The Great Gatsby; Through the Historical Lens

The Great Gatsby is based on the 1920’s New York City featuring two fictional places in Long Island- West Egg and East Egg. The “Roaring Twenties” was one of the most distinct and progressive eras in U.S. history. The post-WWI economic boom led to a wave of consumerism, soaring stock market, and higher standards of living. With the passage of the 19^th Amendment, women celebrated more freedom and moved away from traditional values through the flapper movement. Of course, all throughout this glamorous decade, the 18^th Amendment prohibited all sales, consumption, and production of alcohol.

In The Great Gatsby, the consumerism of the Twenties is characterized by the car. The car emerged in the decade as a symbol of freedom, wealth, and social status. Any person wealthy enough to buy a car did so. Nick admires Gatsby’s “rich cream color, bright with nickel” car which symbolizes Gatsby’s great wealth (64). This wealth of the Twenties, however, does not last. Starting with the stock market crash of 1929, America would face the worst economic conditions in history in the 1930’s known as the Great Depression. The false security in the stock market and banks of the 1920’s was the main cause of this disaster. In some ways, the car in the novel symbolizes this fake sense of extreme wealth of the Twenties. The cause of Gatsby’s ultimate blunder is the consequences of his yellow coupe. Likewise, the rich that lost everything in the Great Depression tried to sell their now useless cars to pay for basic survival. Of course, no one wanted to buy their cars in the 30’s.

The use of alcohol is so frequent in the novel that the reader almost forgets that drinking is illegal in this decade. Fitzgerald uses alcohol in The Great Gatsby to symbolize the moral decay of the Twenties. The comical scene with Owl Eyes leaving the party (55) shows the irresponsibility of alcohol that plagued the Twenties. Alcohol combined with the emergence of cars resulted in fatal accidents. Also on the surface, the limitless alcohol portrays the ineffectiveness of Prohibition. Speakeasies were so prevalent in the 20’s that almost all Americans still drank in the decade. Bootlegging raged in the 20’s, leading to rise of organized crime in cities. Gatsby, probably a bootlegger, enforces the moral decay portrayed through alcohol in the 20’s.

Even through the Republican “Return to Normalcy” rule of the 20’s, more freedoms were explored in big cities like New York. With the flapper movement, women began to break away from the traditional abstinence morals. Like Daisy and Jordan, many women explored sexual freedoms and sex before marriage. Nick’s repeated mention of sexual affairs reinforces the idea. New York was also more accepting of gays in the time. There were a couple of gay bars in New York, attracting homosexuals to the city. Nick is suspected of being gay in the novel. Fitzgerald shows through Nick’s suspicious encounter with McKee and tendencies to hang around other men outside of bars at night (gay bars possibly) that the 20’s allowed for more sexual freedoms. However, Nick never admits to being a homosexual even after Jordan uses euphemism to suggest he is gay (177). This parallels the fact that gays only enjoyed little acceptance in society in the 20’s. They were still persecuted and excluded from society. Fitzgerald, who was probably gay, portrays his inability to come out due to fears of society through Nick in The Great Gatsby.

Sources: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald