...A Analysis is the practice of looking closely at small parts to see how they affect the whole, but a Literary analysis focuses on how plot plus structure, character, setting, and many other techniques. That's what I intend to achieve in this essay about The Great Gatsby. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of wealth can breed carelessness in my own opinion. Using the literary techniques of point of view, juxtaposition, and foreshadowing to create meaning in his classic work. The word “careless” sums up Nick's friends as I think and also what the author says in the book himself. For example I feel like Gatsby’s whole life trying to contract his money and status so that he could reach a certain position in life. This is what motivated him to move to west egg to be right across the lake from Daisy, making as much money by doing anything possible. I felt in his position Daisy wanted and needed a man that was wealthy so he changed himself to win her back. At a point him and Daisy were perfect for eachother when he was unwealthy, but their affair foreshadowed that it was a doomed relationship showing that she only wanted him for his money now. As we can see now, the relationship was never doomed at the end for Daisy as she runs away, as her secondary lover dies. Another...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” may initially seem like a tragic story of thwarted love between a man and a woman, but upon closer inspection it is obvious that the novel is much more than just that. The Great Gatsby is essentially a story that reveals the corruption and overall decay of what was affectionately known as The American Dream. The American Dream is described in Chapter 9 as originally being about moral values and the pursuit of happiness. In fact, it is written in the American Constitution that every individual has the right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” This right appears to have taken a twisted turn in the early 1920’s. Fitzgerald portrays this time of decay of social and moral values; these values being discarded for greed and pursuit of selfish pleasure. Jay Gatsby, the title character, is a man who more than anything craves the past. In his past, he fell in love with young Daisy and quickly became obsessed with her. The only problem, that he immediately realized, was that she would only associate or take interest in those with high social status and wealth. To gain her affection Gatsby lied about his family and social status, claiming that he was born into a wealthy family and was going to be attending Oxford after the war on their wealth. “’I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West-all dead now,’”(Page 65). Once convinced by Jay’s claims, young Daisy agreed to wait for Jay while he was out fighting the war...
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...Conley Howard The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis Notebook Mrs. Marlar/English III Period 6 Howard 1 Literary Element- Symbolism Chapter 1, page 21 Original Quote: “But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unique darkness.”(Fitzgerald 21) Paraphrase with Analysis: Gatsby is being spotted by Nick, the narrator, while he is reaching out across his dock to the green light. (Fitzgerald 21) The green light symbolizes Daisy. Green is also an archetype and the negative associations are death and decay. Green can also foreshadow Gatsby death in the end since he never achieved the “green light” being Daisy who she chose Tom Buchanan in the end. Embedded Quotes in Paraphrase with Analysis: David F. Trask in his book, A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, states that “Gatsby believed in the green light, the future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further ... And one fine morning Alas, all of us! The novel ends on a desperately somber note: So we beat on, boats...
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...14th 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...
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...One amongst many other sayings, "It doesn’t matter what you what you look like on the outside; it’s what's on the inside that count.” (Unknown) This is true when it comes to finding a significant other, but also when pertaining to literature. How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas Foster, is a guide purposefully identifying literary conventions to enable a reader to develop analytical skills. Each chapter highlights essential elements seen in texts within the literature society including references to the Bible, purposeful environment settings, and the symbolic attachment of supernatural creatures. The Bible is a powerful piece of literature connecting to the vast majority of society's morals and beliefs. Foster states how "often those values will not be religious in nature but may show themselves in connection with the individual's role within society."(Fitzgerald 88)Religious references in literary text do not always refer to God but biblical references in a text can strengthen the plot through...
