Great Gatsby

The 1920s is the decade in American history known as the “roaring twenties.” Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of life in the 1920s. Booming parties, prominence, fresh fashion trends, and the excess of alcohol are all aspects of life in the “roaring twenties.”

The booming parties in Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby reflect life in America during the 1920s. Gatsby displays his prominent fortune by throwing grand parties. From next door, Nick Carraway witnesses the scene of Gatsby’s fabulous summer parties:

There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and women came and went like moths among the whisperings of champagne and the stars…On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all the trains (Fitzgerald 43).

Gatsby’s house illuminates, the jazz music blares for the entire town to hear, the bubbly is served, and the guests dance until one A.M. The parties are “roaring.” Gatsby’s parties display the way Americans socialized and the lifestyle they lived during the 1920s when “Americans danced to the decades joyous music at a frantic and accelerating pace…Americans began to improvise leisure time activities that had no purpose other than having fun. People roared through the decade intent on enjoying every exciting moment of it…”(Nash 370). Life in the twenties consisted of fun, fun, and fun. Americans partied like there was no tomorrow. Gatsby’s parties reflect the way society partied in the 1920s. Americans threw expensive never-ending galas. One result from the grand parties and riches was the gain in fame.

Prominence in The Great Gatsby is imperative for life in Long Island and also reflects 1920s America. Gatsby throws magnificent parties, boasts about his car, and flaunts his costly materials. Gatsby’s materials and riches result in his vast popularity. During one of Gatsby’s parties, Nick becomes intrigued when he overhears a group gossiping about Gatsby. The gossip “was a testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it