...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...
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...Scott Mr. Serri 11/3/11 English 11-1 The Great Gatsby Character Questions It is almost impossible to grasp anything fully from one side. To truly understand a 3-dementional item you need at least two different angles. This is precisely what makes Nick Carraway the perfect narrator for The Great Gatsby. He is a stranger in a strange land, who sees the most eccentric part of the east coast. Therefore, the reader not only gets his own perspective on the situation but sees through Nick’s fresh pair of eyes. Also Nick has two very key personality traits, unique to the mid-west, which make him the ideal narrator for The Great Gatsby. He restrains his judgment and he is a good listener. His listening skills give him a sense of trust and people respond by telling him certain secrets. We definitely see this with his relationship with Gatsby. Nick’s opinion of Gatsby changes drastically, along with the reader’s. Ultimately, Nick believes Gatsby. Gatsby, on their ride together, tells Nick about his life. Our unbiased narrator seems to pass a little judgment on his neighbor’s story. “And with this doubt his whole statement fell to pieces and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him after all” (p. 66). This is mentioned after Gatsby talks about his Oxford education. It is clear that Nick, at first, does not believe most of what Gatsby is saying. It is funny how his perception changes as the conversation continues. Once Gatsby mentions his wartime achievements...
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...Yasmeen Williamson English 3 September 2014 The Great Gatsby Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is about a poor boy finding the love of his life, who’s a popular young lady that all the soldiers in town like and who doesn’t marry poor boys. He works and makes himself rich over time. After a few years he finally gets to own a big house with a pool and servants, a few nice cars and he throws parties all the time. The only thing stopping him from being officially happy is having Daisy in his full possession. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby’s life as almost every Americans’ average American Dream, with the big mansion like house, the expensive luxury cars, parties all the time, and endless money. The only thing is Gatsby isn’t even happy living the average American Dream. Although he may have all these nice things, he only wanted one thing, which was to be with Daisy and by way of Daisy Fitzgerald shows that material things don’t always make your dreams come true or make you happy. For example, Gatsby owned a few dozen servants for his huge home. One day he decided to fire all of them except for about two or three because he wanted to keep him and Daisy’s business between them; he didn’t want gossip going around town from the servants. Although any average American would love to have kept all those servants and it would have made them happy, they didn’t bring Gatsby any joy. He did it to keep Daisy happy with him. That’s the only thing that brought him joy. Another example...
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...English Task 9(western australia 2cd) 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...
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...Williams1 Alima Williams Mr.DiCristino English 3H 16 December 2015 The Bad Effects of Wealth In the world we live in today, people tend to crave love and happiness, but most importantly wealth. Unfortunately, people don’t understand that wealth has bad effects and it doesn’t solve every problem they encounter. Jay Gatsby, a main character in Great Gatsby The was one of these people. Gatsby and other characters of his class all strived for happiness, wealth, status and love. To their dismay, they realized that the desire for wealth could lead to their downfall. Through Gatsby, Fitzgerald proves that the pursuit of wealth is corruptive, useless and dangerous. The old money crowd’s actions make the pursuit for wealth danger. The people of this crowd were born into their wealth which makes them careless. They don’t have to worry about consequences and whatever they want they get. The characters of this novel, Daisy and Tom, are a part of this crowd. They have no regard for other people or empathy. Daisy killed Myrtle in a car accident but didn’t get punished as a normal person would. Instead, Gatsby said he’ll take the blame for her and Daisy left with Tom. For example, it says “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him, called her instinctively and without hesitation. But she and Tom ...
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...Justyna Laska The Great Desires of America in 20th Century Recently is very loud about the film The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. People say different opinion about this story which persuade me to buy the book, read it, and find out that how the world looked in those times and how the American dream come true. This book made a huge impression on me and that is way I decided to tell a few words about Mr. Gatsby. The Great Gatsby has been written in 1925 by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family. His mother was of Irish descent, and his father had Irish and English ancestry. He attended Princeton University which he interrupted in 1917 to join the U. S. Army. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre and they had beautiful daughter Scottie. In Hollywood he had a mistress, but no woman fascinated him more than his wife. He died in age of 44 because of second heart attack. Francis Scott Fitzgerald was one of the leading representatives of the lost generation of American writers. In his works showed his disappointment and anarchic rebellion against the younger generation of American post-war reality. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise,...
