The Great Gatsby

The book "The Great Gatsby", was a very good book in my personal opinion. It showed the glamorous flaws of the 1920's and the 1930's. It demonstrated how dazzling life could be back then, attending all of the most fashionable parties, and being very wealthy. In the book it also showe the social flaws and social attitudes of the Jazz Age. During the Jazz Age it was a time of prosperity and booming economy. Fitzgerald takes a different angle to book though. He criticizes and actually shows the dishonesty of the American Dream, the immortality and injustice in society in the 1920's. The original American Dream was based on an assumption that no matter what social class, you could have prosperity if you have the effort and will. This novel is about what happened to the American Dream and how the pursuit of wealth corrupted it.

In this novel I really enjoyed all of the characters, even though most of them showed immoral traits. The only character that really was honest was Nick. He seemed the most genuine out of all the characters to me. He always helped out his neighbors and never cheated on any of the women in this book, unlike some of the other characters. One thing that Tom and Daisy did have in common was cheating. Even though they are supposed to be the perfect married couple, they both end up having affairs. No one ever brings up the issue though; they mask their problems, by avoiding the subject. Tom has an affair with an older married women name Myrtle. While Daisy rekindles her love with the famous Jay Gatsby. Throughout the book Mr. Gatsby is supposed to be the hero, everyone wants to be his friend and be invited to his extraordinary parties. They are so many different stories and rumors about him. When actually he also masks his real identity to impress Daisy. Gatsby's real name is James Gatz, and his parents weren't incharge of the German army, they were farmers. When Mr. Gatsby first met the wealthy, classy Dan Cody, that is when Gatsby became obsessed with having money.One other immoral trait was the scheme of Jordan Baker. She had to intentionally cheat during a tennis match just to win. These are some of the immoral traits of the characters.

This novel really relates to how our society is now. The American Dream is completely tarnished. No one cares about their family or anybody else for that matter. All they worry about is there reputation and how much money they have in their bank accounts. " The Great Gatsby" legitimately shows how people forget about having morals, because they are to busy chasing the idea of having wealth and power. This is what our civilization has come to, except worse. In the 1920's they at least still had more of the opportunity to prosper, and they also had alot more class. Now days you hardly know anyone who still fully believes in having morals, except your grandparents. Although this book was about the corruption of the American Dream I still really enjoyed the novel. It really showed that human nature barely changes throughout time.