The Great Gatsby Research Paper

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Bestolarides 1 Paul Bestolarides Professor Shinbrot HRS 196: May Photography’s Function in The Great Gatsby The 1920’s was the perennial Golden Age of America, where economic opportunities for individuals would fulfill a lifelong affinity for a successful life. This opportunity was mainly due to technological advances that changed the American image. The age was known for introducing new ways of transportation, jazz, and the influence of motion pictures. Highlighting this age of excellence was the moment of impact for the arts as printing was widely distributed where newspapers obtained the new gossip that suffocated the streets at evident social classes in height of cultural change. The 1920’s did not function as a change from…show more content…
Photography expanded journalism, advertising, and publicity, but was nourished by the acceptance within avant-garde movements in the graphic arts. The extraordinary liveliness of the medium was ostensible in many different localities—yet photographs also retained distinctive national characteristics of individual(s). All of these different facets that consumed the Roaring Twenties was what artist and theorist László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) enthusiastically described as a "new vision" rooted in the technological culture of the twentieth century. While writing the Great Gatsby, the author said, “The whole burden of the loss are those of illusions--,” [New Essays on the Great Gatsby, p.10]. I think what helps to ring true into his quote is the use of photography. The use of the photographic image appears at the novel’s forefront when conveying the American Dream. The photographic image functions in The Great Gatsby as a significance to truth. Photographic imagery appears predominantly throughout the novel. The photograph would represent the societal / political and psychological influencing the thoughts of each…show more content…
The line of Kodak manufactured cameras introduced in 1890, improved the chemistry mechanics for a more simple exposure. This meant the photographer did not have to wait for an extended amount of time to wait for one picture to be properly developed. By the year 1920, manufacturers’ introduced the 16mm motion picture cameras for home use. A few years later, smaller and more versatile cameras were being used for 35mm film, designed for commercial motion pictures. The omnipotence of photography in The Great Gatsby is used to relate each character to their prior history. Whether it is from Nick’s advantages and explorations in Gatsby’s dream world, to the Valley of the Ashes in New York City. These examples are Fitzgerald’s intentions for the reader to distinguish between the truth the fiction in the lives of each character in the novel, [Photography and The Great Gatsby p. 176]. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses photography as a form of authenticity to underline the moral fabric of the mindset that conveys the flaw of the American

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