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Great Gatsby essay on relationships

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Great Gatsby essay: to what extent are relationships doomed Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ is set in America of the 1920’s, a predominantly materialistic society revolving around wealth and status above all else. Fitzgerald depicts this obsession with money and luxury through complicated relationships full of trouble, infidelity and sorrow. The relationships Fitzgerald portrays all symbolize the materialism and hedonism of the age; each relationship is doomed to a certain extent based on the social class of each character. In the aftermath of WW1 America was a society rising commercially and economically, the idea of the ‘American Dream’ was rampant and with it an obsession with money. Love was deemed an …show more content…

On the other hand Tom and Daisy’s relationship was incredibly flawed, however they suited each other in terms of social class. They both had the same shallow views, as Nick states in the end, “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy, they smashed things up and creatures and retreated back into their money and vast carelessness.” The ending of the novel reinforces the idea that in such a morally corrupt society only relationships concerning those of the same social standing could work even in the slightest, and even so those relationships were doomed to a certain extent. Throughout his novel Fitzgerald shows the reader that love is essential to a fully functioning relationship through portraying the failure of relationships based on materialism. All the major relationships presented in the novel were doomed to an extent based on differences in social class/status and obsession with wealth and success. The overriding theme of moral decay in America of the 1920’s determined the nature of society and its relationships, most of which were doomed to

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