The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Modernism as a literary movement

Modernism was the most influential literary movement in England and America during the first half of the twentieth century. It encompassed such works as The Waste Land (1922), by T. S. Eliot, Ulysses (1922), by James Joyce, and The Great Gatsby (1925), by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Representing an unequivocal rejection of Victorian aesthetic standards, moral precepts, and literary techniques, Modernism was initiated during the opening decade of the century, a time of extensive experimentation in the arts. Writers of the movement embraced the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and the anthropological relativism espoused by Sir James Frazer, and in their works the Modernists emphasized the psychological state of a character through the use of such devices as the interior monologue, or stream-of-consciousness narrative.

In English literature, manifestations of the modernist aesthetic in fiction range from the sexual explicitness of D. H. Lawrence to the formal experimentation of Virginia Woolf and the myth-based narrative of James Joyce. The disorienting effects of the era of modern warfare that began with the First World War gave rise to such American expressions of modernist concerns as the novels of John Dos Passos, whose Manhattan Transfer (1925) utilized montage-like effects to depict the chaos of modern urban life, and Ernest Hemingway, whose The Sun Also Rises (1926) portrayed the aimlessness of the "lost generation" of American expatriates in Europe during the postwar era. Similarly, The Great Gatsby is seen to epitomize the demoralization of American society and the end of innocence in American thought.

However, this power to manipulate characters often tempts the author to editorialize; many modern critics have argued “that the author should be less in evidence and more willing to let us interpret the story ourselves.” (Fitzgerald, p68)This leaves us with first-person narrative, which is easiest for the author to write, yet as in essay writing, use of the word “I” tends to allow the reader to dismiss the character's feelings. It allows for total insight into the character, yet this reliance on one individual for information will likely result in a biased view. Therefore, when one examines point of view, the writer must be aware of what he wants his story to accomplish, and how he would like his character to be perceived. The reader is then responsible for examining the effect of the chosen view and its effect on the novel's character. Point of view is an element which has evolved only recently, for it is only with the advent oft the modern novel that its use has been examined.

Jazz Age

In New York the Jazz Age was a time where hardly anybody worried about money. “It was in such a profusion around you.” and prodigality belonged to everybody's life-style. This is also a reason for the hospitality that was indispensable for all the parties that were given. To throw a party is not a cheap affair and so stinginess was very unpopular and supposed to be ...