...THE GREAT GATSBY The Great Gatsby is a tale of luxury, lust, deceit, and murder. In Long Island, New York, Nick Carraway lives next door to the mysterious Jay Gatsby, the owner of a huge mansion and host of frequent and lavish parties. Although prohibition has made alcohol illegal, Gatsby always has a surplus available at his wild social gatherings. As Nick starts to spend more time with Gatsby, he begins to learn about Gatsby’s past, his strange profession, and his love for Nick’s cousin, Daisy. The story that unfolds truly highlights the scandalous and risky nature of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald had encompassed many literary devices in order to make this novel effective and more appealing. He has used techniques such as imagery, similes and the strongest one is symbolism. Fitzgerald has very smartly constructed his novel. "And only let me leave it in the soap dish when she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow.”(page 76) is an example of simile used in the text. This sentence suggests that Daisy was holding onto that letter until there wasn't really anything left of it. The letter obviously meant a whole lot to her if she took a bath with it. A representative of imagery used in the novel is "Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.” This sentence paints a picture in our heads of Gatsby feeling cold with his hands in his pockets, while standing in a puddle...
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...Jay Gatsby the main character in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby represents the self improvement that embodied America in all of its grit and glory during the 1920’s. It is this aspect of Gatsby that F. Scott Fitzegerald created which allows the reader to connect on a personal level making him one of the world’s most cherished and memorable fictional characters. Gatsby is a mere image of Fitzegerlds wildest imaginations and dreams. Fitzgerld always wanted wealth and notirity and he lives through is character to accomplish his goals. Fitsgerald also lives out his own inner complexity and confusions through Gasby as he himself hates the shallow thoughts and actions of the rich and famous while at the same time he despertaly wants to be a part...
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...English 12 Great Gatsby Assignment ASSIGNMENT The questions below are all very open-ended, allowing you a permissive opportunity to reflect on and draw personalized meaning from the text. The key will not be right answers but how you position and support your reply to each question. As a result, responses should not appear as a question answered, but as an insight revealed. There will need to be an investigative quality to how you use the question to interpret the novel and its possible applications to your own personal and cultural realities. Responses will normally require a paragraph or two (200-300 words; more or less is fine so long as responses are complete). Question #1 Identify three scenarios (specific events or experiences) from The Great Gatsby which portray how some imagine and live out the Dream. Then, comment on what the experience suggests about the character’s underlying belief and motivation about “getting ahead” or having “a better life,” in connection with the greater insight of the novel. Finally, depict three expressions/experiences in cultural life today that bear striking similarity to the novel and comment freely on any relationships they have with its larger theme(s). In The Great Gatsby novel Daisy imagined the Dream as a life of popularity, status, and class. She married Tom who she does not love to achieve her idea of the Dream. Gatsby imagined the Dream when he started working for the rich man who took him under his...
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...Jay Gatsby is a character from the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby is a millionaire who is quiet and usually keeps quiet. Gatsby often lies about his personal life to keep something hidden and he does not want the others around him to know whatever that thing is. There is many stories that he makes up in the book to keep certain things hidden. Gatsby tends to keep his personal life hidden because he is a swindler and a criminal. Gatsby is a rich and powerful character in The Great Gatsby. There is many rumours of how Gatsby got his money and there are a lot of people who wonder how he got so much money so fast. Some of the rumours include him being given money from a rich family in the midwest and that through his many pharmacies that he owned, this causes tom to do some investigation on Gatsby which he says “I found out what your ‘drug stores’ were”(133), there was some sort of illegal activity somehow going on. Tom thinks that Gatsby is a bootlegger when he says “ I picked him for a bootlegger and i wasn’t far from it”(133). Tom is not the only one who is confused on how he got rich, everybody else is also. There is many moments in the book where people are stuck wondering how he got his money. There is also other people that work with him and he has ties to meyer wolfshiem which is the person who allegedly fixed the 1919 world series. Tom says“You're one of the bunch who hang around meyer wolfsheim”(133). This shows that he and meyer wolfsheim have ties and meyer...
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...chapter 6 of The Great Gatsby, a reporter comes to Gatsby’s door to interview him about his personal life. Jay Gatsby’s original name was James Gatz and he was born on a North Dakota farm but went to college in St. Olaf, Minnesota. He dropped out of college and later met the wealthy Dan Cody who hired him as a personal assistant. When Dan Cody died he left Gatsby $25,000, but his mistress prevented Gatsby from claiming it. After that, Gatsby was determined to become rich and successful. Later on, Nick visits Gatsby and is shocked to find Tom Buchanan there, and the next Saturday Tom and Daisy attend one of Gatsby’s parties. After the party Gatsby is worried that Daisy did not enjoy it and Nick tells him to give up on Daisy, however, Gatsby refuses and instead tells Nick about he and Daisy’s past. The quote that best describes Jay Gatsby is, “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (110). The good qualities of Jay Gatsby are he is a loyal person and he has a good heart. The bad qualities of Gatsby are he is amoral, dishonest, and throws his money away. Fitzgerald developed this character to show how people use their wealth to get love only to discover the love is not real. Additionally, he is developed throughout the novel to be an example of how living extravagantly can be an empty life. A meaningful quote in the chapter is, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long...
