Mirror Society and Social Function of Literature in Novel the Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Ian Watt’s Literary Sociology Studies

The topic of this paper is to discuss cultural studies by focusing on social mirrors and the social function of literature in The Great Gatsby novel through a literary sociology approach, introducing and examining the relationship with cultural studies and social aspects in the reality of life in the literary work of The Great Gatsby novel. This paper raises the complexity of literary social relations which is very strong in this novel which was appointed in the 1920s. The problems discussed in this research are first, how is literature as a Mirror Society in the novel The Great Gatsby? Second, what is social function values exist in the literary novel The Great Gatsby? The purpose of this paper is first to explain the Mirror Society in The Great Gatsby novel. Second, to explain the Social Function of Literature in The Great Gatsby novel. And third, analyzing The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald from a perspective according to the Sociology of Literature. The theory of this approach is uses Ian Watt method which rooted in the continuate application successor of Wallek & Warren’s theory as the main reference in analyzing this novel’s literary work. In particular, this study describes the implementation of the author Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s social context, the mirror factor of society in the novel, and the function of the Sociology of Literature in The Great Gatsby. By studying this novel, we get an understanding that The Great Gatsby is very thick with social studies in literature, so that it becomes a learning material for social culture, especially the modern era in the 19th century.