“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) F. Scott Fitzgerald’smost famous novel is well-known for its commentary criticizing the growing materialism in America after the Great War. Literature from the Modernist period is all about adjustment: after a war that killed almost 20 million people and wounded even more, what was there to life anymore? Where did people find their meaning? Enter the Jazz Age of the Roaring 1920s and humanity’s violent attempt at suppression through alcohol, partying, and consumerism. Imagine flappers with fringed sequin dresses, headbands and bobbed hair, feathers, long cigarette holders, bootlegged liquor from Prohibition, and more martini glasses than anyone could possibly need. This “Lost Generation” of partiers doesn’t seem dangerous at first—if only irresponsible. But Fitzgerald, a veteran of the Great War, channeled the meaninglessness of life and people’s twisted search for it into the novel that remains popular today. Nick’s Narration: “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” Nick Carraway is the narrator of The Great Gatsby, and it is through his eyes we see the tragic love story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. Nick, a Great War veteran, moves to New York after the war and settles into West Egg village next to a mansion he would later learn belonged to Gatsby. “Gatsby believed in the green light”: Materialism and Treasures in The Great Gatsby Bryana Fern
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