Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby perfectly illuminates the American life of the Jazz Age.
time and has earned the distinction as one of the truly great American novels. "No writer has more closely personified the .
glamour and heartbreak of the American dream. 'not just the American dream, but the human dream,'" ("Fitzgerald" 30). .
Historically, this novel is useful in understanding what was going on in America after World War I, but from another .
prospect. Fitzgerald presented so clearly the "restless" American society with all it's corruption and crimes, hidden in .
people's determination to recreate their lives. Fitzgerald's best work "is one of the greatest literary documentsof this .
period, in which the American economy soared, bringing unprecedented levels of prosperity to the nation (Gatsby, n. pag.). .
The Great Gatsby delineates the diverse elements of high society during the Jazz Age through the following representative .
characters: Jay Gatsby as the nouveau riche, Tom Buchanan as the old money, and Jordan Baker as the reckless, detached modern .
woman. .
The hero, Jay Gatsby, is a Midwesterner-turned-Easterner, whose ambition is fueled by the desire to be reunited with .
his long lost love. His quest for the American dream leads him from poverty to wealth; he is a self-made millionaire, a .
nouveau riche. When we first meet him, Jay Gatsby is a mysterious, fantastically wealthy young man. Laterin the novel we .
learn that his real name is James Gatz; he was born in North Dakota, to an impoverished farming family. "The son of .
'shiftless and unsuccessful farm people,' James Gatz was always ambitious." He left his family at the earliest opportunity .
and invented a new history and persona for himself," ("Fitzgerald" 37). Although Gatsby belongs to the high society, he never .
quite fits in. He always feels somewhat like an outsider even though he hosts the parties with which everyone attends."His .