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...the bay in The Great Gatsby Has become a symbol of the yearning of America in the 1920’s” (David Ignatius). During the time this book was written, a new age broke out called the roaring 20s. This was a time in American history where we defied almost all laws, expressed ourselves in rebellious ways through dancing, music, and partying, as well as demoted many traditional moral standards. The 1920s were filled with wild parties, new ideas about life, and unnecessary drinking with a lot of reckless behavior. In the book, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many characters who are self centered, manipulative, and carless....
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...We all have dreams. Everyone can say that there has been a time in their life where they have yearned to acquire or achieve something. Dreams can be about everything or anything; however, depending on the dream, it can sometimes be devastating to one’s morals and personality. A lot of times it is the body’s vivid and frequent imagination of dreams that lures oneself to their desires. Once a person’s desire has been fulfilled they may attempt to recreate and relive them over and over again. This obsession can have severe consequences by affecting the reality of one’s life. In American Gangster and The Great Gatsby the protagonists have underestimated the power of imagined desires. Frank, a leader of a Harlem gang in American Gangster, quickly...
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...The Great Gatsby is a book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story follows Nick, the protagonist, as he moves to New York City and starts his new life there. Throughout the book, the reader meets an abundance of horrible characters like Daisy, a self-absorbed and careless beauty, Tom, a brutal and unmoral man, and Gatsby, an ignorant and mysterious fool who wasted his life chasing a hopeless dream. Baz Luhrmann and Woody Allen are just two people who have recreated The Great Gatsby or dedicated a homage to it. Their works have proven effective representations of the film. A director named Baz Luhrmann turned The Great Gatsby into a film. By casting the right actors to portray the characters, Luhrmann effectively recreated the book on screen....
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...Jay Gatsby, the main character in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby embodies the roaring twenties “American dream” in all its grit and glory. His ability to strive and preserver is a character quality that allows the reader to connect on a personal level, making him one of the world’s most cherished and memorable fictional characters. Gatsby is a mere image of Fitzgerald’s wildest dreams and imaginations. Fitzgerald longed for wealth and notoriety which he accomplished through his character. He also lives out his own inner complexity and confusions through Gatsby as he himself hates the shallow thoughts and actions of the rich while at the same time desperately desires to acquire a portion of their lifestyle. He uses Gatsby to convey his allure...
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...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....
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...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...
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...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel shown through Nick Carraway’s eyes. Nick is the narrator of the story who describes his person accounts with people he met throughout his life. Nick, growing up in the Midwest, moves to the East Coast to learn the bond business. He encounters a man named Jay Gatsby, his next door neighbor, who is a main character in the story. Nick and Gatsby spend plenty of time together but how did Nick actually feel about Gatsby? Fitzgerald expresses Nick’s admiring attitude toward Gatsby by the use of imagery and polysyndeton. Nick’s admiring attitude is shown through the use of imagery. Nick is packed and ready to leave but returns to Gatsby’s house one last time. Nick notices Gatsby’s house was vandalized, “On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it, drawing my shoe raspingly along the stone.” Nick cared about and admired Gatsby. The imagery portrays the feeling of Gatsby by many people but Nick erases the word to show the Nick feels the direct opposite of most people. If Nick had hated Gatsby he would have left the obscene word on the steps but he returns to Gatsby’s house and is willing to show Gatsby respect by taking off the word from Gatsby’s steps. He wipes off the word with his shoe which shows he cares enough for Gatsby to ruin his personal things. Nick admires that Gatsby was willing to do everything in his power to try to get Daisy to love...
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...The use of Symbolism in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, who at one time lived next to the main character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a rich entrepreneur who lives alone in a mansion on West egg. Gatsby is in love with the beautiful Daisy Buchanan who lives across the bay in East Egg with her husband Tom Buchanan. Gatsby had fallen in love with Daisy five years prior to the start of the novel. In his efforts to win over the love of his life Gatsby uses his lavish home to throw elaborate parties in hopes that one day Daisy will attend. One of the key elements in The Great Gatsby is the use of symbolism throughout the novel. The use of symbols can add a level of depth to a novel, as well as help the reader...
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...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about a peculiar man named Jay Gatsby. He is a remarkably rich individual with peers that surround him who treasure wealth, reputation, and social status. Jay Gatsby, the mysterious man was impacted the most throughout the novel. Jay Gatsby lived with the theory of ending his life with Daisy whom impacted Gatsby the most, not realizing that the day he would die she’d not be attending his funeral. Nick being the help for finding love again amongst Gatsby and Daisy seems to genuinely impact Gatsby as well. We all know love makes us do some exceptionally strange things, when Jay Gatsby is introduced to Daisy again after many of years, he realizes how affectioness he is towards her. Which intensely affects gatsby wanting her back...
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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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