Janosky 1

Moses Janosky

Mr.Smith

Junior ELA

8 January 2023

The Darkside of the Roaring 20s

One of the most iconic writers of the 20th century is F. Scout Fitzgerald and author of

The Great Gatsby. The book takes place in America during the roaring twenties when the rich

lived lavish lifestyles riddled with parties, celebrations, and alcohol. This led to rather gloomy

times with wealth and success. The novel displays a pessimistic view of the 1920s, due to

disastrous twists and careless mistakes.

Gatsby’s insatiable hunger for wealth is the result of his life experiences. “His parents

were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people; his imagination had never really accepted them as

his parents at all” (Fitzgerald 70). Gatsby was born and raised in the Midwest sharing aspirations

of being rich like anyone else. This was the first spark in Gatsby for the need for something

more. Later Gatsby meets Dan Cody when fishing on Lake Superior, telling Dan that a storm is

near. “He was employed in a vague personal capacity–while he remained with Cody he was in

turn steward, mate, skipper, secretary, and even jailor, for Dan Cody”(72). Dan Cody took an

immediate liking to Gatsby and hired him to be his personal assistant aboard his yacht, spending

his time with some of the most successful people. Dan proceeded to educate Gatsby in giving off

the appearance of extreme wealth. He taught him how to present himself to others, what to wear,

and how to wow his guests with not only materialistic objects but to be a true gentleman. Dan

Cody allowed Gatsby to obtain a false sense of wealth much like a short cut away from his

humble beginnings. Gatsby is now able to fit in with the 1%, he needs a way to get rich.
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As a young man Gatsby is getting ready for war with plans on marrying his fiance Daisy,

and Nick explains that when he gets back, “Daisy breaks their engagement and is married to

Tom Buchanan, a rich young man who was born from an enormously wealthy family with a high

social status”(Zhang). Daisy has become persuaded by Tom's ability to buy her love, while she

willingly allows him to. As the two go down separate paths, Gatsby never gives up hope in

eventually winning back his fiance through a life of crime. Tom explains Gatsby’s scheme to

Daisy and Nick, “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in

Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” Fitzgerald (97). Gatsby and his partner in crime

Mr.Wolfsheim capitalized on the prohibition by selling alcohol which was illegal at the time.

This was a huge market since people needed to drink and pay lots to do so. He saw the

opportunity to become very successful and he did using the pursuit of Daisy to justify the rather

unsavory means to an end.a new life gained by crime.

The destructive consequences of wealth in the roaring twenties is due to “Rapid

modernization with the spread of electricity and the widespread usage of the

automobile”(Marcus). With all the new inventions and innovations who wouldn't be blinded by

positivity, especially the rich. and allow themselves to dream big? As signs of success are

everywhere, and especially with automobiles on the roads due to mass production flooding the

streets with relatively new drivers, and Nick explains that and massively produced for the people

giving nearly everyone the ability to drive. “The death car” as the newspapers called it, didn’t

stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then

disappeared around the next bend”(100). After the accident people are starting to realize the

potential downside of mass production of automobiles, slowly portraying a more somber look

on rapid modernization. Tom was having an affair with Myrtle but it ended with her death. The
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irony of this hit-and-run is that the driver of the “death car” is none other than Tom’s wife Daisy,

who unknowingly ended Tom’s affair. The only reason she was driving was that Gatsby, her,

Nick, Tom, and Jordan were celebrating and drinking, which turned into a frantic change in

scenery resulting in disaster. and deciding to continue elsewhere led to disaster. As invincibility

from wealth promotes destructive and reckless behavior causing the people around them to be

harmed.

Fitzgerald shows wonder and prosperity to the reader, before using elaborate twists to

reveal the problems of the roaring twenties. He focuses on the antics of the wealthy and

successful to display the pessimistic views of good things turning bad. The points he made then

stay true today by people acting recklessly with going too far with cars alcohol, parties, and the

dangers of the pursuit of wealth.

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Works Cited

FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT. Great Gatsby. KTOCZYTA PL, 2022.

Haibing, Zhang. “Symbolic Meanings of Colors in The Great Gatsby.” Published Online 26 June 2015,
vol. 10, June 2015, pp. 38–44,

Witcher, Marcus M., and Joseph Horton. From Prosperity to Poverty: The Story of American Economic
Decline During the 1920s. 2013, p. 9, [PDF] na-businesspress.com.
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Skill Not Foundational Proficient Advanced

Yet
Identifies a topic Appears in first Thesis establishes a
paragraph complex claim

Thesis establishes a
topic and a claim

Comments:
Thesis

Includes two or Includes evidence Includes specific,

fewer sources from scholarly and meaningful, and
informational well-chosen
Some evidence sources that connect evidence that relates
relates to the thesis to the novel and to the thesis
support the thesis

Evidence

Comments:
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Summarizes sources Explains how Explains well-

evidence supports selected points of
topic sentence of comparison among
individual sources and
paragraphs evidence and their
connection to the
Analysis Explains how details thesis
in the novel are
significant in
regards to context,
character, plot, or
theme

Comments:

… Little connection Explains how the Clearly explains

between texts; texts/sources are relationships among
difficult for the related, though texts (how they
reader to see how points could be confirm or challenge
the texts are related more selective or each other, build on
better developed each other, provide
Synthesis differing
Includes multiple perspectives, etc.)
sources in each body
paragraph

Comments:

Some elements Heading is correctly No errors in MLA

missing or some formatted format
errors in MLA format
Pages are numbered

In-text citations are

correctly formatted

Works Cited format:

hanging indent,
MLA Format double-spaced,
alphabetized, starts
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on a new page

Works Cited: each

source entry is in
correct MLA format

Comments:

Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are

basic proofreading correctly integrated correctly integrated

Follows essay Shows evidence of

Conventions organization careful proofreading

Shows evidence of
proofreading

Comments:

Moses,
We need to figure out how to get the great ideas you had on your mind-map, into your writing.
Main goal for next piece of writing, moving from summarizing a text, to analyzing it (i.e.
explaining HOW and WHY the evidence supports your thesis, instead of what happened)...
We’ll get there
Grade: C