The Great Gatsby: kritisk analyse af amerikansk samfund

The Great Gatsby – an analysis/interpretation set up as an essay.

‘How does Fitzgerald present a critique of American society through his use of textual features in his novel ‘The Great Gatsby’?

Funnel introduction:

As a reaction to the suppression and hierarchical class structure of 17th century Europe, the first settlers in America made sure that in this new land of hope and dreams the founding principles, stated in their ‘Declaration of Independence’, were that “…all men are created equal” and all men have the rights to “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

When Scott Fitzgerald writes his novel The Great Gatsby about American society in the 1920s, he makes an implicit critique of the possibilities of man to become this ‘new free and equal man in a new land’. In The Great Gatsby we are confronted with a man, who is determined to live ‘the American dream’, but is faced with social structures that make it impossible for him to succeed.

The characters in The Great Gatsby all represent different aspects of social life in the 1920s in America:

Tom and Daisy are old money, they are from Wast Egg, where they were born into wealth and feel superior to others, they seem careless and selfish, but their money protects them.