"The Great Gatsby", written by F. Scott Fitsgerald.

Essay by rusted5796High School, 12th gradeA+, October 2003

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Examining the 1920's through The Great Gatsby

Many aspects of the 1920's are clearly represented in the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald writes an exciting story of love, violence, and obsession, but more importantly the story of America during the 1920's. Part of everyday life in the 20's included excitement, entertainment, and crime, but in the end these became the downfall of the American dream. The Great Gatsby thoroughly represents the 1920's through crime, social status, and the destruction of the American dream.

The 1920's were a time when crime was a way life for some people and a way of escape for others, a time when crime was seen as a valid way of making a living. As for Meyer Wolfshiem, an older man of whom Gatsby did business with, crime was his job and he did it well. In the novel, while eating lunch, Gatsby is asked who Wolfshiem is by Nick Carraway and Gatsby unbelievably replies, "he's a gambler..........

He's the man who fixed the 1919 World Series" (78). If a man can commit crimes this huge then this must be a time period of extreme criminal acts. According to Study World, in their review of the setting of The Great Gatsby, "New York City is a symbol of what America has become: a place where anything goes, where money is made and bootleggers flourish, and where the World Series can be fixed by a man like Meyer Wolfshiem" (6). Crime played an enormous role in shaping the 1920's due to the large amount of it. This was a time of corruption and greed that spawned accepted crime for many people in the 1920's and with this powerful crime wave, came the ultimate loss: the destruction of the American...