The Road As The Decay Of The American Dream In Fitzgerald S The Great Gatsby

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 15,5, University of Avignon (Facult de philosophie, arts et lettres), course: English Literature - In-Depth Study Of A Theme, language: English, abstract: Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was published in New York in 1925. Those years in America, the 1920s, are often considered as the Roaring Twenties: a decade of great social change, a decade of jazz, an age of success and American Dream, an age of everything. The American Dream is often described as the aspiration of young Americans to live better than their parents: without war, poverty and misfortune but with love, wealth and happiness. In fact after World War I many Americans wished to return to the peaceful time they had before the war. During the 1920s, Americans focused on building economic prosperity and most people focused on the present with little concern for the future: life became easier and more enjoyable. Unfortunately, this age of prosperity, complete independence, self-reliance and opportunity quickly became an age of downfall: in order to pursue this utopia, people were asked to work harder. In consequence they could not prosper themselves but only endured. Fitzgerald condemns this American society of the 1920s that has lost its pursuit of progress for happiness to finally become purely materialistic and corrupt. In this essay, I will deal with the road from the Midwest to New York City and the road from West Egg to East Egg both exemplifying the decay of the American Dream, personified by the characters of Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway, as there is a strong relationship in the novel between the geography of the roads and the characters' social values. On the one hand is the journey of Nick Carraway coming from the Midwest and going to New York City where he discovers corruption and immorality. On the other hand we find the road Jay Gatsby is following to be accepted among the wealthie

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 15,5, University of Avignon (Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres), course: English Literature - In-Depth Study Of A Theme, language: English, abstract: Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published in New York in 1925. Those years in America, the 1920s, are often considered as the Roaring Twenties: a decade of great social change, a decade of jazz, an age of success and American Dream, an age of everything. The American Dream is often described as the aspiration of young Americans to live better than their parents: without war, poverty and misfortune but with love, wealth and happiness. In fact after World War I many Americans wished to return to the peaceful time they had before the war. During the 1920s, Americans focused on building economic prosperity and most people focused on the present with little concern for the future: life became easier and more enjoyable. Unfortunately, this age of prosperity, complete independence, self-reliance and opportunity quickly became an age of downfall: in order to pursue this utopia, people were asked to work harder. In consequence they could not prosper themselves but only endured. Fitzgerald condemns this American society of the 1920s that has lost its pursuit of progress for happiness to finally become purely materialistic and corrupt. In this essay, I will deal with the road from the Midwest to New York City and the road from West Egg to East Egg both exemplifying the decay of the American Dream, personified by the characters of Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway, as there is a strong relationship in the novel between the geography of the roads and the characters’ social values. On the one hand is the journey of Nick Carraway coming from the Midwest and going to New York City where he discovers corruption and immorality. On the other hand we find the road Jay Gatsby is following to be accepted among the wealthiest and to be loved by Daisy. This road, from West Egg to East Egg, represents the movement from solemnity and honesty to obsession of class and privilege. I wish to show that these two roads epitomize the decay of the American Dream: through two main characters of the novel and in two different ways that we will discover in this essay, the two roads or journeys that are followed by these two characters start from a point of moral prosperity to move them towards a state of moral decay: Gatsby more profoundly than the Nick. This essay will be twofold: the first part will concern the road from West Egg to East Egg that Jay Gatsby follows while the second part will deal with the road of Nick Carraway: the road from the Midwest to New York City.

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

A beautifully illustrated version of the original 1925 edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic Great American novel. Widely considered to be the greatest American novel of all time, The Great Gatsby is the story of the wealthy, quixotic Jay Gatsby and his obsessive love for debutante Daisy Buchanan. It is also a cautionary tale of the American Dream in all its exuberance, decadence, hedonism, and passion. First published in 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons, The Great Gatsby sold modestly and received mixed reviews from literary critics of the time. Upon his death in 1940, Fitzgerald believed the book to be a failure, but a year later, as the U.S. was in the grips of the Second World War, an initiative known as Council on Books in Wartime was created to distribute paperbacks to soldiers abroad. The Great Gatsby became one of the most popular books provided to regiments, with more than 100,000 copies shipped to soldiers overseas. By 1960, the book was selling apace and being incorporated into classrooms across the nation. Today, it has sold over 25 million copies worldwide in 42 languages. This exquisitely rendered edition of the original 1925 printing reintroduces readers to Fitzgerald's iconic portrait of the Jazz Age, complete with specially commissioned illustrations by Adam Simpson that reflect the gilded splendor of the Roaring Twenties.

