Modernism and The Great Gatsby

Modernism was an important art and philosophical movement that marked the end of the Romanticism era. It focused on the impacts of industries, wars, etc on society instead of focusing on nature and subjective thoughts like the romanticists. After experiencing the horrors of World War One, Modernism became even more widespread in the world. Many new creators became head figures of the movement. F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most well-known writers that emerged during this period. He was a modernist, so he incorporated many characteristics of it into his books. The Great Gatsby is a perfect example of many special features that modernist writers add into their books.

One of those features is the shift from nature and external stimuli for emotions to an individual's internal emotions and experiences. This can be seen throughout the Great Gatsby because the narrator is literally experiencing things and reacting to them like a normal person. The whole story is told from the point of view of Nick Carraway which shows the author's focus on showing how an experience can influence a person's emotions. Reading the Great Gatsby is like reading a stream of thoughts that doesn't really have any specific order that they have to be in just like a human mind. By doing this, I think it makes the main character more relatable, shows the thought process of the characters behind each action, and makes the book more interesting than a narrator telling the story in third-person.

Another feature of modernism shown in Great Gatsby is a more realistic setting. Often times in romantic era writings, there will be many supernatural things happening, but in Great Gatsby, everything is like the way it is in real life. There is no ghost or religion reference or demonic rituals, but instead, there are cars, buildings, industries, personal conflicts, etc. All of these things are symbols that Fitzgerald added into the book as symbols to hint the impact of them on the real society. Also, the author usually adds flawed characters into the book to make the setting more realistic. For example, Gatsby is flawed because he cannot give up his obsession with Daisy and move on, Nick is flawed because he says that the start of the book he does not judge people, but he constantly judges Gatsby. All of these flaws are also used as symbols of real-life issues caused by the same flaws.

Overall, modernist writers wanted to use reasoning and logical thinking to show the readers the negative effects of industries, war, or anything caused by the industrial revolution. These writers caused a monumental change in the world's literature field.