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...The Great Desires of America in 20th Century Recently is very loud about the film The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. People say different opinion about this story which persuade me to buy the book, read it, and find out that how the world looked in those times and how the American dream come true. This book made a huge impression on me and that is way I decided to tell a few words about Mr. Gatsby. The Great Gatsby has been written in 1925 by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family. His mother was of Irish descent, and his father had Irish and English ancestry. He attended Princeton University which he interrupted in 1917 to join the U. S. Army. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre and they had beautiful daughter Scottie. In Hollywood he had a mistress, but no woman fascinated him more than his wife. He died in age of 44 because of second heart attack. Francis Scott Fitzgerald was one of the leading representatives of the lost generation of American writers. In his works showed his disappointment and anarchic rebellion against the younger generation of American post-war reality. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and...
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...Miles 1/5/17 English 11 Gatsby Essay Throughout The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates symbolism through color to paint pictures within the novel. In the backdrop of the roaring 20’s, a time of care-free extravagance and a new age of culture, lives one Jay Gatsby, “The Great Gatsby.” In reality, Gatsby is a poor man living a life of fantasy and corruption all for a “golden girl,” although no matter how rich he is, he is never able reach his dream, and dies tragically at the end of the summer. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses gold and silver to portray wealth as it corresponds with this obsession for prosperity and the pursuit of the American Dream, as well as his preoccupation with Daisy as a symbol of affluence and beauty....
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...Gold In most cases nowadays, the color of gold or yellow is highly regarded as a “wealthy” or “proper” color. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the author uses symbolism to show how gold is symbolic of richness and wealth, and in turn, corruption and death, with clothing/setting choice, Myrtle’s house, and Mr. Gatsby’s car. According to John Green, when Gatsby talks about his first meeting with Daisy, it is apparent that Gatsby is more in love with her mansion than Daisy herself. Green also points out the not-so-obvious fact that when Daisy and Gatsby finally meet again, everything is yellow. Gatsby’s suit, Daisy’s buttons, Gatsby’s Windows, and even the flowers outside Gatsby’s mansion. In this situation, the color gold is shown with a positive connotation. Gatsby is happy to have Daisy again, and he finally has plenty of money. However, there are negative connotations involved with this color as well. At the beginning of the novel, the readers are quickly informed that Tom Buchannon is having an affair. And who would want to cheat on Daisy, the “Golden Girl?” (Fitzgerald 120). Later on in the novel we meet Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress. This woman is an obvious sign of corruption. We learn that she and Tom have an apartment together in New York, and that they have been seeing each other for a long time. Fitzgerald reveals a simple and easy-to-miss fact, that the Wilson home was a “small block of yellow brick” (Fitzgerald 28). This associates the color with...
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...In this chapter, Jay Gatsby remains fundamentally a mystery. Few of the partygoers have met their host, and Gatsby stands aloof from his own celebration. He does not drink, he does not dance, he remains an observer. The man himself stands in stark contrast to the sinister gossip Nick has heard about him. Gatsby is young and handsome, with a beautiful smile that seems to radiate hope and optimism. Nick falls instantly in love with Gatsby's smile, remarking that it has "a quality of eternal reassurance in it." Gatsby's innate hopefulness is contagious. Though Nick implies throughout the novel that wealth and ostentation tend to mask immorality and decay, Gatsby's wealth seems to serve another purpose, one that is not yet clear. The reader already knows that not everything about Gatsby is mere display: his books are real, for example, and his smile is real. However, he has a queer false English accent that is obviously false. Gatsby, at this point in the novel, remains an enigma, a creature of contradictions. Fitzgerald gives great attention to the details of contemporary society: Gatsby's party is both a description and parody of Jazz Age decadence. It exemplifies the spirit of conspicuous consumption, and is a queer mix of the lewd and the respectable. Though catered to by butlers and serenaded by professionally trained singers, the guests are drunk, crude, and boisterous. The orchestra plays a work by Tostoff called The Jazz History of the World; though it had had a fantastic...
