Wk2 Dawn Response

I think The Great Gatsby is considered a great American novel because it portrays wealth as the epitome of success. The rich are at the top of the food chain, it is conceived from immorality and breeds more immorality. Not to say that there aren’t wealthy people who are got there morally or who don’t use their money in the right ways, but the great American dream is designed around being successful and rich no matter how you get there, which is why The Great Gatsby is an example of the great American dream.

The Great Gatsby was written in 1924 and revolved around money, partying, and love. The behavior of the characters matches the behavior of people living in the 1920s. World War I had just ended so it was a time of celebrating. Women’s rights were in full swing as they were just given the right to vote and many entertainment venues were being created as well. All of these world events were portrayed in The Great Gatsby with the parties, movies, and shopping adventures that the characters took part in. This theme can directly be seen in the book through the quote, “It was the hour of a profound human change, and excitement was generating on the air” (Gatsby).

In The Great Gatsby, the narrator, Nick, said “and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well” (Gatsby). The author could mean “sick” as in physical health or mental health. Personally, I have a chronic illness and I can attest to the fact that there is a big difference between those who are healthy and those who have to fight their body every day just to stay alive and get the basic necessities of life done. However, I think the author is referring to being sick in the mind in this case. My reason for believing that comes from a quote towards the end of the book when Nick said: “They’re a rotten crowd” (Gatsby) and later when he said, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisythey smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Gatsby). Nick was referring to the fact that having money made people sick in the mind because they didn’t care about others, only about their money.