Modernism And The Great Gatsby Essay - 2,005 words

To understand modern literature, one must develop a sense of the structured and ordered lifestyle prior to modern culture. Before the era of modernism, lifestyles were systematically organized through standard traditions. When World War I started, Americans felt the impact of modernism at its strongest with men going off to battle and women working in factories. Lifestyles were beginning to divert from family traditions.


People started to abandon their traditional values and adapt to the challenges that were altering lifestyles and thus modernism surfaced. Modernism did not have one specific definition, but an array of definitions and interpretations. The modernist authors who were beginning to surface at this time did not adhere to any one specific interpretation of modernism. According to C. Hugh Holman modernism is A strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression Modern implies a historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair. It not only rejects history, but also the society of whose fabrication history is a record.


It rejects traditional values and assumptions, and it rejects equally the rhetoric by which they were communicated. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man, and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious. (325) Modernism is an intermingling vision of fantasy and reality caused by daring changes in traditional values of society, economics, and the conception of the individual. The general tendency of the modernist is to move away from the ordered structure from previous generations by neglecting traditional values emphasized through ceremony and ritual. The nostalgic loss of unity as a civilization and the nostalgia arose from the loss of tradition (Alter 388). With the evolution of modernism, the values thus become inner directed and less in accord with the social structure. The traditional values changed from a prescriptive set of structured rules and order to a more relaxed emphasis on the chosen direction by the individual.


The prescriptive order is controlled by society and the individuals behavior must conform to the expectations of the traditional society. Modernism focuses more on diverse choices each person is entitled, thus pulling away from the structured society as a whole and therefore, placing more emphasis on personal choice. These attitudes transformed people socially by breaking away with the traditional songs, books, and historical artworks. Modernism allows people to explore various types of music, literature, and art, where no limits are placed on the imagination. In addition, the economy of America was being redefined from an agricultural to an industrial society. The new economy created booming business profits for a certain class of people, which in turn raised their standard of living.


The American dream appeared to be coming true in this period of economic prosperity. The social structure and economic status was flourishing and the American people felt they were on a pedestal protected from uncertainty, economic depression and the failure of the American dream. Even though there was great hope in America early in this period, this hope was also starting to come apart. Many early American writers were part of this period of hope and explored avenues in literature, which reflected a booming social and economic expansion.


John Aldridge states that the generation of writers to capture our imaginations and to dramatize an image of the literary life with which we could identify explore the fullest possibilities of feeling and being (65). These modernist writers were able to capture emotional, social, and economic issues in their literature by displaying the hidden truth of the American dream as a fairytale ending as a nightmare. Modernism wanted us to access all possibilities of the self and society by making a conscious break with traditions and structural values where no rules exist for the modernists and their dreams. The dreams that we carry with us in life are what give us dimension and shape and are played out by our own fate. The change that a modernist may have made or was looking to make was so abrupt that it confused reality and the pursuit of the American dream. The conflict between society's traditional values and the values of a modernists inner self created a great struggle between the past and the future.


Following ones inner being in obtaining ones unconscious aspirations or desires causes a conflict with the traditional values of an ordered society and the individual self. Modernism portrays the changing from a ritualistic to a chosen visionary lifestyle. Modernists can be considered a bridge between the (old) past and the (new) future of the individual. F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, a novel from this period, explores the American dream. He studies the way one acquires wealth and status, specifically through the character of Gatsby.


In acquiring his fortune and status, Gatsby's American dream becomes very irrational. Gatsby is an average man who falls in love with an unattainable society and all that it represents. As long as he has faith in lifes possibilities, Gatsby continues to strive for his dream of regaining Daisy's love (Sutton 104). Although Gatsby fails to achieve his quest regarding Daisy by his untimely death of being fatally shot, he succeeds in being a great example of the timeless American.


Rationalizing him as a timeless American, Gatsby acquires money through an irrational venture that is essentially a pursuit of the American dream. Gatsby is trying to capture the wealth and power of the American dream by accumulating many materialistic objects thinking it will provide his happiness. Gatsby is an essential representation of modern fiction in its taking apart the American dream, showing how it is an illusion. The Great Gatsby is the ongoing search of the individualized vision of the American dream ultimately leading to the crash of the American dream. The fatal crash of illusory values and the way in which this affects a group of characters of the first p ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: traditional values, jay gatsby, wealth and power, social and economic, pursuit of the american dream

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