How Is Society Portrayed In The Great Gatsby

The 1920s, known as the Roaring Twenties, was an era of dramatic social and political changes filled with flappers, dancing, alcohol, and parties. Between 1920 and 1929, the nation’s wealth more than doubled, causing many Americans to fall into a consumer society (Mintz, 2016). For some people, this new culture brought more conflict then celebration. Although for others, the 1920s were truly “roaring”, which is portrayed in the movie The Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway, a bond-seller, is persuaded by his doctor to write a therapeutic account of what put him in a sanitarium for depression. Nick’s journal describes how seven years earlier, in 1922, he had moved into a tiny house next door to a mysterious, giving millionaire, named Jay Gatsby (Luhrmann,
From the luxurious parties and cheap liquor, to the booming of Wall Street and the crashing of the stock market, quite a few issues came out of this era. To society in the 20s, getting rich was easier than being accepted (Prigozy, 2011). Throughout the film, the most developed theme would have to be that of social stratification- when a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. It is quite evident in the film that some groups of people have greater status, power, and wealth than other groups, causing them to be higher in society. This lead to the creation of a nation that pitied ‘lesser
Bootlegging is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where it is forbidden (Mints, 2016). Even though the sale of alcohol was illegal, alcoholic drinks were still available in underground establishments such as the “speakeasies” (Mintz, 2016). In the film, Gatsby takes Nick to an undercover hair salon, which was actually a place where the people could get liquor and watch flappers perform, to meet Mr. Wolfsheim. As stated earlier, Gatsby made his wealth by working with Mr. Wolfsheim. It is not identified how Gatsby received his wealth until the scene where Gatsby and Tom fight over Daisy. “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (Luhrmann, 2013). By that point, Tom had gathered too much information about Gatsby, and Gatsby couldn’t deny that everything Tom was saying wasn’t true. This shows that a lot of men, not only Gatsby, had earned their profits in illegal ways. Tom Buchanan's attitudes throughout the film are also pretty accurate of the era. The 1920s were a time when the KKK was very strong, even in the North and also a time when there was strong anti-immigrant sentiment (Mintz, 2013). It is not identified in the film that Tom is a member of the KKK, but we can see that he doesn’t know much about other races and