The Dissatisfaction of the Roaring Twenties
The ancient greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus was once heard saying,“The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living,” (Heraclitus of Ephesus). Although he was clearly not referring to America in the 1920s, Heraclitus’ idea parallels life in the Roaring Twenties. The American Dream was very real for many americans. It was a goal to be strived for, and people worked hard for their own version of The Dream. Many times the dream included money and other material things. When achieved, The Dream that represented everything was suddenly not enough or not as glorious as originally thought. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald addresses this issue. The plot …show more content…
One instant where displeasure for the American Dream is shown is when Gatsby and Tom are arguing in the Plaza Hotel. As noticed throughout the book, Daisy is Gatsby’s dream, and this is the start of where Gatsby and everyone else starts to see the deterioration of the American Dream. When Daisy announces that she had loved Tom at one point, Gatsby is noticeably upset and becomes very quiet. It is clear that after all his work that he has done to achieve Daisy, he has became dissatisfied and upset with the end result of his dream. There is another instance where the American Dream does not satisfy. Once again, Daisy is not appeasing enough for Gatsby. After Daisy, Gatsby and Nick leave Nick’s to go over to Gatsby’s house (house not home, there is no love or family or anything friendly about Gatsby’s except for the wealth), Nick looks into Gatsby’s eyes and sees something. He notices that Gatsby does not view Daisy the same way. She is not “enchanted” to him any more, Fitzgerald writes it almost as Daisy is not as great or as significant as Jay originally had thought. Although there are many more instances where dissatisfaction is accompanying the Dream, a third major occurrence is at the end. Gatsby is dead. His long and hard fought journey for Daisy is over and empty. Tom and Daisy are still together and Gatsby is alone and dead. This epitomizes and is the climax of all of Gatsby’s …show more content…
One example where this idea is shown is with Gatsby. He has strived his whole life to be rich and successful. This can be seen by his schedule that his father shows Nick, it can also be seen by him taking the risks of doing illegal bootlegging just to get become filthy rich. But, as many say, money is not everything and money alone is not enough. Gatsby still feels empty with all of his wealth because he does not have anybody to share his experience with. His emptiness and displeasure with only wealth is shown throughout the book when he is trying to attract Daisy because his current lifestyle with only money is not enough. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald also uses plot to show the dissatisfaction that follows materialism. The two suburbs of East and West, as previously mentioned, are both very wealthy. There is one major difference between the two. East Eggers are people that have “old wealth”, and they look down upon the “new wealth” of the West Eggers. In the suburbs of New York, money is not enough. Even if one does achieve their goal of money, it will not be enough. One’s family must have had money for multiple generations for one to be respected and for them to be “good enough”. The West Eggers know that they are not as good as the East Egg people because they strive to be them. This is shown when Jay is trying to be like and fit in with Tom and Mr. and Mrs.
The ancient greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus was once heard saying,“The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living,” (Heraclitus of Ephesus). Although he was clearly not referring to America in the 1920s, Heraclitus’ idea parallels life in the Roaring Twenties. The American Dream was very real for many americans. It was a goal to be strived for, and people worked hard for their own version of The Dream. Many times the dream included money and other material things. When achieved, The Dream that represented everything was suddenly not enough or not as glorious as originally thought. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald addresses this issue. The plot …show more content…
One instant where displeasure for the American Dream is shown is when Gatsby and Tom are arguing in the Plaza Hotel. As noticed throughout the book, Daisy is Gatsby’s dream, and this is the start of where Gatsby and everyone else starts to see the deterioration of the American Dream. When Daisy announces that she had loved Tom at one point, Gatsby is noticeably upset and becomes very quiet. It is clear that after all his work that he has done to achieve Daisy, he has became dissatisfied and upset with the end result of his dream. There is another instance where the American Dream does not satisfy. Once again, Daisy is not appeasing enough for Gatsby. After Daisy, Gatsby and Nick leave Nick’s to go over to Gatsby’s house (house not home, there is no love or family or anything friendly about Gatsby’s except for the wealth), Nick looks into Gatsby’s eyes and sees something. He notices that Gatsby does not view Daisy the same way. She is not “enchanted” to him any more, Fitzgerald writes it almost as Daisy is not as great or as significant as Jay originally had thought. Although there are many more instances where dissatisfaction is accompanying the Dream, a third major occurrence is at the end. Gatsby is dead. His long and hard fought journey for Daisy is over and empty. Tom and Daisy are still together and Gatsby is alone and dead. This epitomizes and is the climax of all of Gatsby’s …show more content…
One example where this idea is shown is with Gatsby. He has strived his whole life to be rich and successful. This can be seen by his schedule that his father shows Nick, it can also be seen by him taking the risks of doing illegal bootlegging just to get become filthy rich. But, as many say, money is not everything and money alone is not enough. Gatsby still feels empty with all of his wealth because he does not have anybody to share his experience with. His emptiness and displeasure with only wealth is shown throughout the book when he is trying to attract Daisy because his current lifestyle with only money is not enough. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald also uses plot to show the dissatisfaction that follows materialism. The two suburbs of East and West, as previously mentioned, are both very wealthy. There is one major difference between the two. East Eggers are people that have “old wealth”, and they look down upon the “new wealth” of the West Eggers. In the suburbs of New York, money is not enough. Even if one does achieve their goal of money, it will not be enough. One’s family must have had money for multiple generations for one to be respected and for them to be “good enough”. The West Eggers know that they are not as good as the East Egg people because they strive to be them. This is shown when Jay is trying to be like and fit in with Tom and Mr. and Mrs.