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Is the Great Gatsby relevant t

            Is the Great Gatsby relevant to today's society?.
             While the Great Gatsby takes place in the roaring twenties there are still messages present that are strikingly similar to our own day and age. F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous piece of literature touches on a variety of themes. Whether it is the lush decadence of the upper class or the political themes focused on in the novel. The relevance to today's society couldn't be clearer than in the ideas of the "American Dream" that Fitzgerald covers in the text. Relevance to modern day is echoed throughout the novel with the use of social commentary throughout. Without the poignant look at this society many of these parallels would dissolve.
             The historical and political ideas discussed in the work eerily mimic much of America today. The divide of the class system is very similar to that of modern day. Lower, middle, and upper classes are depicted with the Wilson's, West Egg, and East Egg. Tom and Daisy are clearly a part of the upper class. George Wilson serves the role of the lower class blue collar worker. He spends his days working while his wife dates a rich upper class man. Some things just don't change; this story could be a common occurrence today. In my eyes Nick embodies the middle class with a white collar job and a decent house in West Egg. Gatsby is the exception of the West Egg resident. He is an exceedingly wealthy man in a middle class neighborhood. But is that really much different than a drug dealer living in a middle class area today? When it comes down to it, Gatsby is nothing more than a drug deal after all. He spends money on huge parties where the booze flows like water. This is not very different than a rave party laden with ecstasy in any of America's metropolises today.
             This brings us to the moral decadence that Fitzgerald explores in the novel. Tom Buchanan is the quintessential example of moral decadence. An alcoholic man who is involved in an affair would not be a stretch in today's world.


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1. Symbolic Colors in Great Gatsby

... Daisy. Another important color in The Great Gatsby is the color black. Black symbolizes "Absorption of negativity and the destruction of negativity"(N. Davis). Gray is mostly related to the Valley of Ashes and Wilson. The black atmosphere surrounding it represents the hopelessness of their insolvent situation. "This is the valley of ashes.../where ashes take the forms of ashes and chimneys and rising smoke"(27), the ashes represent the black and how it puts a negative ... burden on Wilson and restricts him from future success. Gold also has an important meaning in the story. Gold symbol...

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2. Great Gatsby - Illusion of the American Dream

... , background, wealth, or any other distinguishable feature is known as the great American Dream. It is the idea that anybody from anywhere can become anyone. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925. The book illustrates the American Dream when the narrator, Nick Carraway from the middle class, moves to New York City to be successful in the bond business. He lived next to Gatsby, a man who started with next to nothing ... to understand that Nick was deeply affected by both Gatsby's romanticism and his reality. The song mentioned earlier, "Small Town" was featured on ...

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3. Gatsby and Today

... literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby had the American dream. For in The Great Gatsby there is a great exploration of this theme revolving around one central character, Jay Gatsby, who to this day, still speaks for today's America. Gatsby still speaks for today's America because he still embodies the American dream, for although not as reckless and prodigal as the Jazz Age' of the 1920's, today's America still holds the same core beliefs in ... emphasized this idea. Gatsby fit right into the "roaring 20's, a carefree age of fragile prosperity and vast carelessness- (Yoder). Throu...

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4. Winter Dreams vs The Great Gatsby

... I have never seen such "such beautiful shirts before- (Gatsby 93-94). This is such a turning point in the novel because this is when Daisy shows her true feelings for Gatsby; or rather, Gatsby's money. As soon as she saw Gatsby's wealth revealed to her, she fell in love' with him. Fitzgerald obviously wrote "Winter Dreams- and The Great Gatsby to coincide with each other on many levels ... . The characters Fitzgerald uses in both of the works are amazingly similar due to their actions and appearances. If one character in Gatsby has a dominant trait; its counterpart from the story "Winter...

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5. The Great Gatsby American drea

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6. The Great Gatzby:Impressionism

... apply, literally, only to the room, but it is impossible not to notice that all of them are appropriate for a first impression of Daisy. "Bright-, "rosy-colored-, and "fragile-, or even "fragilely bound- are all accurate, and in fact, are not terribly relevant to the description of a room. Although these seemingly out-of-place adjectives are the norm in The Great Gatsby, there are other examples ... of the same type of ... impressionism as well. Just before Nick meets Wolfshiem, he describes his setting as "Roaring noon. In a well fanned Forty-second Street cellar, I met Gatsby for lunc...

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7. Glass Menagerie and The Great Gatsby, Underlying Themes in The Authors Work

... this adapted quote by Logan Pearsall Smith, the underlying message that the author is trying to convey, besides the text, is significant. Or, in other words, read between the lines. This statement is true and relevant because the writer's feelings come out on paper while the they write, expressing more than just the story they are writing. In the play "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams, the author injects a part of himself into his ... as a real-life family, maybe Tennessee Williams" own family. The use of setting in this play is also critical. The majority of the play taking p...

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8. Lack of Conformity in Quality Pieces of Literature

... other characters, says CliffsNotes character analysis of Nick Carraway throughout The Great Gatsby. When Nick meets everyone from the West Egg, he is greatly contrasted with all of the different morals and personalities of the others. From this, the entire story is influenced by Nick. Because Nick is so honest and morally correct, it creates a beautiful mood for the novel, keeping the reader informed about every situation going on from a different perspective ... of each situation. Because of his honesty, many things are uncovered about each affair, creating a more eccentric mood for th...

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