The New York Times describes the 1920s as a time “when gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession.” The Jazz Age was a lucrative era filled with consumerism and surplus, and Peter Brodie claims that in order to properly capture the essence of such age we must “look to literature.” When looking towards literature, multiple works come to mind, but F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby stands out amongst others. The Great Gatsby follows Jay Gatsby, a man with mysterious upbringings who rises to money and power. In many ways, the novel is symbolic of the entire Jazz Age. Fitzgerald, through the detailing of Jay Gatsby’s excessive, criminal life, exposes readers to what life was like in the Jazz Age. When the United States
