Preview

Corruption In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
924 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Corruption In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby captures the story of a man motivated by his passion to find love. The novel encapsulates the agony Jay Gatsby experiences throughout his journey to acquire the affection and devotion he so greatly desires from the woman of his dreams. The book portrays the corruption of the 1920s and the collateral damage it has upon society. As unfortunate as the occurrences within the plot seem, there is a shocking reality that lies beneath them. The story of The Great Gatsby strongly parallels to the life of the author, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, reflecting upon the tragedies that he encountered along his pursuit for love due to the lack of morality that existed in the 1920s. Fitzgerald utilizes the lives of many different characters within his book to portray his personal life story, injecting portions of his background, experiences, and personality into several of the individuals illustrated in the novel. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1896. His father was originally from Maryland and possessed a strong conviction toward Southern values, instilling them into his son from a young age. He taught his son the significance of good manners and right instincts, which resulted in Fitzgerald’s friends distinctly recalling his sympathetic nature toward others. Positioned as the narrator in The Great Gatsby, Nick …show more content…
The anguish Jay Gatsby endures within Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, closes aligns with elements and occurrences from his own life. The devastating rejection due to money, the destructive influence of alcohol, and the catastrophic effects of adultery within a relationship are all mutual experiences that connect the main character to the author. The moral corruption of the 1920s resulted in devastating tragedies within the lives of both men, producing psychological wounds too deep to be
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Money Corrupted In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
    • 240 Words
    • 1 Page

    Money Corrupted In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    In Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby, the only thing that matters in the 1920’s is how lavish the parties are, and how having so much money is not enough. Gatsby has all the money in the world, has lavish parties all in hope that, Daisy will come back. Money is used as a lure in the novel, to try and bring Daisy back. Money destroys the characters, money destroys their lives, and the novel shows how wealth corrupts them in the end. Fitzgerald shows through the characters relationships, how greed was demonstrated in the 1920’s.…

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Morals And Corruption In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Morals And Corruption In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    In The Great Gatsby, there are a variety of themes. Of all the themes the book has to offer, the film captures best, the lack of morals and the corruption of the American Dream. Towards the beginning of the film when Nick first meets Myrtle she is immediately showing her lack of morals by the way she interacts with Tom, giving Nick a sense of their secret affair. In addition, the party she hosts at the apartment is over the top inappropriate compared to the one in the novel as Nick is exposed to sex, drugs, and destruction. But it can be more relatable to the viewers with today’s parties and the modernized music playing in the background. A final example would be Daisy giving Tom a pen to write down any numbers of random women he’d toy with,…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Nick Carraway Use Prohibition In The Great Gatsby
    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How Does Nick Carraway Use Prohibition In The Great Gatsby

    The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald makes trouble now seem a little less worrisome. Gatsby, the main character, must deal with war, betrayal of love, and illegal acts. Nick Carraway, the narrator, takes the reader on a journey not only through the novel but also his own life. He starts by saying that his father taught him to never hold people to the personal standards of one's self in fear of misinterpreting the person as a whole. This advice is carried throughout the novel and is by far one of the most notable aspects within the story. The Great Gatsby is a delicately written story of a young man trying to fight his way through the 1920’s with the issues of prohibition, which lead into organized crime, and the forthcoming of the second industrial…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Scott Fitzgerald's Use Of Moral Corruption In The Great Gatsby
    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Scott Fitzgerald's Use Of Moral Corruption In The Great Gatsby

    Society tends to have a myriad of unspoken problems that plague its entirety as a whole. With numerous underlying issues that slowly fester from the center of the core to the outside, society constantly attempts to suppress and ignore the genuine problem. One of the ever present obstacles that seemingly will go unattended to is moral decay. Though many people may recognize the issue at hand, it’s become a pattern to let it be as it is, as opposed to fixing it from within. Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the decaying of social and moral values through his use of symbolism and characterization.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Does F. Scott Fitzgerald Present Social Corruption In The Great Gatsby
    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Does F. Scott Fitzgerald Present Social Corruption In The Great Gatsby

    In today’s society, if asked what values individuals admire, the majority would say kindness and humbleness. On the other hand, in the 1920’s the word “kind” would associate with something different from today . The depiction of respect has dramatically changed over time. For example the 1920’s is an exemplar of moral and social corruption. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom is portrayed as fake and selfish. Through imagery and diction, it shows the moral, social corruption of 1920’s society and the American Dream.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Daisy's Sightlessness In The Great Gatsby
    • 1940 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Daisy's Sightlessness In The Great Gatsby

    It is every writer's aspiration to write a literary work as deep and profound as F. Scott Fitzgerald has in his masterpiece The Great Gatsby. The novel alludes to an innumerable variety of themes; encompassing all of the symbolism, metaphorical traits, and masterful writing that an English teacher's favorite should have. In a novel of this caliber it is expected that there are many deep and well-developed characters. This book has them in spades. From all of the wide variety of characters portrayed in this novel, Jay Gatsby is clearly the most vital and interesting; the course of events in The Great Gatsby are clearly centered around him.…

