The Great Gatsby: Chapter 9

In this final chapter of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I realized what this novel had been about the entire time.  The novel was placed in the 1920s where people lived just as the characters did in the book.  They lived in complete bliss.  Deciding that they could have whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.  They were Americans who live in the home of the brave but more importantly to them the land of the free.  The people in the 20s took no adherence to prohibition.  This was assisted by the fact that they were not enough officials who would enforce this new amendment.  They drank a lot and lived their lives searching for happiness.

" '... Why, my God!  They used to go there by the hundreds,' " (Fitzgerald, 175).

This statement  shows how everyone lived their lives partying wherever they could.  In this novel Gatsby's life symbolizes the 1920s; they were all about the party and doing whatever one wanted and attaining happiness.  Gatsby's abrupt murder symbolizes the stock market crash.  All of a sudden the party was over and people were shocked.  People still drove up to his driveway and were sad that there was no party.  With the Depression people could not believe that the stock market had actually crashed.  With Gatsby's death came the end of a long party, and that is exactly what the Great Depression brought.