Good Great Gatsby essay essays

Good Great Gatsby essay essays American society during the 1920s was a time of cynicism, loss of values, and was mainly defined by ideological and social battles. World War I was a turning point to society and altered the class structure through ideological reform. After the war, which had been called the war to end all wars by Wilson, people began to lose their sense of ideals resulting from disillusions of the true purpose of the war. This marked the disappearance of faith and common values such as American Dream, the age-old ideal that had so far been the key to Americas success, the ideal of working hard to achieve goals, and the replacement of material wealth for spiritual ideals and morals. The traditionalists, who acquired money through legal means and still retained a strict sense of morality, were reluctant to accept the modernists into their society because they seemed jaded by corruption of materialism. The modernists were the group of people who as a result of their disbelief in morals and values had become dependent on money rather than the betterment of their souls spiritually. The modern aristocrat was characterized by using money as power and by giving in to greed and carefree lives. The main conflict in society was of money overpowering morality or modernists against traditionalists. Most of the other parts of society had not been caught up in the new fervor of corruption and were still living the American Dream. These people were suppressed by the dominant modern, urban society in which they were ignored by the fast paced, elite upper class. The Great Gatsby examines this dominant society and through the characters that represent the urban society, it portr ays subtly criticizes and encourages change in this society. The Great Gatsby as a whole was a great social insight and documentation of the life and ideals of the 1920s. It could be a warning of the dismal future of society if people did not recover their ideals and values and repair the...