The Hen Review

eat Gatsby was set in the 1920s, a symbol of a nation of change for many, from a state of post-war nervousness and shock, to the path to a realisation of the American Dream. Like The Great Gatsby, the Fitzgeralds’ existence during the 1920s was one of flair and extravagance, of excess spending, riotous parties, and the company of the elite. Writing in 1931, Fitzgerald described how the Jazz Age “bore him up, flattered him and gave him more money than he could dream of” – simply for his recollection and vigorous literary realisation of the “nervous energy stored up and unexpended in the War” (Jo Tate 64) in his literary output of short stories. Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby also “participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War,” claiming to have “came back restless” and resulting in his migration “East [to] learn the bond business]” (Fitzgerald 3) At one point, Fitzgeral

pite the Depression (Mangum 866). Their downfall however, proceeding the crash of 1929, was just as spectacular, indirectly resulting in the institutionalisation of Fitzgerald’s wife for depression and psychological instability. Fitzgerald meanwhile yielded to alcohol abuse (Reynolds 860).

Fitzgerald, in Gatsby, portrays the lives of the careless and restless rich, depicting Jay Gatsby as the personification of the American Dream, the self-made man whose aim to succeed is also a futile quest for the love of the shallow and spoiled Daisy Buchannan (Mangum 865). A parallel to Fitzgerald’s own existence during the 1920s can be revealed as he describes the scenes of parties, happening on a regular basis, at Gatsby’s mansion. Extravaganza and panache abound when Gatsby hosts parties that are so grand, Gatsby himself does not know half of the visitors; “sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all…” (Fitzgerald 41). To add to the notion of Gatsby’s mindless squandering of money, Gatsby it is claimed by Nick, does not even invite most of his visitors, “a...