The Jazz Age and its tensions
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby presents the Jazz Age, also known as the Roaring Twenties, as a period of economic boom, conspicuous wealth, and changing social habits after World War I. Prohibition helped create a lucrative illegal alcohol trade. The novel places this prosperity alongside materialism and moral decay.
- Fitzgerald was associated with the Lost Generation, a group of expatriate writers described as disillusioned.
- The flapper represents changing fashions and social behaviour among young women.
Plot and narration
Published in 1925, the novel is set in New York and Long Island during the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan’s cousin and Gatsby’s neighbour, recounts the events after they have happened. He is both involved in the story and an observer of its characters. Flashbacks gradually reveal that Jay Gatsby was born James Gatz and acquired his wealth illegally. His central aim is to reunite with Daisy, who is married to Tom Buchanan.
Symbols and the American Dream
Gatsby’s story explores the corruption of the American Dream by wealth and greed. The green light across the bay represents his hopes and an apparently unreachable goal. The Valley of Ashes evokes the costs of wealth and social inequality, while the faded eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg suggest judgment over a morally compromised society. These symbols connect Gatsby’s personal longing with the novel’s wider social criticism.