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Social Condition In The Great Gatsby

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Since its was published in 1925, F. S. Fitzgerald ‘s novel The Great Gatsby has become one of the most cited and analyzed pieces of fiction in the history of American literature. It is a great presentation of an age in American history when everything was possible, or at least people thought it was. In his novel, Fitzgerald does not just describe the social, historical and economic conditions which drive his characters, but he also provides us with an insight into the souls of his characters and the reasons which they use to justify their behavior and actions. The fundamental cause for everything that happens in the novel is an idea towards which everyone strives and dreams of. This idea is none other than the American Dream. In The Great …show more content…

By participating in such parties they see themselves as members of the elite to which they wish to belong, and they trick themselves into thinking that they could improve their social status if they meet the right people. Anyone who has money is immediately seen as welcome. This is from Nick Carraway’s words when he attends the party for the first time. He says: “They were, at least, agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key“(Fitzgerald, 49). The simple fact that they thought Nick had money was enough for them to accept him as their …show more content…

Nick Carraway, perhaps the only person in the novel who has not fallen victim to this corrupt set of values, ironically comments on his surroundings when he moves across Gatsby’s mansion. He describes his own house an “an eye-sore with a partial view on his neighbor’s lawn in the conforming proximity of millionaires “(Fitzgerald 22). The fact is that to him the proximity of wealthy people is not comforting at all, in fact it makes him even more anxious. In a way, this is because Nick just recently comes from the West, and he has not yet been much influenced by the corrupt society in the East. He still represents the old, traditional values which lost all of their meaning in the age when the size of one’s bank account and the number of cars a person owned became the principal things according to which success in life was measured. Nick’s dream is closer to the original American Dream, which was focused more around family than wealth and an unending quest for success. Nick represents the opposite path that Gatsby could have taken from the

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