The Great Gatsby as a Modernist Novel Essays

The Great Gatsby as a Modernist Novel Essays The Great Gatsby as a Modernist Novel Essay The Great Gatsby as a Modernist Novel Essay Essay Topic: The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a novel which includes a variety of literary genres, one of which being the modernist genre, a literary movement which had its peak of popularity between 1910-1960. This is shown through; Fitzgerald’s use of first person narration to give an undecided view point of society, which can be seen as social criticism, symbolism, allegorical characters, and poetic language. Fitzgerald has chosen Nick Caraway to be the narrator for the whole duration of the novel to present his views of social criticism of the 1920s in an indecisive way. Fitzgerald uses Nick’s narration to presents the criticisms of society as they are, without giving his own opinion, he leaves it open to interpretation. This is evidently shown through Jordan stating, â€Å"I don’t care what I do as long as I have fun†. Fitzgerald has used Nick’s first person narration to present the obvious criticism of carelessness within the 1920s society due to the newly found hedonistic attitude. Although Nick has not specifically given his opinion on it, he has left the judgement open to the interpretation of the reader, as he has questioned the decline of morals within the society. This hedonistic and careless attitude towards life in the 1920s was a result of the brutality faced in the world war and people celebrating life and living it to the fullest. This again stre sses how The Great Gatsby is a modernist novel as the modern writer wrote in response to the post world war depression, by questioning society, life, and morals and also as Nick is indecisive towards the hedonistic attitude as he criticised it, yet he continued to associate himself with the people. New technology was another social criticism that is expressed by the modern writer. This is shown in the novel through the contrasting descriptions of the car as the â€Å"brisk yellow bug†, becoming the â€Å"death car†. The two juxtaposing descriptions reveal Fitzgerald’s undecided view of the car a