The Great Gatsby: Background

Genre

The Great Gatsby is often seen as a blend of modernism and realism. It uses the figurative language of modernist literature to reflect the social and psychological realities of the Jazz Age. Realism, as the name suggests, aims to depict the world as it exists. Realist writers rely on their characters to shed light on the social and economic realities of their time. In the beginning, realism was mostly a reaction to Romanticism, which portrayed an idyllic world. Realist texts, such as The Great Gatsby, on the other hand, have complex and flawed characters.

Modernism, which was initially a reaction to growing urbanization and the increasing applications of technology, was interested in the individual, in internal experience. Accordingly, modernist writers drew on theories of the unconscious to amply depict their characters’ inner lives.

The Great Gatsby has many modernist elements, the most important being the poetic way of describing reality using phrases such as “blue smoke,” a “grotesque rose,” “shining dust,” etc. At the same time, it does not fully belong to modernism because of attributes such as setting, detail, and social commentary.

Historical and Philosophical Background

Set during the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby provides a critique of the Prohibition era in America. This period was marked by jazz music, economic prosperity, and youth rebellion. The First World War had ended in 1919, and Warren G. Harding assumed the presidency in 1920. Harding’s administration was rather scandalous and corruption-ridden. The government promoted businesses and undermined the interests and requests of the laboring classes. Further, industries such as agriculture, textile, and certain types of mining suffered greatly, forcing people to move to cities to earn a living. The financial gains were limited to the upper classes. The 1920s also resulted in rampant materialism, as amply reflected in The Great Gatsby.

Fitzgerald also references other issues of national importance, such as hatred toward “outsiders,” the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and social and economic emancipation of women. Using his characters, Fitzgerald is able to provide a social critique of the society he lived in.