The novel is set in the summer of 1922. It is the ‘roaring twenties’, the optimistic period following WWI; young American men, aware of the short length that life can be, returned from duty with money burning in their pockets. It is the age of prohibition, of shady gangsters and corrupt cops; of decadence beyond means. With the power of hindsight, we also know the hedonistic lifestyle couldn’t last. Carelessness and greed meant that on a certain Black Tuesday in 1929, the global markets collapsed and the party ended.
History repeats itself. As we all know, there was another recent Global Financial Crisis. The good times of the ‘noughties’, were brought to a sudden halt in September 2008, when stock markets plummeted worldwide. We are constantly reminded of our times of austerity, the age of the credit-crunch. Therefore, to read The Great Gatsby in 2012 is to read through the lens of recession.
F. Scott Fitzgerald creates a world of vivid characters. Our narrator Nick Carraway works in the bond market. He introduces us to the fictional New York district of West Egg, home to the newly made millionaires, one of whom is the eponymous Jay Gatsby. A man with a murky history, it is Gatsby’s “gleaming, dazzling parties” that make him famous. And there is Daisy, Nick’s wealthy second cousin who, despite being a married woman, is the object of Gatsby’s admirations. Though she yields to Gatsby’s ostentatious shows of affection, she fails to face her responsibilities. We also meet Daisy’s friend, Jordan, who is a sportswoman supporting dubious moral values. And finally, Daisy’s husband, Tom, the arrogant bully with the assurances of wealth and family money. These characters appeal to modern readers so much because it is easy to see in them the ‘us’ of five years ago.
The narrative of our recession has taught us to not trust the man in the bond market who deals in abstract money. We know the stories of bankers who are arrogant bullies with dubious morals and who fail to face up to their responsibilities. Still smarting from the crash, we sense with a special understanding, the storm which Gatsby’s world is about to face.
The Great Gatsby may be an amazing love story and it may
contain the most excitingly written party descriptions in the history of literature, but the reason we keep on going back to it is the money. It is enormous wealth that gives the characters the ammunition to self-destruct. Fitzgerald shows us what too much money does to a person. He shows us how stupid we were, and how stupid we will doubtlessly be again.