    • 1940 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Study Guide Great Gatsby
    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Study Guide Great Gatsby

    On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Does The Color Represent In The Great Gatsby
    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Does The Color Represent In The Great Gatsby

    The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story set in the 1920’s in New York City. It tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a young man who bootlegs and gambles to achieve wealth, only to impress his first love, a materialistic spoiled girl named Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy went their separate ways when Gatsby joined the war. Now Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan and Gatsby is trying to win her back through wealth. Gatsby’s one goal is to have Daisy; despite her marriage he believes that he can recreate his past with her. Fitzgerald, paints the picture of the of Gatsby’s dream with symbolism, by using the colors gold/yellow, white sliver, and green, the reader comprehends the true contrast in characters and the American dream.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Role Of Corruption In The Great Gatsby
    • 102 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Role Of Corruption In The Great Gatsby

    The Prohibition commenced on 16th Janurary 1920, which was followed by the Volstead Act (formally known as National Prohibition act) a year later. The government's intent was to raise the nation’s moral standards, however, it had the opposite effect. In practice it was difficult to enforce and it was not difficult for drinkers to find alcohol, as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel makes very clear. Bootlegging, the unlawful production and provision of alcohol, became big business, making fortunes for criminals such as the gangster Al Capone. This appears to be the principal source of Gatsby’s wealth, the core of corruption within his…

    • 102 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Use Of Syntax In The Great Gatsby
    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Use Of Syntax In The Great Gatsby

    The Great Gatsby is a novel that depicts Jay Gatsby chasing his American Dream. Although Gatsby did it by illegal means, Fitzgerald honors Gatsby for the effort he put forth in trying to achieve his American Dream of winning Daisy back. With the use of symbolism, syntax to create a respectful tone towards Gatsby, and a mood of honor, Fitzgerald admires Gatsby for chasing an unattainable American Dream and almost succeeding.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby Corruption Analysis
    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Great Gatsby Corruption Analysis

    In The Great Gatsby, there are examples of corruption in most of the characters introduced. Some examples are more overt, such as Gatsby’s business acquaintance and alleged 1919 World Series ‘fixer’, Meyer Wolfsheim. But there are multiple cases where corruption can be found beyond the surface. Old money Tom and Daisy Buchanan, described by the narrator, Nick, as “careless” and “destructive”, despite having no engagement in illegal activities—with the exception of the novel’s climatic car fatality. Both parties are involved with Gatsby and both relate directly to his dream of gaining both monetary wealth and Daisy’s love.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby Last Passage Analysis
    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Great Gatsby Last Passage Analysis

    The Great Gatsby is a tragic American literature novel that represents the hopeful American dream. Fitzgerald throughout the entire book uses certain literary devices that add onto the sophistication of the novel. In the last passage of The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys Nick Caraway’s perspective and attitude towards Gatsby through imagery, symbolism and irony.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Corruption In The Great Gatsby
    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Theme Of Corruption In The Great Gatsby

    F. Scott Fitzgerald displays several prominent themes throughout The Great Gatsby. For example, Fitzgerald uses moral corruption, albeit there are other themes, but this one is the most prevalent. Without this theme, the novel would not have progressed anywhere near as fluid as it did the way Fitzgerald wrote the novel. Throughout the novel, the theme of moral corruption, aside from being subtly shown through the entire novel, becomes more prevalent throughout. This is demonstrated by Gatsby’s behavior and dreams corrupting Daisy’s morals even further than they already are. There is also the fact that there are acts of adultery committed by Tom and Myrtle. Aside from that, there is also Daisy’s second corruption as shown in the reason…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Why Is Corruption Important In The Great Gatsby
    • 1749 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Why Is Corruption Important In The Great Gatsby

    You have been taught your entire life to follow your dreams. You have always been told to believe in yourself. There are all these success stories of celebrities and professional athletes following their dream and working hard for it. But what about those who work hard and follow their dreams and fail? What do the celebrities have over the everyday people? Yes, they may have worked harder than some, but the majority works just as hard. Corruption has definitely had an impact on success in the past. Look at someone like Al Capone, the inventor of organized crime in the 1920s. He most likely achieved all of his dreams. Did he work hard? Probably, but he worked illegally in order to get his money and authority. He smuggled alcohol, which was illegal at the time, and did other illegal business. This was a cold-blooded business…

    • 1749 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Great Gatsby
    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Great Gatsby

    For my book report, I chose to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is a novel set in the twenties when the American economy was soaring (SparkNotes…). I choose this book because I had it in my bookshelf for a long time, but never found time to read it. I had no expectations of this book because I had never heard anything about it, and the summary on the back was un-descriptive. In this paper I will accurately and specifically go into the characters of the book, and present the themes, motifs and symbols of The Great Gatsby.…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics