Success

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade November 2001

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The Great Gatsby is novel based during the 1920's in Long Island. In was a period in time that revolutionized our society. This book shows how people can take riches and have giant parties enjoying a great time. But on the other hand, they can also be turned into a disease that will cause problems as clearly seen in the novel. Moral decay is shown with examples of money; this is obviously shown through characters in the novel. It also plays a role in effecting the American Dream: socially, and economically.

In Long Island at this time many new things were being discovered. For example the East Egg was the rich famous side and the West egg was the side with least extravagance. Cars were also evolving during this time, if you owned a car during this time it was known as a key symbol of money, which was important.

This was a large social aspect during the time if you were an owner of a car you were known as rich. The two sides east egg and west egg discriminated against each other and this was evident with the characters. For example Myrtle is a woman that was not rich at all but had dreams of becoming; she had a affair with Tom who was a member of the East Egg. She then became very snobbish and looked down apron her old way of living. This is a key example in the novel that shows the discrimination socially this effected the characters in the book.

This type of behavior has a large effect on the economical American Society and how it has grown to be. The characters in the novel have completly forgotten about the pure society that they are now focused on money and the materialistic side of the Island. Everyone wants to be a part of East egg because they feel it has more power. This is not true because with money comes greed and selfish attitudes. People like Gusty and Myrtle have forgotten who they once were due to the greed and fame. The economy on the other hand enjoys this attitude change because corporations and businesses keep manufacturing goods and the people will buy them. Politically the Industries were making money and gaining power through the buying, so they were competing with each other for profit.

This novel clearly shows how the American Dream effected a society in a negative way. Many of the people of East and West egg had high expectations that revolved around money. This shows how powerful being wealthy is and when you achieve wealth there is never enough to please you. The people of the time were very materialistic which led to arguments and major problems all because of the effects of money