By what methods does Fitzgerald present the Jazz Age Society’s preoccupation with wealth and materialism?

The Great Gatsby was publish in 1925 and was set in the Roaring Twenties. This was a glamourous decade marked by cultural, artistic and social developments, entirely it was brought to an complete by the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the 1920s, America became very prosperous as the country recovered from sphere War I. There was a policy of Prohibition. This meant that alcohol was illegal, and the proceed demand meant there was a lot of specie to be do from bootlegging. It was a time of social change the younger genesis started to insurgent against tradition.For many bulk, and particularly women, the war provided impertinently experiences and freedom. After the war, there was a strong desire to try advanced and raise things and to break from tradition. drive in music became popular because it was more energetic than earlier music styles. Fitzgerald coined the terminus Jazz come along. Flappers began to challenge tradit ional gender roles. Flappers were women who be bring forthd in a way that was thought to be inappropriate by the older generation they drank, smoked and wore revealing clothing. Fitzgerald sets The Great Gatsby in an altered version of languish Island and Manhattan.Great Neck and Manhasset Neck become East and West crackpots, and the commodious landfill site Flushing is renamed the valley of ashes. The main sites represent different elements of the 1920s east-Ameri gage career style Manhattans skyscrapers and luxurious hotel suites only if it is also filled with lonely clerks who neglect all their time working, and gangsters who meet in seemdy bars. The valley of ashes is a stretch of wasteland which sits between the separate sites and connects them. The valley illustrates that the excesses of riches cant be achieved without exploiting another part of ball club.The richesinessy upper classes who contractable their coin represent in East Egg, West Eggs hosts new bill s raft who have earned their funds. The populate who live in East Egg come from old, wealthy families and have inherited property. They see themselves as elegant and strong-mannered. West Egg is the home of the new money people who have recently made their money through business. The people of East Egg look down on the people who live in West Egg because they consider their family pratgrounds to be inferior and their ostentatious displays of wealth to be in bad taste.Gatsby realises that money isnt plentiful to cross the social divide between himself and Daisy he needs to be upper class to be seen as her equal. His affected speech and trade shirts are an attempt to imitate the upper classes. Religion has been replaced by consumerism and the rocking horse of pleasure. The reputations live aimless lives that revolve around pleasing themselves and acquiring new possessions. For example, the guests at Gatsbys parties focus on drinking, looking for new lie withrs, and assay t o organize easy money.The conversation between Michaelis and Wilson in Chapter eighter from Decatur suggests that consumerism has replaced trust You may jester me, but you cant fool God Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleberg Wilson mistakes the eyes of the advertisement for God. This shows that the eyes very have no meaning except for the meaning that the characters give them. This could reflect the feeling of the lost generation that breeding is essentially meaningless and is defined solo by the values the people give it. Consumerism promises that material objects will call for you happy and give your life meaning.However, material possessions dont make people happy in the novel this is symbolised by the fact that cars, a desirable consumer item, cause death and destruction. The idea that consumerism has replaced phantasmal value in reinforced throughout The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald mentions the Presbyterian nymphs in the speake asy, a place where people could illegally buy and drink alcohol during prohibition, in Chapter 4. This use of religious language could suggest that religious symbols have lost their power, and are at home in places of corruption.Weddings are a religious and legal compass north of a couple, but Daisys wedding to Tom is used earlier to display their extravagant wealth. Tom brings four private cars and hires a full-page floor of hotel. Gatsbys car scattered light across the embellish and has fenders spread like wings. These descriptions give the car qualities often associated with religion its source of light and is winged like an angel. Most of the characters in the novel are very wealthy and live a life of luxury. The rich and glamorous atmosphere defines the noels tone the focus on the upper-class lifestyle gives the novel a mood of lively extravagance.For example, Gatsby owns a beach, motor-boats and a Rolls-Royce and his parties are full of faces and voices and colour. However , this society is contrasted with the poverty of those animation near to the valley of ashes. The location of the valley of ashes between the wealthy Egg communities and New York makes the contrast stronger. There is also a constant thought that the glamorous lives of the upper classes are essentially meaningless beneath the surface, everyone is bore because they have no purpose Daisy seems to realise this when she asks what they should do this afternoonand they daylight after that, and the next thirty years? . Many friendships come on superficial. For example, Gatsbys parties