The Quest for Happiness

Sam Peters

Period 2

The Quest For Happiness

            F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the greatest American writers in history. He lived during a period of great economic prosperity and opportunity, and from that stemmed the paradigm of the elite social class. Fitzgerald experienced the development of this social stratification first hand, and was able to impart his views about social classism through his novel The Great Gatsby. Using rhetorical devices such as symbolism, allegory, imagery, simile and paradox, Fitzgerald eloquently portrays his tone of contempt and disdain toward the elite social class.

        In this story, Fitzgerald utilizes several rhetorical devices in order to develop his complex yet well-expressed style. He displays a rather derisive tone regarding the elite social class of the era, implying that their extravagant lifestyles are contributing to the deterioration of valuable morals in society. Fitzgerald uses imagery to portray a tone of mockery toward upper-class lifestyle. “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water…” (5). In this passage, Fitzgerald illustrates the estates of the wealthy as pretentious and flamboyant. His word choice, such as the word “palace”, denotes a sense of eminence and nobility. The images Fitzgerald is able to create help develop his complex style, deftly mocking the upper class’s illustrious and imposing style of living.

        Fitzgerald continues to reprimand the overly excessive behavior of the wealthy by demonstrating the parties that Jay Gatsby would throw every weekend. A frequent habitué to these parties was Jordan Baker, who claims that she “like[s] large parties… [Because] at small parties there isn’t any privacy” (49). This use of paradox is included to show Fitzgerald’s enthrallment with the monumental parties and ostentatious predisposition of higher social classes. Fitzgerald is able to smoothly integrate this example of paradox, adding to his stirring and impassioned tone by clearly emphasizing his contempt towards social classism.

        Fitzgerald disparages the profuse lifestyle of the elite social class by highlighting Gatsby's ambitious parties. He describes how at his parties “People were not invited – they went there…[and] conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with an amusement park” (41). In this passage, Fitzgerald uses “people” as a way to symbolize the members of our society who spend their lives trying to climb the ladder of social recognition,  frantically scrambling for higher social status and acceptance. He also exposes how “men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (39). Through this use of simile, he characterizes members of our society who aspire to an affluence of wealth as moths who are attracted to light, and when they reach it, might not receive the satisfaction they had hoped for. Fitzgerald depicts that like the moth on its quest to pursue the nearest light source, humans are always pursuing wealth, mistaken in the idea that possessions will bring happiness and fulfillment. Fitzgerald effectively denounces this concept, characterizing the upper class as the epitome of greed as they aimlessly long for material belongings.