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Patrick

[Link]

E Block

8 January 2023

Wealth in the 1920s; An analysis of crime and money in The Great Gatsby

Mesmerized by Jay Gatsby’s wealth? During the roaring 1920s there was an influx in the

amount of people becoming rich, although over half the country fell below the poverty line at the

time. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald’s views of the wealth and

success of the roaring 20s are pessimistic as he paints a picture of judgment and cynicism

towards prosperity for those who didn’t inherit it..

Although F. Scott Fitzgerald was pessimistic towards wealth in the 1920s, Fitzgerald’s

reasoning is not unfounded when looking at the state of the country at the time. In a research

paper written by Penn State, In the late 1920s, it was estimated that “the working poor comprised

almost 14% of the population– employed but unable to subsist on earned income. Together, lack

of employment and underemployment became targets of concern as the nation sank into

depression in the late 1920s” (Glasmeier 2002) During the period Fitzgerald wrote The Great

Gatsby, 14 out of 100 people in the United States were working yet unable to live on what they

earned. These issues were significant in the country as the rich got richer, and eventually led into

the Great Depression during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Although the country’s poverty

inequality was at a high, people had one last hope for opportunity in the city. “Second, poverty in

the late 1920s was enormous and a national problem… poverty had become a mobile problem

with both African and white Americans Moving out of the South in search of opportunities in

Midwestern industrial urban areas.” (Glasmeier 2002) This excerpt from Glasmeier’s piece
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demonstrates poverty and lack of opportunity in the south compared to the booming urban scene

that forced people to move from the south to cities. Gatsby was raised in the midwest, and would

eventually seek out New York for new economic opportunity, exactly like Nick seeking riches on

Wall Street. Workers would have to go to urban cities to find more opportunities for steady

income or to become rich.

Fitzgerald’s pessimistic views of wealth become more apparent when comparing Nick

and Gatsby. When looking at the situations of Nick and Gatsby, they have a large contrast. In an

article named “All men are [not] created Equal”, the author Claire Stocks points out that “while

the 30-year-old Nick is working to support himself in the bonds business, Gatsby has, at roughly

the same age, already secured his own wealth through his criminal activities and associations.”

(Stocks 2007) Gatsby tells a story to Nick about where came from that is very similar to Nick’s

own. A young man from the middle of nowhere who moved to New York and can afford huge

mansions. Yet, the contrast between both is large. Next to Gatsby’s New York mansion was

Nick’s small shack, indicating that Gatsby’s immense wealth for his age points to his criminal

history. Fitzgerald points this out in The Great Gatsby when Nick explains “I would have

accepted without question the information that Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or

from the lower East Side of New York. That was comprehensible. But young men didn’t—at

least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn’t—drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a

palace on Long Island Sound. (Fitzgerald 54) Fitzgerald points out to the reader that it is very

unlikely for someone as young as Gatsby to have come from nowhere and become rich, meaning

the only way for a young man like Gatsby to get rich in Fitzgerald’s eyes in the roaring 20s is

through crime, since big business made it impossible to do so yourself. In a letter written in

1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald reflected on this when he wrote: "I selected the stuff to fit a given mood
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or |hauntedness' or whatever you might call it, rejecting in advance in Gatsby, for instance, all of

the ordinary material for Long Island, bit crooks, adultery theme and always starting from the

small focal point that impressed me--my own meeting with Arnold Rothstein for

instance."(Fitzgerald 1937) This excerpt from the article ‘Gatsby as Gangster’ demonstrates

Fitzgerald’s views on wealth by choosing to interview a notorious criminal named Arnold

Rothstein for inspiration on Gatsby. He states he took inspiration from Rothstein’s small start,

which is similar to Gatsby's story about being a farmer. Similar to Rothstein, Gatsby starts as a

small crook and makes his way up to a wealthy notorious gangster, showing that the only path

towards riches for Gatsby as a young man in Fitzgerald’s eyes was that of a criminal. The

economy of the 1920s would have made it difficult for Gatsby to amass such wealth at his age,

leaving the only door for opportunity be that of crime.

Although Fitzgerald holds a pessimistic view of wealth in the 1920s, he doesn’t feel the

same towards inherited wealth. According to the article All Men are [not] created Equal, Despite

Gatsby’s “attempts to prove that anyone can achieve 'greatness'. However, as Gatsby seems to

realize, it is not that simple, and money alone does not bring with it the same status as inherited

wealth” (Stocks 2007) Although Gatsby achieved his wealth through crime, he did it through a

very hard work ethic. Fitzgerald takes a shot at the Nouveau Riche of the 1920s, and explains to

us he doesn’t hold the same respect for those who gained their wealth through crime.

