The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

The “jazz age” was one of the greatest periods of time for the Americans. It happened just after World War One and the economy at that time were “through the roof” and people were partying all over the place. Lavish displays of wealth were commonly seen during this transition time. Technology at that time was developing so fast that cars, airplanes, telephones etc. were all invented in those days.

The book The Great Gatsby portrayed the golden age of the American culture while the author depicts the breathtaking and fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his ventures and strong efforts to declare the love of the beautiful Daisy Buchanan by holding enormous, lavish parties every night. This obliquely creates the theme “display of wealth” for this book.

“At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam.”39 It mentioned about HIS beach and the two motor- boats which were both extremely expensive items in the 1920s. It shows how he displayed his wealth to the public and it vividly gives an idea of his lifestyle to the readers.

We can actually find quite lot examples of Gatsby’s lavish display of wealth throughout the whole book. “By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five- piece affair, but a whole pitful oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums.”40

This sentence is supported by the phrase “oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums”. By mentioning a whole variety of musical instruments, the author elaborates on the “whole pitful” and emphasized how huge the orchestra is to give a more evocated idea to the reader of Gatsby’s display of wealth.

The lifestyle of wealthy people in the 1920s made a huge contrast to those impoverished society in Africa. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald discussion about wealth in this book provides a window into the minds of wealthy people.

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