...Symbolism, in a novel, creates great depth and puts meaning behind otherwise insignificant words or phrases. This depth can be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby follows a set of characters that reside in Long Island. The book is narrated by one of the characters, Nick Carraway, who has just moved to West Egg. Opposite to West Egg is East Egg, where his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, reside. His cousin and her husband live luxurious lives and Nick finds himself surrounded by their privileged way of life. In West Egg, Nick lives next to Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Daisy Buchanan and hopes to reconnect. The Great Gatsby contains a considerable amount of symbolism that includes colors, temperature,...
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...In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, there is an obvious hiatus between the different social classes. Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who resides in West Egg. Before Gatsby moved to West Egg, he had a relationship with Daisy Buchanan, who is Nick Carraway’s cousin. Gatsby went away from Daisy so he could fight in the war. While Gatsby was away, Daisy married Tom Buchanan and eventually moved to East Egg, where all the old money is. Gatsby moves to West Egg, where all the new money resides, so he could get back with Daisy. Between West and East Egg is an area called the valley of ashes, which all the working class and poor people live. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism and characterization to create the theme of the disconnect between the social classes. Fitzgerald uses symbolism for the valley of ashes to display the disconnect between the social classes. The valley of ashes is a poor area which connects West Egg to East Egg. It is full of “men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 23). The valley of ashes symbolizes the poor people who live in the dirty...
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...Symbolism of Houses and Cars in The Great Gatsby Francis Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of symbolism, which is portrayed by the houses and cars in an array of ways. One of the more important qualities of symbolism within The Great Gatsby is the way in which it is so completely incorporated into the plot and structure. Symbols, such as Gatsby's house and car, symbolize material wealth. Gatsby's house "[is] a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy" which contains "a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy" is a symbol of Gatsby's large illegal income (Fitzgerald 9). Gatsby's large income isn't enough to keep him happy. He needs "The house he feels he needs in order to win happiness" and it is also the perfect symbol of carelessness with money which is a major part of his personality (Bewley 24). Gatsby's house like his car symbolizes his vulgar and excessive trait of getting attention. Gatz's house is a mixture of different styles and periods which symbolizes an owner who does not know their true identity. The Buchanan's house is symbolic of their ideals. East Egg is home to the more prominent established wealth families. Tom's and Daisy's home is on the East Egg. Their house, a "red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay" with its "wine-colored rug[s]" is just as impressive as Gatsby's house but much more low-key (Fitzgerald 11) (13). East egg and Tom's home represents the established wealth and...
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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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...GREAT GATSBY CHAPTER ONE SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Nick Carraway, the novel's narrator and protagonist, begins The Great Gatsby by recounting a bit of advice his father taught him: don't criticize others, because most people have not enjoyed the "advantages" that he has. Nick says that as a result of following this advice, he's become a tolerant and forgiving person who resists making quick judgments of others. Nick's "advantages" come from "old money." Nick casts himself as someone who doesn't judge based on class, which indicates that other people do judge based on class. However, he is contradictory here as he does judge the other characters, apart from Gatsby who is instead romanticized. There is a sense of irony surrounding Nick. For instance, Nick says that though he scorns everything Gatsby stood for, he withholds judgment entirely regarding him. Nick says Gatsby was a man of "gorgeous" personality and boundless hope. Nick views Gatsby as a victim, a man who fell prey to the "foul dust" that corrupted his dreams. Nick introduces Gatsby and connects him to both new money and the American Dream, and indicates that Gatsby was done in by the "foul dust" of the Roaring Twenties. In the summer of 1922, Nick, a Yale graduate, moves from his hometown in Minnesota, where his family has lived for three generations, to live and work in New York. He has recently returned from military service in World War I, an experience that left him feeling restless in the dull Midwest. As...
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...The American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby” symbolizing a few different topics. Many people who read the book gather different perspectives on what the it is symbolizing. When I read “The Great Gatsby” I gathered the impression that Fitzgerald was trying to symbolize the American Dream which was a very common dream during this time period. The American Dream meant that life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. Even though The Great Gatsby is a superlative fiction novel that symbolizes many different qualities of the life, the American Dream is symbolized the most through color representation, physical attributes, and the personalities of the...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald flawlessly. The Great Gatsby is a complex story that can be read in various ways to reach a deeper meaning of understanding. The book has an abundance of descriptive colors that expand on and support the story. These colors can be interpreted differently from person to person based on experiences and situations. In the novel, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses them well to capture the characteristics of the story. However, this begs the question of how a factor as minor as color can affect so many aspects of...
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...The Great Gatsby: The Corruption of the American Dream through Materialism The American dream is an ideal that has been present since American literature’s onset. Typically, the dreamer aspires to rise from rags to riches, while accumulating such things as love, high status, wealth, and power on his way to the top. The dream has had variations throughout different time periods, although it is generally based on ideas of freedom, self-reliance, and a desire for something greater. The early settlers’ dream of traveling out West to find land and start a family has gradually transformed into a materialistic vision of having a big house, a nice car, and a life of ease. In the past century, the American dream has increasingly focused on material items as an indication of attaining success. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money—only a plan for achieving his dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream “is a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70). His American dream has become corrupted by the culture of wealth and opulence that surrounds him. Gatsby is a “nouveau riche,” and his romantic view of wealth has not prepared him for the self-interested...
