Essay --

The Roaring Twenties introduced an innovative period of American Literature marked by an outpour of insightful experimentation. The yearning of characters to be accepted into societies they consider to be more prosperous than their own was a major theme explored by authors during this literary period. This desire is the foundation for The Great Gatsby (1925) written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The craving to belong prompts characters in social environments to portray themselves as different people. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the pursuit of acceptance that leads characters to reject their past identities in an ineffective attempt to accomplish the illusive American dream. Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby set in New York state through the recountings of Nick Carraway, a self-proclaimed confidant. Nick travels from Minnesota to the West Egg district of Long Island in 1922 to learn the bond business. At the start of the American Modernist classic, Nick introduces to the reader his ancestry: "My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western City for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch..." (7). These specific details that Nick presents suggest that his family descended from a family of nobility and prosperity; however, the Carraways' wealth originates from the development of a wholesales hardware business. Because of this underwhelming claim, readers often depict Nick Carraway as an image of aristocracy. Nick's desire to increase the respect, trust, and acceptance the reader will have for his narratives provokes him to levitate his social status to a more dignified class by embellishing the truth.... ...ordinate role of women during the 1920s. Fitzgerald uses adjectives associated with daintiness to display Daisy's identity that is accredited to the well-bred characteristics society associates with the upper class. With thought out mannerisms and calculated motions, Daisy has an almost unnatural quality about her. Towards the end of The Great Gatsby, Daisy is proven to be motivated by only the American dream of material possessions and social class. Through the various characters, the obsessive quest to belong to the collective whole is highlighted. The Great Gatsby never resolves the issues related to passing or self-denial as a means to attain happiness and success. However, the characters do exhibit the inevitable downfall associated with living a life of superficial and unreal existences. The reader learns that no good can come from lying to oneself or others.