Gatsby

magine the 1920's have been reenacted, a time of swinging parties and when things just did not seem to matter as much as they do now. This may not seem as hard as it sounds. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, paints a picture of what the time period was like. It was a time known as the "Jazz Age", where the economy was on an upswing and money was easy to be had. Prohibition was in affect, and bootlegging was a highly lucrative but shady business venture. Jay Gatsby most likely took part in bootlegging, which is how he accumulated his vast amount of money. Tom Buchanan on the other hand, acquired his wealthy status, by inheritance. He did not earn his money, but his family gave it to him. Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby each differ extremely much so on many views and situations that each of them came upon over the course of the novel.
Each of these characters represented exceptionally different ways of life. Jay Gatsby epitomized the time period of the 1920's. He was known for having his very lavish parties on a weekly basis. Gatsby had the money to have these parties and felt that if the resources were there, then why not spend your money. These parties were not only a time to get together with friends and have a good time; it was more of a way to show and prove your social status. In fact, most of the people who attended his parties had no relationship to Gatsby, but just went there to prove their importance to the society at

large. Tom Buchanan lived nearly the complete opposite of Gatsby. He never liked to go out and would never have ever thought to have such a large group of people descend onto his house for such an occasion as a party. If he did have people over, such as the case of when Gatsby and Nick went over to his house, everything would be completely on his watch and would be a very dull time such as sitting around and drinking cocktails. He was not a people person at all and felt that the "white man" should be the only one in power. Thus