...Analysis of “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby is a comment on society in what was supposed to be the greatest period of American history, the 1920's. Its comment is on our perceptions on wealth, and how people go about gaining and receiving said wealth. It is a critique on the class system and the oppression and misrepresentation of the working class. It is a demonstration of the full spectrum of human relationships and the best and worst parts of America. It’s not just about the love story between the novels central characters, Daisy and Gatsby, but more about the social decay of their society. In the Great Gatsby the story is told from a character voice. The novel is read from Nick Carraway perspective. He is a young man we meet at the beginning in the Great Gatsby novel. Nick moves to New York in 1922 to learn about the bond business, he acquires a house on West Egg early in the novel. This is also where he meets his neighbour Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a mysterious man who is also filthy rich, the method by he acquired his wealth is questionable. Gatsby is represented in the novel as a symbol for new money and the pursuit of the American dream in the roaring twenties. The roaring twenties was a period of great economic prosperity in the US, there where a lot of individuals who gained their massive wealth during this economic period. Jay Gatsby’s primary goal in the novel is to “own” Daisy Buchanan. She is the only thing Gatsby needs to complete...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
...The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s use of Motif In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the motif of cheating to make his theme of lying and deceit become more evident to the reader. Throughout the novel, characters cheat on each other, cheat the laws of society, and cheat their way to wealth. Fitzgerald wanted this theme to be very evident to the reader because Fitzgerald wanted readers to see the consequences the characters had to face because of the choices they made. Fitzgerald utilizes the relationship between Myrtle and Tom in order to demonstrate the consequences of their affair. Tom’s wife, Daisy is extremely hurt that “Tom has some girl in New York” because she knows that as her husband his responsibility is to be...
Words: 710 - Pages: 3
...2013 Project Title: Critical Analysis of Great Gatsby novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald Introduction The Great Gatsby is may be the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s greatest novel. This novel offers damning and insightful views of the American nouveau riche in the 1920s. It is an American classic and a wonderfully evocative novel (Bloom, 2010). The author seems to have a brilliant understanding of lives that are characterised by greed and incredibly sad and unfulfilled. The Great Gatsby is at once a romantic and cyclical novel about wealth and habits of a group of New Yorkers during the Jazz Age (Bloom, 2010). Fitzgerald’s work is magnificent as he paints a grim portrait of shallow characters that manoeuvre themselves into some complex situations. The use of symbols and articulate language makes the novel to be best appreciated by mature readers; and this enables them to analyse literature and think critically (Bloom, 2010). The plot Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, is a love story of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby’s quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The initial meeting of the two lovers takes place two years before the novel is written. Daisy was then a legendary young Louisville beauty while Gatsby was an impoverished officer. The two fell in deep love, but while Gatsby serves abroad; his lover Daisy marries the bullying, brutal but extremely rich Tom Buchanan (Fitzgerald & Stuart, 2005). After the end of the war, Gatsby dedicates himself to find wealth by any...
Words: 1535 - Pages: 7
...obtaining better lives. The character of Jay Gatsby is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is one of these people. Throughout the novel, Gatsby represents the American Dream through both his wealth and his lavish lifestyle to once again win the love of Daisy Buchanan. Besides the fictional Gatsby, millions of others throughout history have also found the American Dream to be quite attainable. The idea of the Dream is and always has been...
Words: 1781 - Pages: 8
...In the 1920s, partying and jazz were a strong front, but when the charade of happiness is removed, you reveal the bootleggers and mob bosses that truly controlled it all. F. Scott Fitzgerald personified the era with his book, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s book gave examples, such as the main character Gatsby, of people who started off as dirt poor street hoodlums to tycoons in substantial mansions. Now that’s the real American Dream. Known as the “Jazz Age” or “The Roaring Twenties”, the 1920s were truly an extremely intriguing time in American history. America recently had assisted in winning the largest military conflict of that current time, Jazz was on the rise, and lavish parties were everywhere. It was a fantastic time, but there was...