Specifically, in a scene where Gatsby and Nick are discussing how Gatsby bought his house,

Gatsby says it took him three years to earn the money for the purchase and Nick responds with

“‘I thought you inherited your money.’ "I did, old sport," [Gatsby] said automatically, ‘but I lost

most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war.’” (Fitzgerald 96) Fitzgerald chooses to make

Gatsby lie about inheriting his money, and Gatsby responds nervously when asked, but why? In
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the 1920s, the poverty inequality would have made it nearly impossible for a young man like

Gatsby to get so rich. Gatsby felt like he had to hide this so that he didn’t look like a criminal to

Nick, or more importantly Daisy. Fitzgerald tells us this through the words of Tom Buchannen,

“‘A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know.’ “ (Fitzgerald 115)

Fitzgerald is telling us that during his time, he viewed a lot of the newly rich people as criminals.

He believes this because the widespread poverty and lack of economic regulations at the time

kept those poor in poverty, thus propelling ambitious young men like Gatsby into a life of crime.

F. Scott Fitzgerald shows his pessimism towards the newly acquired wealth in America

during the 1920s by holding inherited wealth to a higher standard, and calling the new-rich

criminals. Fitzgerald’s view on wealth paints an unconscious story of the sword of damocles. A

tale about a sword suspended above a very wealthy king by a horse's hair, showing that

everything he's worked for can be taken away in an instant. While Gatsby is in the prime of his

life and reaping the benefits of his hard work, he still found himself at the end of that dock

looking for the green light every night. Despite not having what you may want, F. Scott

Fitzgerald teaches us to look around and appreciate what we have while you still can.
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Works Cited

-Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1925.

-Glasmeier, Amy K. “One Nation, Pulling Apart: The Basis of Persistent Poverty in the USA ...”

Penn State University, [Link]

-Pauly, Thomas H. "Gatsby as Gangster." Studies in American Fiction, vol. 21, no. 2, autumn

1993, pp. 225+. Gale Literature Resource Center,

[Link]/apps/doc/A14769861/LitRC?u=mlin_n_newhigh&sid=bookmark-LitRC&

xid=150a5669. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.

-Stocks, Claire. "'All men are [not] created equal': F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: Claire

Stocks illustrates how the narrator's bias towards this novel's hero is central to the critique

of belief in the 'American Dream'." The English Review, vol. 17, no. 3, Feb. 2007, pp. 9+.

Gale Literature Resource Center,

[Link]/apps/doc/A158832066/LitRC?u=mlin_n_newhigh&sid=bookmark-LitRC

&xid=78370d35. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.

Skill Not Yet Foundational Proficient Advanced

Identifies a topic Appears in first Thesis establishes a

paragraph complex claim

Thesis establishes a

topic and a claim

Thesis
Comments:

Includes two or fewer Includes evidence Includes specific,

sources from scholarly and meaningful, and

informational sources well-chosen evidence

Some evidence that connect to the that relates to the

relates to the thesis novel and support the thesis

thesis

Evidence

Comments:

Summarizes sources Explains how Explains

evidence supports well-selected points

topic sentence of of comparison among

individual paragraphs sources and evidence

and their connection

Analysis Explains how details to the 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 reader related, though points texts (how they

to see how the texts could be more confirm or challenge

are related selective or better each other, build on

Synthesis developed each other, provide

differing

Includes multiple perspectives, etc.)

sources in each body

paragraph

Comments:

Some elements Heading is correctly No errors in MLA

missing or some errors formatted format

in MLA format

Pages are numbered

In-text citations are

correctly formatted

MLA Format Works Cited format:

hanging indent,

double-spaced,

alphabetized, starts on

a new page

Works Cited: each

source entry is in
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correct MLA format

Comments:

Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are

basic proofreading correctly integrated correctly integrated

Conventions Follows essay Shows evidence of

organization careful proofreading

Shows evidence of

proofreading

Comments:

Patrick,

All in all, this turned out to be a fairly interesting essay. Biggest improvement to make is in flow

of ideas and ensuring everything you say relates back to proving your thesis. I feel like your 3rd
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body paragraph claim argues against your thesis, and that’s when you might consider adding

more to the work thesis during the final drafting process (this makes for a more complex

argument)

Grade: B