The Great Gatsby: American Life during the 1920’s

Cameron L. Green

Lakeland College

The Great Gatsby was a famous novel written by the so called “Jazz Age” novelist and short story writer Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is a famous novel that provides vivid description and complexities of American Life during the 1920s that only leads to misery and death. The narrator of the novel in the original book is Nick Caraway who was a resident of the west-egg district of Long Island. His next door neighbour was a mysterious character called Jay Gatsby. He narrates the incidences that took place with Jay Gatsby as the central character during the summer of 1922.

The novel narrates how an alcohol peddler who acquires a lot of wealth gets involved into true relationships which was mistaken by societal class. Their feelings were looked down by the societal class as “money power”, as they thought arranging parties and fests are one of the ways these people try to create a societal status. They were misunderstood in various occasions and faced tragic end like Gatsby.

The Jazz age or popularly called the roaring twenties took place after the World War I and ended with the start of great recession during 1929. The result of prohibition and the banned sale of alcohol made various millionaires who were economically not sound. The period witnessed a new style of music called “jazz” which marked the extravagant and extrovert American lifestyle that crept in with influx of money into the societal scenario.

This period marked the beginning of an exciting time with ragtime and blues whose basis was money and sheer money. This philosophy swayed away from the original philosophy of the American dream which speculated that anyone could succeed if they concentrated on self improvement and could be rich and wealthy with hard