Words: 775 - Pages: 4
...gets to learn about Gatsby’s self proclaimed history and his possible shady business ties with Meyer Wolfsheim. Wolfsheim reveals to Nick that he is a business associate of Gatsby's. Since Wolfsheim is involved in illegal business it could be concluded that Gatsby would be as well. This is proven when Gatsby states that Wolfsheim is the one who fixed the 1919 World Series. In this situation the author is trying to make the reader wonder whether or not Gatsby made his money legitimately, despite the fact that he tries to convince people he has. People should look at this passage more than once because it is the start of the audience being able to unravel who Gatsby really is. Without this section of the text the reader would not know that Gatsby went to Oxford, received medals from European countries, hunted big game, and “lived in the West”. This information is crucial to the rest of the novel and necessary in the discovery of whole Gatsby really is....
Words: 309 - Pages: 2
... Separately, these traits harbor great potential, but together they can lead to desperation and chasing after unrequited love. Relationships are the greatest example of this, specifically the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy. He spent his whole life stumbling after a girl who enticed him with the merest hint of love, yet fell short when it mattered most. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the unwillingness to let go of his feeling for Daisy was the real cause of Gatsby’s death. Gatsby’s denial of the changes between him and Daisy are prevalent but subtle. It’s been years since he and Daisy were courting each other, yet...
Words: 647 - Pages: 3
...that Fitzgerald tells the story at the end of Chapter 3 Fitzgerald tells the story through Nick Carraway, the narrator and a character in The Great Gatsby. His use of literary techniques involves the reader effectively and tells a story so finely that it is arguably one of the best-written novels of the 20th century. At the end of Chapter 3, Fitzgerald reveals further general context about Nick: our intra-fictional narrator’s day-to-day life during the summer of 1922. By the end of chapter 3, the reader is quite used to Nick’s proficient use of the English language. Fitzgerald has given Nick the ability to confidently write in a style that is poetic and fluent. Nick even tells us that he was ‘rather literary in college.’ This manipulates the reader’s perception of Nick and we believe that because he is educated, he will be observant and have insightful about the people and culture at the time. This rings true at several moments in this chapter, particularly when Nick notes that, ‘the dark lanes of the Forties were lined five deep with throbbing taxicabs.’ This insight, however, tends to remove Nick and therefore, the reader, emotionally from the scene: ‘there was laughter from unheard jokes.’ This emotional detachment is evidenced by Nick’s tone of voice. Although excited by the prospect of romantic and exhilarating New York, there is an under-current of sadness that is driven mainly by ‘a haunting loneliness,’ which evokes sympathy from the reader. Fitzgerald has devoted...
Words: 914 - Pages: 4
...which The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminates this. In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton explores the themes of imprisonment and entrapment. The characters portrayed in her novel are trapped and imprisoned by many elements including their environment, loveless marriage, predestination, mind-set, religion and many more. These themes are also explored in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Firstly, one of the key factors that Edith Wharton presents imprisonment and entrapment is the setting and environment of Ethan Frome. The bleak and isolated town of Starkfeild is immediately imagined by the reader due to Wharton’s description of the landscape through the narrators eyes and how it seemed to be “emerging from its six month siege like a starved garrison” This brutal simile of the town suggests to the reader that the Starkfield is under attack from the elements and subsequently they begin to imagine how this type of environment may affect the characters life’s and particularly their freedom. Indeed, Wharton portrays the main character, Ethan Frome, as a reflection of Starkfield and “an incarnation of the frozen woe”. This metaphor, in part, epitomises Ethan’s personality of a slow, illiterate man whose motivation has halted or froze. This instigates sympathy from the reader that will be ever present throughout the novel. Similarly, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby with feelings of isolation as a result of his environment. Gatsby resides...
Words: 1404 - Pages: 6
...Age of Human Error” (Florence King). This quote brings to light the fact that the American Dream is nigh impossible to achieve. This is simply because people are so caught up in dreaming about what other people have obtained rather than taking the necessary steps to live the dream themselves. American author F. Scott Fitzgerald has an unparalleled impact on the idea of the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s novels This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby have consistent themes that feature small aspects of the American Dream that conflicts him. Both the main male characters, Armory Blaine and Jay Gatsby showcase men in 1920s America who have come into wealth, yet their money and shiny trinkets do not bring them happiness, even though that is what both characters legitimately yearned for. Together, Gatsby and Blaine expose a perception of the American Dream that F. Scott Fitzgerald investigated thoroughly throughout his life. The idea that when a society is consumed by materialism and the promises it could bring the real American Dream is lost in the shuffle. Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1869 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The author was named after his second cousin Scott Francis Key, who wrote the lyrics to the “Star-Spangled Banner”. As a young boy he went to two Catholic schools the most prestigious of the two being the Newman school where he graduated high school in 1912 and was admitted to Princeton the following year. During his time at the university he dismissed his studies...
