Urbanization and Gatsby

WHAT IS URBANIZATION?
Urbanization is the physical growth of urban areas. It is basically when cities expand, resulting in migration of people who live in the rural and suburbs because of believing that the cities hold wonderful things and great opportunities for them to succeed and become wealthy. Urbanization is a rapid growth that occurs through time, causing rural cultures to shift into urban cultures. As more and more people leaves their villages and farms to live the city life, cities expand in order to hold up the capacity of people joining the city.


In 2008, the UN predicted that half of the world's population would live in urbanized areas and by the year 2050, 64.1% of people in developing countries would live in urbanized areas, while 85.9% of people in developed countries would live in urbanized areas.

URBANIZATION IN THE USA

In the United States during the 19th century, the US was becoming a urban country during between 1910 and 1920 due to the rapid transformation from the industrial revolution. This changed American society from an agricultural to a industrial one, increasing the GDP of the country and improving the economy, making rich people richer. Issues that follow include overpopulation and pollution from the factories. The US being one of the first few country to reach the industrial stage also attracted people, both in the US and outside the US to immigrate or migrate into cities to find work in order to live a happy and financially stable life.

As the era of Urban America rises, the population of the US doubled in the 1900 to 80 million since 1870 and by the year 1920, the population to a high 105 million people. The amount of people living in the city also tripled to 40% by the year 1900.

Between the years of 1880 and 1920, there were around 27 millions immigrants in the US, while only around 11 million went back. Most of these immigrants came from South Eastern Europe. By 1910, more than 1/3 of the American population was foreign born, or had one foreign parent, compare to 1890 where there was only 19%. Most of the immigrants went to New York, while others went to major cities such as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, and other port cities.

By 1900, New York ranked second in city with the highest population, following London, with a staggering amount of 3.5 million people. Chicago (go bulls!) and Philly each had a population of 1 million where in  1860, no city in America had a population that reached a million. This shows the effect of urbanization.

During the time, Urbanization also made social class more clairvoyant and distinctive. There is a new class -the super wealthy class (the nouveau riche), the upper class (doctors and lawyers), the middle class (salesman, clerks, teachers, government ), and the lower class, consisting of workers.



RELEVANCE TO GATSBY
In "The Great Gatsby," the concept of the American Dream of everyone being able to become wealthy through different passages and being able to own your own company can be seen through the character of Nick. Nick comes from Chicago, which at that time (1900's) is one of the cities going through urbanization. Nick's goal was to work in the bond business in NYC and to become wealthy. The American Dream correlates with urbanization because it made people from rural areas move into the cities to search for their time to become famous and rich. We can see urbanization in the story in the West Egg and the East Egg where there is construction going on, showing that the city is expanding due to more people entering the city. We can see the criticism of urbanization through the description of the Valley of Ashes, "a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air" This implies that the land has been corrupted by urbanization through the descriptive language of the construction and pollution going it. This implies that the land that it is being built on was probably used for agriculture activities such as farming in the past. The scenes in New York shows urbanization through the setting of people crowding the cities living in cramped apartments showing that the city is crowded and is starting to get filled up. Symbols of wealth is also shown through transportation (mainly cars) and by the shelter of people. Gatsby's gigantic mansion is a symbol of wealth and success. This shows the difference in social classes during the urbanization period.

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_in_the_United_States
http://www.angelfire.com/super/berletapush/other/notes/Urbanization_1865_1900.htm