The Great Gatsby is too serious to be called a Satirical Novel. With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant external contextual information on the nature of the Satirical Novel, give your response to the above view.

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The Great Gatsby is too serious to be called a Satirical Novel. With reference to appropriately selected parts of the novel, and relevant external contextual information on the nature of the Satirical Novel, give your response to the above view.

The Great Gatsby is a multi-faceted novel that deals with many dark and distressing aspects of life, and therefore it is too serious to be called a Satirical Novel. Satire can be defined as, “the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people's stupidity or vices.” In examining why The Great Gatsby is too serious to be called satire we could consider how it would be better described using more serious genres such as modernism and tragedy.

Although it is undeniable that The Great Gatsby contains humour, it lacks the corrective quality that satirical humour has. Satire assumes a moral framework of right actions and values which it uses to criticise others who do not live up this framework, however a satirical novel is not completely hopeless and presents a redeemable society and characters. This redemption is not evident in The Great Gatsby, because you could argue that the society that Fitzgerald presents is totally irredeemable, especially if we consider how the novel reflects the general disillusionment of society. This would be more fitting with a Modernist novel than a satirical novel. Modernist novels have an interest in serious themes of loss, disillusionment and social alienation. Fitzgerald was writing in the aftermath of the First World War and was part of the ‘lost generation.’ Both Gatsby and Nick too part in the First World War, and Gatsby says, “Then came the war, old sport. It was a great relief, and I tried very hard to die.” Society was coming to terms with the true destructive nature of humanity and this cynicism is evident in Fitzgerald’s writing, proving that the novel is too serious to be called a Satirical Novel.

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It would be more fitting to describe The Great Gatsby as using gallows humour rather than satire. This is a form of humour that jokes about death and mortality, which is demonstrated when a partygoer flippantly remarks that Gatsby, “killed a man once.” This form of humour is far too serious in tone for The Great Gatsby to be called a satirical novel.  

Further support for the proposition that The Great Gatsby is too serious to be considered a satirical novel can be found we consider how dark the plot becomes at the culmination of the novel. The first ...

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