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...The Great Gatsby In the United States Declaration of Independence our nation founding fathers came up with the idea that “all men are created equal” in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However there has always been a great divide in our country’s society and class, with the top one percent nearly owning all of our nation’s wealth. With the majority of society being of middle and lower class population some of which are struggling to make ends meat living paycheck to paycheck. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby which takes place in the early 1920’s. There is also a great divide in class and society. You have the wealthy and arrogant east egg and west egg citizens who have either had money in their family past down from generations of inheritance also receiving a fine education at an ivy league school or you have the new money and live in west egg earning a living as a bootlegger or involved in other mob activities like Jay Gatsby who was raised on hardships growing up. But like most people in today’s society you have the valley of ashes which resembles our middle and lower class of people who may be hard working people yet they don’t have the financial benefits of being born into wealth. The American Dream of living a prosperous life and being rich and earning a high level of importance in society just to impress people or attract someone to you is something that all of the characters surrounding Nick Carraway have in common. They idealize fame and fortune...
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...The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story surrounding the decay of the American Dream in the 1920’s; a time when virtually anyone could achieve the dream. Jay Gatsby, the main character, encompasses every fault in the warped idea of the American Dream in the booming 20’s making The Great Gatsby, the perfect title for the story. The American dream is commonly defined as “The ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American. (Dictionary) Almost any American would describe the American Dream as a stable income, a sustainable job and the chance to provide the opportunity for the following generation to do even better. In the booming 20’s, that dream was available to almost every...
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...people, and with that, are a few ways to solve it. Your life can be elegant and are to pursue the American Dream and the other is no one does anything and lets their life go nowhere and ends up lifeless. The Great Gatsby consists of key components that are here in our society. Such as elegance with ladies and gentleman walking around believing they are more important than others. There is also corruption that takes over leaving your life hard to make it through the day. In the end one outcome is being happy with the life there is and the other is saying that there is no better place and giving up and letting your life be hopeless and lifeless. Gatsby lives in West Egg the least fashionable of the two eggs and the more wealthy people live in East...
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...In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we follow the main character Jay Gatsby through his life through the eyes of Nick Carraway, his neighbor. Both of these characters live on the West Egg of New York. Gatsby and Nick earned their wealth, unlike the people who live on the East Egg of New York. Those people, such as characters, Daisy and Tom, were either born wealthy or inherited their wealth.The Eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleberg, on the front cover of the book, symbolizes the fact that all the greed and corruption that people commit, is watched over by someone. Jay Gatsby has the purest dream of them all. He wants it all, the only problem is he wants the girl as well. The greed and corruption are what results in Gatsby not getting everything...
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...The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (published on April 10, 1925) is one novel that anyone would regret not reading. It has gone down in history as one of the most important works in American literature — and, to many, the great American novel. Fitzgerald has succeeded in offering up commentary on a variety of themes — justice, power, greed, betrayal, the American dream and so on through Nick as a narrator. There are two most impressive symbols in the novel. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock and the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg remains obsessing in readers’ minds. The first is a perfect example of the manner in which characters The Great Gatsby. Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, to whom “ he bought house to be near her, he threw all those parties hoping she would wander in one night”. In Chapter 1 he reaches toward the green light on the other side of the river, in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream: “all man are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. Though, The Great Gatsby illustrates the downgrade value of American Dream, instead of...
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...The Great Gatsby: Summary: Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg, Long Island, a wealthy area populated by the new rich, people who made their fortunes due to the economic upswing of the Roaring Twenties. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a huge mansion and throws extravagant parties on the weekends. Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island and the home of the upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a former classmate of Nick during his time at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a random, vulgar party in the apartment that Tom bought because of his affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually gets an invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters...
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...writers of the 20th century and the time called the „Jazz Age”. His most famous works are „The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and „The Great Gatsby” which have been adapted into films. The Great Gatsby has been the basis for many movie adaptations of the same name in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000, and the latest in 2013. 2. Baz Luhrmann Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann (1962 - ) is an Australian film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for directing Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Australia and the newest version of The Great Gatsby released in 2013. 3. „The Great Gatsby” – the plot of the novel The Great Gatsby is an American novel written in 1925 that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young, handsome and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his unrealistic illusion and passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Major characters Nick Carraway – a Yale graduate originating from the Midwest, a World War I veteran, and, at the start of the plot, a newly arrived resident of West Egg, who is about 30 years old. He serves as the first-person narrator of the novel. He is Gatsby's next-door neighbour and a bond salesman. He is an easy-going, occasionally sarcastic, and quite optimistic person. Jay Gatsby (originally James "Jimmy" Gatz) – a young, handsome and mysterious millionaire with shady business connections, originally from North...
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