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Literary analysis examines class and authority in The Great Gatsby, suggesting contemporary relevance.
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald dramatized the response of upper-class liberals to the collapse of Progressivism and to a widely shared perception in the 1920s of a crisis of democratic government. His famed indictment of “careless people” reflects Nick Carraway’s effort to find a source of authority that will enable him to critique both inherited wealth and popular democracy. In Nick’s self-justification, Fitzgerald reveals attitudes that tempt professional-class liberals again today.
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Sean McCann (2025) studied this question.
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