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...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is established as one of the most famous novels in American literature since its debut in 1925. Many English classes all around the country have had a required reading of the book and the story itself has captivated readers all around the world. Similarly to most well known books, The Great Gatsby was made into a movie in 2013. While there may be some common similarities between the two pieces, there are some distinct differences such as Jordan and Nick’s relationship, the modern spin on the film, along with Gatsby’s death that ultimately distinguish the movie apart from the book. The first difference is one that involves a two character relationship between Nick and Jordan. The director of the movie, Baz Luhrmann, cut out one of the notable side stories from the book: the romantic relationship between Nick with Jordan Baker. Jordan is a friend of Daisy’s who is described in the novel as a famous golfer. In...
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...Course: 420 Critical Reading of Literature in English Faculty responsible: Ms. Anna Born Institution: Glion Institute of Higher Education Date: May 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...
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...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is filled with multiple themes such as, love, power, money, reality, illusion and immortality, but the main focus is on the American dream and the downfall of those who attempt to reach it. Everyone has a dream of what ones future will look like, a future that includes something one might not have now. The novel is largely based around the so called American dream which embodies material items as a way of being successful. Jay Gatsby symbolizes the so-called American dream as he acquires popularity, wealth and love however falls short of this dream. Jay Gatsby is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a gothic mansion in West Egg, New York. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune; making him a very popular person. Acquiring popularity in this fashion did not necessarily guarantee Gatsby had true friends because it was the parties themselves that were popular, not he himself. Nick, Gatsby's neighbor, who was invited to one of his elaborate gatherings; says that they, "conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks," again stressing the carefree, stereotypical roaring '20s atmosphere. Much to the partygoers discredit, "sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all." (Fitzgerald 21). This shows not only, that people just arrived to his mansion because his house was the "hot...
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...awe because I wish I was them. The only place I’ve been to outside the United States was Mexico. My family from my mom’s side lives there. I love the culture and food from there but sometimes I don’t really like eating Mexican food from home because it’s not the same. I’m taking English Composition 1 because I’m taking my basic courses in college. I love English, it was my favorite class in High School. I liked writing essays and writing in a journal, it took me away from the days when I was feeling bad. I remember one day when we had to pick a book to read in a group. I picked the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. My favorite author would definitely be F. Scott Fitzgerald because he really surprised me with the way he described Daisy, Nick, and Gatsby. I was really excited when I heard that the book was going to be a movie. I even read the book a second time when I finished watching the blockbuster. I’ve always wanted to write something and turn it into a movie. I’m studying for an Associates in Radio- Television- Film. I’m graduating in 4 years in 2017. I’ve always loved movies and writing ideas down for videos. The best video I did was a skit about The Great Gatsby for my English class in junior year. When my mom found out I wanted to become a filmmaker, she took me to the Apple store to buy my first laptop to edit and help with college. In the future I’m going to take some Film courses in college and try to make something fun and meaningful in the future...
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...Dr. Parker English 102: Sect. D09 Fall 2014 Paper 1: On Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Great Gatsby Format: Follow Easy Writer guidelines and those specified in “Using Quotations Effectively,” “The Thesis Statement,” “Mechanics” and “Integrating Sources” (under “Writing Tips” on Blackboard) Page Length: 4-6 pages (1000-1500 words) Due Dates: Preliminary draft uploaded to Blackboard––Friday, 9/19 (under Course Content/Formal Papers and Oral Presentations) Your draft should include at least the thesis paragraph and five passages that you plan to draw upon in the paper. Rough draft conferences––9/29-10/1 Prepare to read your draft to me during our meeting. Rough draft for peer review––Monday, 9/29 Bring hard copy to class for your peer editor to read. Final draft uploaded to Blackboard––Friday, 10/3 Leave your rough draft with peer editor’s comments at my office. You may choose either the creative or analytical essay option. If you do a creative paper now, for next paper, you will do an analytical paper. Creative Options For all creative treatments, please affix to your paper a one-page analysis of what your aims were in choosing this approach, what strategies your employed to carry out your aims, and how successful you feel you were in achieving your aims. You should draw on the texts themselves. If appropriate, you can incorporate passages from the texts into you own prose. Your...
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