In what way can transformation and creativity in texts be seen as responses to social change?
The global issue that I will be focusing on is technology, society, and the environment. I want to talk specifically about how Paul Nash, a World War 1 artist, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the Great Gatsby, choose to show how the development of technology and industrialism affects society’s sense of class. Fitzgerald presents a view of the 1920s as a glamour filled era but ultimately shallow with a bleak sense for the future. Nash presents a realistic and brutal world in which the soldiers had to suffer and attempt to survive.
In the Great Gatsby, a lot of what is written is focused on the glamour and wealth of society’s upper class, as well as the idea of old money vs new money. Although Gatsby underwent a transformation from being poor into new money, his social acceptance and status are not considered to be the same as those in the upper class who were born into money. In Nash’s artwork, he depicts war-torn battlefields and other moments from World War 1. Rather than the romanticised image of how war is filled with glory, he shows the horrors and hardships faced by the soldiers who were fighting for their lives.
In Gatsby, New York is considered to be the “epitome” of a modern city. However, there is a sense of moral decay and corruption where the right get away with anything and the poor have to suffer. For example, Tom Buchanan cheats on Daisy with Myrtle, and because he has money, he is not judged outwardly for it. But Myrtle, the mistress, got killed for her involvement with the Buchanans. In Nash’s artwork, the soldiers are suffering as there is death all around them, while the rich get to sit in the comfort and safety of their own homes.
The idea of the American Dream, that anyone can be whatever they want to, is also really cynical. With the transformation of industrialisation and the development of technology, the world is a machine and we’re all just parts of it. Nash critiques the idea of modernism and working hard, also unhappy that cynicism always wins. There is also an element of romanticism, preexisting ideas of how the world is that no longer seem to be valid. Nash is cynical about those ideas as war isn’t a hero or something glorified, rather it is something quite horrific, he rejects those notions fully. However, Fitzgerald wants it back, but he can’t have it because the world doesn’t want it anymore. The sense of progression is actually regression, as people now have a destructive obsession with money and what they claim is ‘progress’.
There are some solid ideas here, and you have selected some interesting pieces of evidence to explore them through.
Thoughts:
Be careful with wording. Does it affect the ‘sense of class’, or does it affect the relationships between social classes? Also, in your intro, does your comment about glamour for Fitzgerald actually link to your main argument?
You have some good ideas, but you are not really linking them back to your argument about class clearly. So, when you say Myrtle got killed, how does this relate to class issues?
Right now, the ideas are solid, but there is zero development through close analysis. This is an essential part of your IO. You need to consider HOW they achieve these ideas through selected stylistic devices, and what effect these devices have.