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...Analysis of Rhetorical and Literary Techniques The text to be analyzed here is The Great Gatsby, a novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this 1920s era novel, George Wilson murders Jay Gatsby, who is the central character by shooting him. This raises the question of who to blame for Wilson’s moral lapse in judgment. The shooter could be held solely responsible for this, but then we have to think about Daisy and Tom who lied to George in their bid to avoid getting into trouble for their actions (Bruccoli, 2000). Evidently, Tom and Daisy played a major role in Gatsby’s death, and so they should share the large bulk of the responsibility for his death. Tom and Daisy are largely responsible for Gatsby’s death. The author uses the technique of foreshadowing sparingly throughout the story, especially within the final chapters. In the seventh chapter of this novel, the author foreshadows Gatsby’s death, as he wrote “I felt that I had something to tell him, something to warn him about and morning would be too late. I could not sleep all night, and a fog-horn groaned incessantly. I tossed half-sick between the savage frightening dreams and a grotesque reality. When I heard the sound of a taxi going to Gatsby's drive, I quickly jumped out of my bed and started to dress up” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1991, p.154). This is a foreshadowing of Gatsby’s death. The author also employs foreshadowing in George Wilson's involvement and his impending actions in response...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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...Jason Lepeska Lippincott English III GT/AP-4 17 January 2013 Research Paper The Great Gatsby was a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, and has motifs of class separation, the hollowness of the upper class, and the decline of the visions of America. The setting is New York City in the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway moves to New York in hopes of finding a job there. Nick has connections in this town, like his cousin daisy, and her husband, Tom. He moves into a home next to a wealthy Jay Gatsby, an extravagant man who loves throwing ridiculous parties. As the summer progresses, Nick finally gets invited to one of these parties, where he learns Gatsby is in love with Daisy. Nick helps set up Daisy and Gatsby, and they start spending time together. Tom gets angry and ends up driving Gatsby to his unfortunate demise. While a Feminist reading provides insight into the novel, Fitzgerald’s emphasis on the separated classes system and the materialistic beliefs of the upper class demonstrates that a Marxist approach to the novel is of more use. Feminism criticizes the patriarchal language used in novels, and how that reflects the masculinity in the novel (“Feminist Criticism”). Feminism also analyzes how status and positions in the novel relate to the contrasting man and woman. It recognizes more traditional writing, like mailman. Men tend to work towards solutions, while women work towards connecting and feelings (“Feminist Criticism”). It is exemplified in the book...
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...Rhetorical Analysis Any great novelist knows that a good story entails an intensive amount of detail. Literary elements really help bring a story to life and capture the event or time period that the author is writing about. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote an “over-the-top” novel, The Great Gatsby , using diction, tone, and selection of details to portray life in an upper echelon high class environment, as well as create an aesthetic impact on the reader. Diction is the choice of words that’s makes the author’s writing unique. No two authors can capture an element the same using words . “So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight- watching over nothing.”(98) Mr. Gatsby was really watching over Daisy outside over her home , but since nick had seen her and Tom reconciling, he know that Gatsby had no chance. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses abstract diction to set the scene, Fitzgerald is giving one's mind something to think about metaphorically or figuratively. Throughout The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald uses plenty of styles of diction ture the audiences attention . He uses concrete diction after the tragic accident of Myrtle's death. “It was a yellow car, a big yellow car (94.)” The African American man was describing the car that had hit Myrtle in the accident to the police, because Tom had been driving the yellow car on the way to New York and Daisy had been driving it on the way home it was a significant piece of work in The Great Gatsby. The crime could have been pinned...
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...Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained...
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...Application of Marxism on The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald Marxist literary critics tend to look for tensions and contradictions within literary works. This is appropriate because Marxism was originally formulated to analyze just such tensions and contradictions within society. Marxist literary critics also see literature as intimately linked to social power, and thus their analysis of literature is linked to larger social questions. Since Marxism is a belief system which can be used to analyze society at the grandest or most detailed level, Marxist literary criticism is ultimately part of a much larger effort to uncover the inner workings of society 1. Title of the Book – The Great Gatsby: Gatsby became rich because, most probably Cody – the owner of the yatch, left him money but at the same time he is was committed to earning money at an early stage in his life. And the adjective Great added to the word noun, accounts for Fitzgerald reason why a man could be called a great that is he struggled hard to achieve the love of his life by trying to raise his stature. The word “Great” is added to emphasize the fact that he rose from rags to riches, and this fact should be respected and valued. Nick: “I suppose he'd had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people--his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception...
