F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby as Criticism of American Society

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes American family in the 1920?s for its tendencies to waste, advertise, form petty relationships, and obsess over appearances. The work has been praised for both its brute(a) realism and its keen depiction of the age that The New York Times referred to as the era when, gin was the national drink and sex was the national obsession(Fitzgerald vii). . . . indifference is presented as a moral failure - a failure of society, particularly the society of the American east to recognize the imperatives of truth and honesty and justice? (Gallo 35). F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the inefficient tendencies of American society. He uses the valley of ashes to refer to this ugly aspect of American society. The valley of ashes is a bleak area situated amid the westside Egg and New York City, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a prodigious effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air(Fitzgerald 23). This dour wasteland is located right along the roadway and train way of life between the eggs, home of the lofty aristocrats, and New York City, the exciting and fashionable urban center where many of the nations wealthiest people live, work, and entertain themselves. There is no essential difference between the moneyed wastelands of New York City and Long Island and the valley of ashes, (Gallo 49) Referring to an eye doctors hoarding in the valley of ashes, Nick, our narrator comments Evidently some wild wiggle of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and wherefore sank down himself into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away. But ... ... molybdenum The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Urbana U of Illinois P, 1970. Whitley, John S. F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby. London Edward Arnold, 1976. Outline Thesis story In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes American society in the 1920?s for its mark to waste, advertise, form superficial relationships, and obsess over appearances. I. Introduction A. Literary unstained B. Societal Criticism 1. wasteful tendency 2. advertising obsession 3. superficial relationships 4. appearances fixation II. Wasteful Tendency A. Valley of Ashes B. Gatsby C. Tom and Daisy III. Advertising fixation A. Billboard B. McKees C. Tom D. Daisy E. Gatsby III. Appearances Fixation A. myrtle B. Catherine C. Gatsby IV. Superficial Relationships A. Billboard B. Myrtle?s Party