Is the Great Gatsby relevant to today's society?.
While the Great Gatsby takes place in the roaring twenties there are still messages present that are strikingly similar to our own day and age. F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous piece of literature touches on a variety of themes. Whether it is the lush decadence of the upper class or the political themes focused on in the novel. The relevance to today's society couldn't be clearer than in the ideas of the "American Dream" that Fitzgerald covers in the text. Relevance to modern day is echoed throughout the novel with the use of social commentary throughout. Without the poignant look at this society many of these parallels would dissolve.
The historical and political ideas discussed in the work eerily mimic much of America today. The divide of the class system is very similar to that of modern day. Lower, middle, and upper classes are depicted with the Wilson's, West Egg, and East Egg. Tom and Daisy are clearly a part of the upper class. George Wilson serves the role of the lower class blue collar worker. He spends his days working while his wife dates a rich upper class man. Some things just don't change; this story could be a common occurrence today. In my eyes Nick embodies the middle class with a white collar job and a decent house in West Egg. Gatsby is the exception of the West Egg resident. He is an exceedingly wealthy man in a middle class neighborhood. But is that really much different than a drug dealer living in a middle class area today? When it comes down to it, Gatsby is nothing more than a drug deal after all. He spends money on huge parties where the booze flows like water. This is not very different than a rave party laden with ecstasy in any of America's metropolises today.
This brings us to the moral decadence that Fitzgerald explores in the novel. Tom Buchanan is the quintessential example of moral decadence. An alcoholic man who is involved in an affair would not be a stretch in today's world.