The Roaring Twenties was clearly a time of when the wealthy lived a precarious lifestyle with wanton disregard

for human dignity. It was an era of tremendous growth and unprecedented prosperity. Evidenced in its overarching greed, empty pursuit of pleasure, and cynicism, Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral value. Fitzgerald alluded to the decadence of the West throughout The Great Gatsby by the abuse of wealth and power, defense of racist ideas, and the denial of any responsibility for ones actions. In the form of his character Tom Buchanan, Fitzgerald seems to have launched one of the most intense and devastating attacks on the upper classes. In 1920s, the hereditary millionaire had become simply a consumer who had laid aside his role as a producer. The first time that Carraway meets Buchanan, he appears in riding clothes standing with his legs apart on the front porch (Fitzgerald) Both his sport clothes and his relaxed pose suggest a way of life that has nothing to do with the actual creation of wealth by means of productive labor. Buchanan fits into the category of the leisure class, a term coined by Thorstein Veblen. Their main features, as depicted by Veblen, are their manifest consumption and their equally obtrusive leisure. Both of these features denote the respectability of the millionaire and emphasize that he can allow himself to waste his money and time on idle amusements and unnecessary goods, whereas the rest of the industrial population has to perform manual work in order to survive. Toms extravagance is also shown when he married Daisy in June 1919, he brought a hundred guests in four private railway cars that took an entire floor of the hotel to put them up. As a wedding gift he presented Daisy with a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a tremendously impressive sum even now. Carraway shows Buchanan in a permanently warlike attitude, like that of a predator even in a moment of apparent ease such as a stroll along the street. Buchanan displays bold aggression and an alert sense of status throughout the book. He is always eager to affirm his physical superiority over everyone else, although his affirmations are often expressed in terms that show evidence of a dubious sort of reasoning, such as a conversation between Nick and Tom -Now, dont think my opinion on these matters is final, just because Im stronger and more of a man than you are. Also, Toms decadent behaviors is described by Nick as They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. This quote is interesting because it shows two levels of carelessness. Firstly, there is carelessness shown by smashing things up, and then, a retreat into vast carelessness. This retreat implies that they are careless of the consequences of their actions, which is a sign of social power. Thus, the initial thoughtlessness is compounded with the callousness of one who knows his actions hold no personal consequences for him, and is not capable of recognizing the misery that he has inflicted upon others as such. Buchanans aggressive manners not only proves his personal degeneration, but also highlight his place as a handicap to the progress of society. Furthermore, Myrtle Wilson too portrays decadence when she becomes emboldened in her pretensions amid the surroundings of the hideously overcrowded apartment that Tom rented for her. She announces that her third costume change of the day - an elaborate afternoon dress of cream-colored chiffon is just a crazy old thing she slips on when she doesnt care how she looks. Waxing ever more expansive, Myrtle promises to give Mrs. McKee the dress off her

back since shes got to get another one tomorrow anyway. Once inside the apartment, she flounces around the place, her voice transformed into a high mincing shout and her laughter becoming progressively more artificial. Tom brings her crashing to earth when Mr. McKee, the photographer comments that hed like to do more work for the wealthy residents of Long Island. Tom proposes that McKee take photographs of Myrtles husband George B Wilson at the Gasoline Pump. It is clearly shown that neither McKee nor Myrtle will gain access to the privileged precincts of East Egg. In fact, when Myrtle goes so far as to repeat Daisys name, Tom breaks her nose with a slap of his open hand. The dog of indeterminate breeding best symbolizes Myrtles own situation. She is, for Tom, a possession bought using his wealth, to be played with, fondled, and in due course ignored. Also, the various social climbers and ambitious speculators who attend Gatsbys parties evidence the greedy scramble for wealth. In the 1920s, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted the American dream, especially on the East Coast. As Gatsbys dream of loving Daisy is ruined by the difference in their respective social statuses, his resorting to crime to make enough money to impress her, and the rampant materialism that characterizes her lifestyle.Gatsby instills Daisy with a kind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Gatsbys dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object money and pleasure. That said, at the end of the novel, Nick Carraway reflects upon Gatsbys failure by utilizing the following description of Manhattan Island: As the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailorss eyesa fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsbys house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams. Clearly, the beginning of the American civilization involved conquest, aggression, and destruction. There is an element at the very birth of the American civilization which goes hand in hand with amorality and dreams. The fresh, green, breast of the new world is connected with rape and aggressive masculinity. The vanished trees represent the dominion of man over nature as a limited will to power, while the fact that they pandered in whispers to this human dream shows how deeply the amorality of aggression and conquest is rooted: the trees, according to the narrator, almost invite their own end by simply growing there. Carraway links Gatsby with the American past by stressing elements of violent desire at the heart of the American dream. Implicitly, the source of Buchanans riches are included in this, and that they are protected by law and morality, because, of all the characters in the novel, he is certainly the most grounded in and ancestrally related to American history. Fitzgerald had previously placed this paragraph at the beginning of the novel shortly after Nick Carraway had visited Buchanans red and white Georgian Colonial mansion, for this original placement serves to link the source of both Gatsbys and Buchanans riches to forces of aggression and exploitation. Buchanan uses the defense of law and order to hide his decadence and his amorality. Additionally. The novels representative of the American West, Dan Cody, shares the same lack of morality, which is portrayed as a feature of its original corruption. When he returns to the East, Dan Cody is the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back the savage violence of

the frontier brothel and saloon, indicating that the West has long since been corrupted by the forbears of Buchanan and Gatsby. Another piece of decadence can be found in Toms defense of racist ideas. In the course of a dinner at East Egg, he bursts out, The idea is if we dont look out the white race will be utterly submerged. Its all scientific stuff; its been proved. The book that Tom is referring to is the Rising Tide of Color, written by Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard. The thesis of Grant rests upon the idea that physical features denote superior mental and spiritual qualities, and that material success and political dominance are in themselves evidence of racial superiority. Later in the novel, during his argument with Gatsby, Buchanan uses the intermarriage between black and white as a sign of the decay of various social and cultural institutions. Buchanan seems to echo Stoddards interpretation of the peril presented to America by the expansion in numbers of its black population, making him the most popular American racist of the 1920s. As an unproductive member of society, Buchanan needs to defend his social position. As a hereditary millionaire, he is conscious of the importance of tradition and social order as devices by which to retain his position. Tom simply cannot cope with the idea of change in society. In short, Tom is a millionaire lacking in imagination and intellect who owes his privileged position in society to the efforts of previous generations. He is not aware that the decadence of civilization lies not so much in the external threats of the new riches nor in the expansion of the blacks, as in himself and his own inefficiency. During the night of the car accident which kills Myrtle Wilson, Nick Carraway returns to Buchanans East Egg mansion. He spots Daisy and Tom sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale. Buchanan is intently talking to Daisy, and the fact that neither of them have touched the chicken or the ale leads Carraway to believe that they are both conspiring together. The conspiracy is finally acted out when Wilson kills Gatsby at the swimming pool and then commits suicide. Carraway finds proof of his suspicions when he accidentally and unavoidably meets Buchanan in the street, after everything has appeared to come to a conclusion. By telling Carraway that he informed Wilson who the car belonged to, Buchanan reveals his active role in Gatsbys holocaust. His destruction of Gatsby, which avoids any direct confrontation through the subtle means that he employs, and his subsequent denial of any responsibility for his actions accentuates the main features of his decadence. Gatsby, although a gangster, is still capable of an aristocratic form of honor. He decides to stand by Daisy after the accident. However, Tom, who is driven by a slave morality and is obsessed with preserving his reputation and possessions, never runs risks. Satisfied by his revenge, Buchanan returns to his former passive state, enveloped in the security of the comforts of his colonial mansion. In his revenge and I his inability to forget, he shows the very essence of the slave mentality which characterizes his decadence. It is clearly shown in The Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald has not broken free from his identification of power, money, and amorality as the roots of progress and civilization. However, it should also be seen as a criticism of the individuals who wish to appropriate wealth without the concomitant cultural responsibility that Fitzgerald attaches to it, and the difficulties that this group create for those who are directly below them and who are attempting to improve their position, while also adhering to their moral code. In conclusion, decadence is portrayed by the

irresponsible attitude of the East Eggers, the misuse of influence and riches, and the inclination to agree with racist ideas.