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject American Studies - Literature, Southern Connecticut State University, language: English, abstract: The main originality of Fitzgerald's oeuvre lies in the fact that the American writer was a representative of the "Jazz age." Fitzgerald not only described an entire era, fixing it in various literary works, but he himself became its "cultural hero"; he showed the ambiguity of the "American dream" phenomenon. The novel The Great Gatsby shows that pursuit of American dream forgetting about its original foundations, about moral values, and even own personality leads to moral degradation, frustration, and the destruction of false illusions.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2.0, University of Duisburg-Essen (Anglophone Studies), course: A Survey of American Literature, language: English, abstract: This paper aims at providing an analysis of the American Dream with regard to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel "The Great Gatsby" from 1925. It will present an examination of whether the pursuit of happiness and freedom or the pursuit of success and wealth has a higher importance in the novel. By taking this issue into account, the change of the American Dream will be examined. Hence, each section will concentrate on the question whether the pursuit of happiness and freedom or the pursuit of success and wealth lead to a change in American society. First of all, the general meaning as well as the idea and the values of the American Dream will be depicted; particularly, the American Dream as key concept for the understanding of American society will be discussed. Therefore, Fitzgerald’s most famous novel from 1925, is important to establish a connection between the values and the changing role of the American Dream in the literature of the United States of America. It will be examined whether the values of the American Dream changed and which aspects are to be considered when regarding these values. It might be significant to see how the American Dream is changing over the course of time. Afterwards, by presenting the dark side of the American Dream, this paper takes a specific look at the deconstruction of the American Dream in "The Great Gatsby". Due to this fact, the American Dream is turning into an American nightmare, which will also be investigated. What is also presented in this section is a criticism of the American Dream. Finally, the question whether the pursuit of happiness and freedom or the pursuit of success and wealth plays a more important role will be answered. The changing role of the American Dream will also be clarified and briefly summarized.

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1, LMU Munich, course: American Impressions, language: English, abstract: Present-day's teenagers are confronted with two major points of criticism concerning their current "lifestyle". The first would be excessive partying with alcohol and other types of drugs whereas the other point concerns the materialism of today's youth. An open minded historian of the twentieth century might be very familiar with that kind of behaviour because it marvellously reflects the famous "Jazz Age" in its most outstanding social aspects. These and other social characteristics of the "Roaring Twenties" are all shown in "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the following term paper I want to describe and compare both the authenticity and the before mentioned social side of the "Jazz Age" in the original novel as well as in the two film adaptations by Jack Clayton and Baz Luhrmann.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Trier (Anglistik), course: F.Scott Fitzgerald, language: English, abstract: F. Scott Fitzgerald is an author who is well known for illustrating life during the Jazz Age in his works. In this treatise, we will be dealing with one of those novels. More specifically, this is a study about Jay’s obsession in “The Great Gatsby”. James Gatz alias Jay Gatsby is a newly rich gangster who wants to regain the heart of his lost love, the upper-class girl Daisy. To begin with, I will try to find out where Jay’s obsession comes from, where it starts, and what the reasons for his becoming obsessive are. Secondly, I will have a look at how and why the obsession increases. During that, the relationship to Dan Cody will be inspected. Then it is time to have a closer look at Daisy. Her relationship to Gatsby is the most important one in the book. Daisy’s influence on Gatsby will be shown clearly. Furthermore, I will talk about the importance of money for Jay’s obsession and possible connections to other desires especially with regard to his relationship with Daisy. Gatsby’s way of using his money will be reviewed. Because time is an important element for the story, the relation between time and Jay’s obsession will be discussed. Here Daisy, as Gatsby’s dream, is again closely connected, now to time. A faint foreshadowing of Gatsby’s great failure will be brought out in this chapter already.