Nenadi Marija Course Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Mihai Mndra Seminar Instructor: Assist. Prof.

Dana Mihilescu Comparative Literature English Language and Literature, 3 rd year 15 December 2011

The Function of the Jazz Age in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby

I looked around. Most of the remaining women were now having fights with men said to be their husbands. Even Jordans party, the quartet from East Egg, were rent asunder by dissension. One of the men was talking with curious intensity to a young actress, and his wife after attempting to laugh at the situation in a dignified and indifferent way broke down entirely and resorted to flank attacksat intervals she appeared suddenly at his side like an angry diamond, and hissed You promised! into his ear. The reluctance to go home was not confined to wayward men. The hall was at present occupied by two deplorably sober men and their highly indignant wives. The wives were sympathizing with each other in slightly raised voices. Whenever he sees Im having a good time he wants to go home. Never heard anything so selfish in my life. Were always the first ones to leave. So are we. Well, were almost the last tonight, said one of the men sheepishly. The orchestra left half an hour ago. In spite of the wives agreement that such malevolence was beyond credibility, the dispute ended in a short struggle, and both wives were lifted kicking into the night. (Fitzgerald 58-59)

The aim of this paper is to show how the period of Jazz Age, presented in The Great Gatsby, a time of reckless opulence and vulgar extravagance. (http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/pages/Gatsby/jazz.htm), relates to the central themes and moral attitudes which appear in the novel, and do not have just simple, local cause and effect function. This excerpt can be easily viewed in two ways: one, it is a description of society of the Jazz Age; two, we can observe how most of the main themes of the book are touched with what appear to be superficial and cynical comments. At the beginning of the first paragraph in the excerpt, apart from the obvious implication of morality of such a society, it is related the rootlessness and fleetingness of these people, the lack of stable relationship which send us, undoubtedly, to other relationships presented in the novel, but mostly to the relationship Nick-Jordan. It is also

presented one piece of the complex network of gossip, rumors, hear-says, which fills the whole book. In the continuation of the first paragraph (One of the men was talking with curious intensity to a young actress ()), the relationship implied is obvious and the intensity of the reaction is in this context anything but curious. But this intensity is curious in another sense: this is a society which is flippant and cynical, gay and hedonistic, but definitely not intense in its feeling for anyone or anything; (W. J. Harvey 34) as such, it contrasts the passion of Gatsbys dream of Daisy. In the next paragraph we are presented a strange occurrence after the party two sober men. Here Fitzgerald has a satirical point of view he shows his moral standings by accepting the opposite as the norm sobriety is defined as deplorable. This part we can easily translate like this: the wives are annoyed because the men are sober and want to go home. The same method is applied in the description of Tom and Daisy who went around wherever people played polo and were rich together (Fitzgerald 12) they were rich, so they played polo, but they played polo so they could show that they are rich. Last paragraph in this excerption shows us the whole rhythm of the novel: the first part of the sentence we have an elevated form of speaking, a consciously clever form of expression, but second half of the sentence cuts it off, with abrupt description of action throughout the novel we can see this shift in the diction of syntax (i.e.: At nine oclock, one morning late in July, Gatsbys gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn. (Fitzgerald 69)) Fitzgerald's masterpiece remains an engaging example of social history even as it uncovers the cracks in the glittering surface, the poison eating its way underneath. (Donald, 210) Fitzgeralds novel is a big spiders web of themes and motives that intersect each other, and trying to define just one of them, inevitably sends you to another, then to another, then to another One single paragraph can be analyzed from at least three points: one, the critic of society; two, the change in idea of American Dream; three, final relief felt after the WWI and the wish to live and enjoy it.

Works Cited: Donald, Scott. Possessions in The Great Gatsby. The Southern Review 37:2 (2001): 187-210 Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. London: Penguin Popular Classics, 1994 Harvey, W. J. Theme and Texture in The Great Gatsby Blooms Modern Critical Views: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 2006. 31-42 http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/pages/Gatsby/jazz.htm