreover he was unstable and tormented. He
became more recognized post-humously, and his novel The Great Gatsby published in 1924 has secured him a place in
American History being called the example that defines the classic American novel.

-American dream:
The American dream is a material and spiritual aspiration, an ideal of freedom and progress towards an economic and
spiritual improvement. Gatsby is a self-made man, but he has achieved the material side of the American dream but
not the spiritual, he is not happy. In fact, Gatsby undertakes the incredible task of reinvent himself into a wealthy man
not for the material side itself, but in order to achieve the spiritual side of his American dream by being accepted in the
society of the golden girl of his dreams, his beloved Daisy, in order to recuperate her, to recuperate the old values of
life and to relive the past.
Dramatically, Gatsby achieves the material side but not the spiritual side, so he does not achieve the American dream
because in the early 20th century life was futile and dreams were unattainable and moreover, those who achieve the
material American dream of wealthy are corrupted or morally decadent. It is impossible to relive the past and old
values, our world is a moral waste land.
The novel is an attack to the American dream and its corruption. The American dream is based on the equilibrium
between materialism and spiritualism, but in the society in which the novel takes place, the latter is eclipsed by the
predominance of wealth.
-Binary oppositions:
The memory of the Great War, after the war the old ideas of Americanness have vanished. The happy, carpe-diem
environment of the 1920s is criticized because of consumerism and materialism, characters try to enjoy themselves as
to forget the dead of the war.

-Chivalric narrative and Arthurian imagery and motifs

Gatsby is nostalgic for the past, he is inspired by old idealistic values that class with the modern world. He thinks the
past was better, it is ideal and the present is corrupted and in decadence, a waste land. He wants to repeat the past.
This is related to the Arthurian myths and legends. Gatsby is the unworthy grail quester and Daisy the unworthy
embodiment of the grail. Dr Eckleburg eyes watches the moral waste land which is the society of the 20s in which the
novel takes place. Daisy is an unworthy embodiment of the grail because he betrays Gatsby at the end and she is only
concerned about money and social class. Gatsby cannot reach the grail so he cannot regenerate the waste land. Two
wealthy men are struggling to buy her, Tom and Gatsby, because the only way to have access to her is by means of
wealthy. Gatsby comes from a poor family with humble origins so he creates an ideal version of himself, he struggles
to become perfect in order to achieve Daisy, the grail. This is like in Arthurian legends, a hero in search of the rebirth
and regeneration, a moral wasteland has to be reborn.
Main symbols:

-The green light: the green light which appears in chapters 1, 5 and 9 functions at many levels in the sense that it
carries different meanings throughout the novel. Throughout the course of the narration, the green light functions as a
symbol of Gatsbys promising future, of Daisy and Gatsbys dream of recuperating her, as the green breast of the New
World, as money or as springtime.
The green light is located at the end of Daisys dock so Gatsby is able to see it from his mansion on the other side. For
him, the green light represents his dream incarnated in Daisy, which is his American dream of recovering her.

It is green, a color which represents hope, promise and renewal, so it also symbolizes Gatsbys hope to obtain his holy
grail, to recover daisy, achieve his American dream and go back to the past. Nevertheless, it also symbolizes Gatsby
impossibility to achieve his American dream and revive the past, because the light is always far away. His dream is a
light, unattainable. Eventually, Gatsbys dream is tarnished by the great tendency towards material possessions, the
green light is eclipsed by materialism.
Additionally, in the final chapter the green light is compared to the green breast of the new world, so Gatsbys dream
of recovering and rediscovering Daisy are related to the first settlers of America and the promise of a new continent,
of a new world.

-The valley of ashes:

The valley of ashes is first introduced in chapter 2, it is located between West Egg and New York. It is described as
grey land and spasm of bleak dust, created by the dumping of industrial dust.
Symbolically, the valley of ashes represents the moral and social decadence of the society of the 20s in which
materialism, individualism and transitory pleasures dominated.
Also, it represents the negative effects of industrialization and the plight of the poor. This is represented in George
Wilson, who lives among the dirty ashes and loses vitality accordingly, both physically (because of the industrial
remains) and morally (because of the decadence of humanity who gave birth for such a place).
Stylistically, it is worth mentioning that the location of the valley of ashes (west) and its inhabitants, are described in a
similar way: blind, spiritless, and anemic, in relation to the moral and social decay.
Moreover, throughout the novel, wealthy characters are forced to cross the valley of ashes several times in order to
move from one place to another, so the valley of ashes can also be interpreted as an advice or warning to those people,
an invitation to see the consequences of their social and moral decadence, of their materialistic and individualistic
behavior and think about it, which never happens.
-The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg
The eyes of doctor T.J Eckleburg are located in a billboard in the valley of ashes. It is an advert created by an oculist, a
gigantic picture showing two eyes with no face, in order to attract more clients and earn more money.
The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, is one of the most important symbols in The Great Gatsby, used to represent the
moral decadence and death of spirituality in the 20s, and it is related to the eyes of God and the death of God.
Fitzgerald uses the symbol of the eyes to represent God looking and judging the American waste land of the 20s.
There is a parallelism between the advert of the oculist and the eyes of God in order to symbolize that God is dead, he
is blind and need glasses because he doesnt do anything about social injustice and decadence.
It is a way of criticizing rich people and their moral emptiness and materialism because it is an advert with the aim of
achieving wealthy located in a very poor and decadent place, in order to make people realize about the consequences
of the roaring twenties and materialistic behavior.
-Gatsbys car:
It is a symbol for Gatsbys economic success in life in order to show how much money he has. It symbolizes that
Gatsby is a self made man who has achieved the American dream, and that that American dream is corrupted and lacks
morality, it is only concerned with money and appearances.
Also, it represents the shallow mentality of people in the 1920s, their excesses and waste of money. In addition, it
symbolizes the dominance of materialism and consumerism in that period, in which what you bought created your
identity.

All this, also symbolizes the corruption and moral decadence that made the world a waste land from which we havent
recovered, because Gatsbys car will lead him to tragedy and death.

Literary devices: point of view and narration

Point of view: