How does Fitz present the moral corruption of the 1920s?
Fitzgerald criticizes the moral corruption of 1920s society in in the text ‘The Great Gatsby’, as one of materialism, frivolity, and hedonism. The theme of moral corruption is reflected in numerous ways, which Fitzgerald is inherently criticising through his portrayal of materialism and frivolity in upper class characters of the novel, and the symbolism of location. This links directly to the themes of the American Dream, mass consumerism, and Gatsby’s parties.
First, arguably, Fitzgerald presents society in the 1920’s to be attracted to a lack of substance and purpose in their lives. Members of this society are presented as being frivolous, and lacking value in their lives that may …show more content…
This is reflected through the juxtaposition between the decrepit ‘Valley of Ashes’ and the opulence of the Buchanan’s excessive and ostentatious home. The “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” are in contrast to the overbearing opulence of the Buchanan’s lavish lifestyle; the valley is also reminiscent of the Psalmist's ‘valley of the shadow of death’, and the language describing it characterises it as a perversion of a fertile rural landscape. What would normally be signs of life—wheat fields and gardens—are merely forms in a smouldering, colourless landscape in this context, portraying the almost concealed nature of the area, and the attraction that society members felt to opulence over the valley. This is juxtaposed by scene of a genteel luncheon at the Buchanan mansion; “breeze” is replaced by “rising smoke,” and “lawn” by “grotesque gardens,” which symbolises social class, and suggests the American Dream is impossible. The ‘fantastic farm’ is euphemistic, which undermines the inhabitability of the valley through its oxymoronic nature. T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land (1922) offers the most well known example of a sustained set of images of universal and individual sterility and emotional failure, and the pain of an inability to love, which influenced
Fitzgerald criticizes the moral corruption of 1920s society in in the text ‘The Great Gatsby’, as one of materialism, frivolity, and hedonism. The theme of moral corruption is reflected in numerous ways, which Fitzgerald is inherently criticising through his portrayal of materialism and frivolity in upper class characters of the novel, and the symbolism of location. This links directly to the themes of the American Dream, mass consumerism, and Gatsby’s parties.
First, arguably, Fitzgerald presents society in the 1920’s to be attracted to a lack of substance and purpose in their lives. Members of this society are presented as being frivolous, and lacking value in their lives that may …show more content…
This is reflected through the juxtaposition between the decrepit ‘Valley of Ashes’ and the opulence of the Buchanan’s excessive and ostentatious home. The “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” are in contrast to the overbearing opulence of the Buchanan’s lavish lifestyle; the valley is also reminiscent of the Psalmist's ‘valley of the shadow of death’, and the language describing it characterises it as a perversion of a fertile rural landscape. What would normally be signs of life—wheat fields and gardens—are merely forms in a smouldering, colourless landscape in this context, portraying the almost concealed nature of the area, and the attraction that society members felt to opulence over the valley. This is juxtaposed by scene of a genteel luncheon at the Buchanan mansion; “breeze” is replaced by “rising smoke,” and “lawn” by “grotesque gardens,” which symbolises social class, and suggests the American Dream is impossible. The ‘fantastic farm’ is euphemistic, which undermines the inhabitability of the valley through its oxymoronic nature. T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land (1922) offers the most well known example of a sustained set of images of universal and individual sterility and emotional failure, and the pain of an inability to love, which influenced