Words: 1475 - Pages: 6
...Although it is a work of fiction, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is an accurate portrayal of the 1920s. It is generally realistic, despite some events and details being fabricated for entertainment purposes. The story was written shortly after the Roaring 20s. Because it was written so soon after the time period, readers are led to believe that the author experienced the time period first hand. If this is true, the author will know more information than that of someone writing a novel on the same time period almost one hundred years later. In history books, the 1920s, also known as the Roaring 20s, was a time period prior to the Great Depression where the majority of the population was prosperous and happy. (“The Roaring...
Words: 1020 - Pages: 5
...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a definite page-turner due to Fitzgerald’s passion, and emotion that he has captured. The novel was published on April 10, 1925; however, did not sell many copies until his death. Before his death he was believed to be a failure, but is now considered one of the best American writers of the 20th century. The story takes place in New York City and on Long Island. More specifically, the West and East Egg during the roaring 20’s. Fitzgerald reflects on his own life making The Great Gatsby more of a personal narrative. F. Scott Fitzgerald was born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life has influenced his writing on the novel The Great Gatsby....
Words: 620 - Pages: 3
...Iranian writer Azar Nafisi once said, “The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby we see the decay of the American Dream through the selfless but selfish acts of the characters. In the Great Gatsby the symbols of the Valley of Ashes, the green light, and materialism show that the American Dream is unachievable. Through the symbol of the Valley of Ashes we see the hollowness and decay of the American Dream. Myrtle had the same dream as everyone who lives in the Valley of Ashes has, they all want to escape the Valley of Ashes to be a part of a higher social class“…Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished,...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...The Great Gatsby Essay 28 September 2015 The Great Gatsby Demeanor Essay Jay Gatsby is an extremely unique character in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He has different dimensions that are shown in the novel. In the passage where Gatsby’s smile is conveyed, Fitzgerald reveals that Gatsby has the ability to make a person feel the way they wish to feel just by his smile and demeanor. The way that Fitzgerald describes Gatsby’s smile is an intuitive, reassuring demeanor that can rope a companion in and gather trust simply. The different language that Fitzgerald uses in the passage influences how Gatsby’s demeanor is perceived greatly. Fitzgerald says, “It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it. . .” (Fitzgerald 48). The author describes Gatsby’s smile in this manner because it provides the person whom he addresses with a sense of confidence that Gatsby understands what he is listening to, this is important because it helps create the image of Gatsby that Fitzgerald perceives as an extremely understanding character. Further, Fitzgerald uses unique language while describing Jay Gatsby’s smile, he says that “It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey” (Fitzgerald 48). Fitzgerald uses language to elaborate Gatsby’s character by personifying his smile to show how...
Words: 438 - Pages: 2
...As Scott F. Fitzgerald invites the reader to see the perspective of the 1920’s from an “honest” and “nonjudgmental” man named Nick Carraway, the views of the rich and ugly collide together, making The Great Gatsby a novel with a twisted and complicated plot. The main character Nick Carraway, is from the west and moves to the overpopulated city of New York. He settles in the “West Egg” of Long Island and meets his mysterious neighbor who goes by the name of Jay Gatsby. Nick visits his cousin Daisy, who lives in the “East Egg” and soon becomes somewhat engaged within the fast, upbeat, party life. (Fitzgerald) Although he is not fully involved, he disentangles himself from the whole scene near the ending due to his observant behavior and disgusted attitude towards the whole outlook. However, his attraction towards Gatsby is a main focus. Readers are captivated by Gatsby’s admirable perseverance and determination in working towards achieving his goal of winning Daisy’s heart and beyond that, the American dream, yet his greatness predicts his downfall. Gatsby’s desire of becoming wealthy and dedication to this goal reflects how admirable he is because created himself out of nothing; he “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself; he was a son of God-.” (Fitzgerald, 104) He “reinvented” himself, using his imagination and being “faithful to the end” until he was the prosperous man he wanted to become. But this accomplished goal of becoming wealthy was only a small step...
Words: 1124 - Pages: 5