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...Denzell Jones A.Forrester Honors English 11 5 Feb 2013 Literary Analysis More Money, More Problems Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is known as one of the most important American writers of his time. He is also known for helping create the historical period the “Jazz Age”. Fitzgerald lived a colorful life of parties and money-spending, he lived a lavish lifestyle! F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota of mixed Southern and Irish descent. He was given three names after the writer of The Star Spangled Banner, to whom he was distantly related. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s exquisite, writing style was mainly influenced by Father Sigourney Fay. Princeton University, Zelda Sayre. School played a very important role in his life, Fitzgerald failed at sports but was a excellent daydreamer. During 1911-1913 he attended Newman School, A Catholic Prep School in New Jersey where he met father Sigourney Fay, who encourage his ambitious for personal distinction and achievement. (Bruccoli) Fitzgerald was excellent in school until he made it to college. As a member of the 1917 Princeton Class, Fitzgerald often neglected studies and often wrote scripts and lyrics for the Princeton Triangle Club. While on academic probation and unlikely to graduate he joined the army in 1917. Convinced that he would die in war he rapidly wrote the novel, The Romatic Egotisc, it was rejected. (Broccoli) After that book was rejected, fitgerald did not give up he begin writing his first novel, This Side...
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...The Narrative Art of The Great Gatsby Introduction The Great Gatsby was written in 1925. The author, Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is one of the most outstanding writers in America. As a member of the “lost generation”, Fitzgerald made the short life of Gatsby epitome of the rise, boom and decline of the “American Dream” in “Jazz Age”. This novel shows us unusually rich literary and aesthetic connotation is has by its unique narrative perspective, the ups and downs of plot, superb accurate language, various rhetorical devices and vivid character images. To some extent, the reason why The Great Gatsby can become a famous classic work is that the author uses extraordinary narrative techniques in it. All the techniques are employed skillfully by Fitzgerald. The study of narrative art in this work has been highlighted in the research area in these years. Zhang Jinfeng(2001) analyzes the role of Nick in the novel from the its structure, themes and other aspects. Cheng Xilin(2009) uses the spatial narrative theory to discussed the space narrative art in The Great Gatsby from three aspects: the geography space, social space and the text space. Xiao Dongbo(2009) starts with the analysis on author and characters and expound the connotation of "American dream" and profoundly reveals the historical process of the formation, development and burst of the "American dream". Shang Guanghui(2011) analyzes The Great Gatsby from the narrators of the role and argues that the communication...
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...Analysis of “Materialistic Perception” in F. Scot Fitzgerald Using Marxist Literary Criticism Chapter I 1.1 Introduction The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. 1.2 State of Problem The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its narrative. That era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other economy struggle that was the result of the materialism and capitalism damaging on social behavior, led to the widespread social distress. 1.3 Theoretical Framework Using literary criticism to interpret what is the ideal life of America in 19th century and what is the dream of American people after World War I. as a Marxist interpretation of the novel makes especially clear, reveals its dark underbelly instead. Through its unflattering characterization of those at the top of the...
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...Literary analysis of symbols in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Reflective and close-reading analysis ● Present symbols and reason/purpose for each symbol. Use each body paragraph to focus on one symbol in particular. Introduce symbol and where it is prominently shown in the book. Continue by explaining and evaluating its purpose to the novel and its effect on the storyline and characters. I. Intro II. Symbol One: Location III. Symbol Two: Weather IV. Symbol Three: Colors V. Symbol Four: Green Light VI. Conclusion I. Intro a. Introduce what to expect in paper. b. Provide an overview of the symbols that will be analyzed. c. Mention the importance of symbols to a novel. II. Symbol One: Location a. Introduce the symbol of location. b. Explain importance of Valley of Ashes, East Egg, West Egg, New York City, etc. c. Analyze the purpose of location as a symbol (displays social class, conflict between locations, similarities and differences between characters) III. Symbol Two: Weather a. Introduce the symbol of weather. b. Explain importance of the hot summer days, rainy visit with Daisy, and the heat again during the drunken feud. c. Analyze the purpose of weather as a symbol (parallel to emotions and turn of events: heat held conflict, rain held disappointment or renewal). IV. Symbol Three: Colors a. Introduce the symbol of colors...
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