are full of enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each others names. This shows that the society is full of pretence and loneliness. Many of Gatsbys guests had tragic fates. For example, drowned, strangled his wife, killed himself. This reinforces the message that behind the light-hearted partying, much of society was deeply unhappy. Fitzgeralds portrayal invites the reader to be critical of the characters empty, materialistic lives while simultaneously making those lives seem exciting and beautiful.This reflects his own attitude towards wealth. The characters are defined by their relationship with money it affects how they act, how they see themselves and how others see them scratch is confused to the highest degree how to respond to wealth and degeneracy. When he begins his banking career he suggests his role models are Midas and Morgan and Maecenas. At the similar time Nick says that Gatsbys empty display of wealthy correspond everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. Daisy and Tom take their wealth for granted.Tom assumes it is his natural right to be at the top of society, and Daisy was perfunctory some the beautiful house she grew up in. this attitude makes them careless people they never worry when they hurt other people, they can retreat back into their money. Gatsby used to be extravagantly ambitious and focused on monetary gain. However, the Gat sby that Nick meets doesnt get involved in the decadence of his own parties. This suggests that he has grown to be indifferent to his wealth he just sees it as a means towards winning Daisy.For myrtle, money buys joy she gets pleasure from her insensate cream, pet dog and magazines. Her opinion of her husband was shamed by the realisation that he couldnt afford to buy a suit for their wedding. Money takes on a meaning beyond its financial wealth. For Gatsby, money is confused with kip down. He says Daisys voice is full of money, linking his longing for her with his longing for the wealth and status that she represents. Gatsby understands the relationship between love and money. Daisys voice, he says, is full of money it is the seductive, thrilling aspect of her.What Gatsby, with strike consciousness, states is that Daisys charm is allied to the attraction of wealth money and love hold similar attractions. Gatsby, with his boundless capacity for love sees that the pursuit of mon ey is tied to his love for Daisy and he knows himself well enough to see this. That Daisys voice is full of money is a remark nevertheless Gatsby could make. It is a statement of someone attune to the possibilities of love and money and sensitive to them peradventure too much. Tom could never have provided this description of Daisy his attraction to her has nought to do with wealth.Tom is accustomed to having money money holds no evoke for him because it does have to be chased after his is old money obviously there to be used. Tom may buy anything he wishes from polo ponies to cufflinks but he understands that polo ponies or cufflinks are all he is buying. Myrtle only cares about appearance and material possessions. Myrtle claims not to care about clothes I just slip it on sometimes when I dont care what I look like, but actually shes obsessed with her appearance she changes clothes regularly and buys cold cream and perfume.She wears bold colours, in contrast to Daisy who wears white but when Myrtle changes into a cream dress, her vitality changes to hauteur. This shows that she thinks breeding is all about appearance. Shes also concerned with other peoples appearances. She was seduced by Toms clothes the first time she met him, mentioning that he wore a dress suit and patent leather shoes as well as a white shirt-front. Its significant that Myrtle fictitious to be looking at the advertisement instead of looking at Tom, because both Tom and the advertised product represent Myrtles greed for material objects and wealth.Tom Buchanan represents the immorality and materialism of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald thought that the Jazz Age was hypocritical and this is reflected by Toms behavior he is appalled when he learns of Daisys affair with Gatsby, but he has lots of affairs himself. He criticises Gatsby for sneering at family life, but was God knows where when his daughter was born. He also criticises Gatsby for knowing criminals and for being a bootlegger, but Tom also knows criminals and he likes to drink, which shows that he doesnt follow the prohibition laws either.He sets a high moral specimen for other people, such as Gatsby, but has no morals himself. Nick notes that he moves from libertine to prig to suit his needs. Toms wealth and sense of superiority makes him careless and uncaring. Nick summarises Tom and Daisys behaviour when he says they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their moneyand let other people clean up the mess. They stay away from their problems and never face the consequences. He acts as a check to Gatsby Gatsby is loyal, sensitive and caring whilst Tom is more or less the opposite.For example, he only seems to start caring for Daisy when he sees he could lose her. This suggests his reply is as much about pride and possessiveness as about actually caring for her. The fact that Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby highlights the shallow and materialistic spirit of the Jazz Age society. Like Daisy, Tom is materialistic he has to appear to have the best of everything. For example, he was married with more pomp and stage setting than Louisville ever knew.