Notesale: Turn your study into money

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The Great Gatsby Context; How Is It A Novel Of It’s Time?
Tom Buchanan references “The Rise Of The Coloured Empires” by Lothrop
Stoddard (although Tom refers to him as “Goddard”)
...
Fitzgerald was not fond of that view
at all; hence why he made it a book Tom would read and one which he got
the author’s name wrong
...
In the time that he
was writing in, Fitzgerald and his wife enjoyed the party lifestyle; and that
characterised his later works, such as the Great Gatsby
...
And even though he accepted it was
wrong, and would possibly lead to death as it does in his novels, he didn’t
back away from it
...
It was a “get rich quick” scheme that was almost fool proof; as
many police were corrupt and there was a small chance of being caught
...

After the shock and horror of the first world war, many people began
extravagant and party lifestyles in order to compensate for the damage
done
...
He
found his new life exciting; only becoming a celebrity after he started
writing
...

Fitzgerald also shows us, in the novel, how ruin is just around the corner
...
Although he could not force the 1929 wall street crash, it
could be a disaster like one he was hinting was going to happen, due to the
spending and carelessness of the wealthy
...
Radios, Gramophones, etc, at a rate produced like never before,
and everyone had to have one
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Where
spending your money was almost as good as having it
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Prohibition of alcohol was supported by millions, even if it was drunk by the
others
...
Gatsby represents
this as he earned his wealth from bootlegging, and it gets him killed
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Women gained the
vote in America in 1920 and attitudes towards them started to slowly
change
...
Furthermore, since Daisy discovered Tom was having affairs, she
didn’t sleep with him
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• However, they had not changed enough
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Even though she can rebel a little, it is well short
of what women can do today, and Fitzgerald is also perhaps saying that
viewing women as possessions was bad
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• There is also a strong rift between “old money” and “new money”
...
(East Egg and
West Egg)
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Tom, however, did, and he looks down upon anyone
who hasn’t
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It was an illusion for the workers who dreamed to
be up there
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He
spent time abroad; indeed revising the book itself in Rome
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Just like Tom and
Daisy
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• The cars also represent the age
...

• European styles were coming into fashion
...

• It was also fashionable to be related to royalty
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Americans would have
associated him with deceit and lying
...

However it is better for them to imagine he gained his wealth from some
form of royalty, rather than from none
...
This
characterised the writing of this age as it was very description heavy
...
S
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This was a reflection on how society
would end up should it continue on it’s current course
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• Corruption was everywhere in 1920s
...
We can
see this when Gatsby is stopped by a policeman, who seeing it is Gatsby,
waves him on
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Fitzgerald was
commenting on the vast backhand dealings that went on all the time in the
society of that time
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And sporting events
were becoming more widespread
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And Wolfshiem rigged a baseball world series
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• Lastly, Fitzgerald loved the party lifestyle
...
He
and Zelda went out regularly to get drunk
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It is possible he is being a hypocrite
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