...techniques are employed by F Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby (1925) and by Ian McEwan in Atonement (2001) to express the loneliness of their characters. In these books, isolation dominates the mood and events of the story; however, the loneliness of the characters often reflects the cultural restrictions of their historical setting. Arguably, the motif of social change and tension also impacts the moods of the books, to a lesser extent. In the Great Gatsby, the moral decay of the 1920s is epitomized by the juxtaposed valley of ashes and the Eggs, while in Atonement, the sweltering weather of Part One could be to illustrate the tension simmering between characters and the impending change apparent in wider society, for example...
Words: 968 - Pages: 4
...Overview: The Great Gatsby The novel's events are filtered through the consciousness of its narrator, Nick Carraway, a young Yale graduate, who is both a part of and separate from the world he describes. Upon moving to New York, he rents a house next door to the mansion of an eccentric millionaire (Jay Gatsby). Every Saturday, Gatsby throws a party at his mansion and all the great and the good of the young fashionable world come to marvel at his extravagance (as well as swap gossipy stories about their host who--it is suggested--has a murky past). Despite his high-living, Gatsby is dissatisfied; and Nick finds out why. Long ago, Gatsby fell in love with a young girl, Daisy. Although she has always loved Gatsby, she is currently married to Tom Buchanan. Gatsby asks Nick to help him meet Daisy once more, and Nick finally agrees--arranging tea for Daisy at his house. The two ex-lovers meet and soon rekindle their affair. Soon, Tom begins to suspect and challenges the two of them--also revealing something that the reader had already begun to suspect: that Gatsby's fortune was made through illegal gambling and bootlegging. Gatsby and Daisy drive back to New York. In the wake of the emotional confrontation, Daisy hits and kills a woman. Gatsby feels that his life would be nothing without Daisy, so he determines to take the blame. George Wilson--who discovers that the car that killed his wife belongs to Gatsby--comes to Gatsby's house and shoots him. Nick arranges a funeral...
Words: 644 - Pages: 3
...in life and move up the social ladder.The optimistic dream seems to ignore the misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and overall inequality that exists in America. Because of this, the American Dream has become a something that more than half the country believes to be impossible. The American Dream is little more than an illusion—hollow, distorted, and unattainable. Inequality growth in the U.S has caused key elements in the American Dream to become unaffordable to most of the population. To...
Words: 610 - Pages: 3
...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a 1925 novel about complex characters and their intricate relationships. Both the characters and their relationships are central focuses in the purpose of the book; however, those focuses can be understood differently in terms of the unique values of Eastern and Western cultures. An understanding of the text can change drastically based on those interpretations. Jay Gatsby is a prime example of a character that is subject to diverging interpretations. Gatsby’s significance in the text makes a reader’s analysis of him incredibly important to understanding the text. A central theme is observed in his character: “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone...remember that all the people in this world haven’t...
Words: 979 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 4924 - Pages: 20
...Pursuing the American Dream The Great Gatsby, written by Scott F. Fitzgerald in 1925, follows the life of the various characters that lived in West Egg, a fictional town on Long Island. It is narrated by Nicholas “Nick” Caraway, a Yale graduate and one of the main characters. By the way the book is written, one can deduce that Nick lived through all the events, or wrote what others told him about the events he was not present in, and wrote the book by end of it all. Its main theme is the pursuit of the American Dream, and what characters have to do to reach it, and how it can all crumble down. Basically, in this essay I will show the different ‘American dreams’ that are strongly projected in this novel. The first dream, the one with the strongest portrayal, was the desire of escalating in the social status ladder. There were characters with a high social status for their family’s name, like Tom Buchanan who inherited his family fortune. He was described as the kind of person that thinks money allows him to treat people as the lowest scum; even though his mannerism and tastes were exquisite, his attitude towards those who were not on the same status as him was detestable. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Page 188, The Great Gastby) Tom counts as an example of...
Words: 1661 - Pages: 7
...The Great Gatsby (Novel) Author Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald Purpose To show the author’s conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age Relationship with the Author and the Characters Fitzgerald and Carraway Thoughtful young man from Minnesota Educated at an Ivy League school Moves to NYC after the war Found the new extravagant lifestyle seductive and exciting Fitzgerald and Gatsby Idolizes wealth and luxury Falls in love with a beautiful young woman while at military camp Narrator Nick Carraway; he also implies that he is the book’s author Point of View Both first and third person Presents only what he himself observes Tone Ambivalent and contradictory; sometimes he seems to disapprove Gatsby, and sometimes he romanticizes and admires Gatsby, describing events in nostalgic and elegiac tone Background Year written: 1925 (the Jazz Age) American economy soared; great prosperity for majority Prohibition (18th Amendment in 1919) ‘bootleggers’ Money is everything Plot Nick Carraway moves from Minnesota to New York (West Egg) to learn about bond business West Egg: wealthy and fashionable area; where the “New Rich” live Nick has social connections with East Egg, where the “Old Rich” live Nick’s classmate at Yale, Tom Buchanan, lives with Nick’s cousin Daisy in East Egg Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, in the Valley of Ashes Valley of Ashes is a gray industrial dumping ground At one party, Nick breaks...
Words: 863 - Pages: 4
...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
...similar to characters in The Great Gatsby who lie to gain or keep a high social status. Social dishonesty in The Great Gatsby, by F....
Words: 936 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 5017 - Pages: 21
...homeless people that live, and why they seemingly appear to not be in our sights. One correlation that could be made between the film and this topic is that the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, could have easily been thrown into this category if he didn’t strive to reach the goals he had. Another...
Words: 542 - Pages: 3
...The Great Gatsby : Investigating the novel refers to links on www.crossref-it.info Who might we want to criticise in this novel? Of whom might Nick be critical? Do they fit the criteria of not having ‘the advantages that you’ve had’? Do you assume that the ‘advantages’ are monetary? What other kinds of advantage might there be? ‘he meant a great deal more than that.’ What more do you think Nick’s father meant? Could the idea of criticism be extended to include literary criticism or interpretation? Look more closely at the characters of Daisy and Tom. At the end of the novel, Nick comments that they are ‘careless people’. Can you find any evidence showing them to be careless or corrupt? Does this comment extend to Jordan or Nick himself? Consider the structure of this chapter – how does Nick order his recollections and his thoughts here? What narrative devices does he use? Investigating Chapter 2 List the different aspects of Chapter 2 which are concerned with religion. What are the differences between the party at Tom’s flat and the other parties in the novel? Nick observes several betrayals in this chapter – which do you find the most shocking and why? ‘I knew he was below me….But if I hadn’t met Chester, he’d of got me sure.’ How does Mrs McKee’s comment reflect on the marriage of Daisy and Tom? Fitzgerald is here depicting the poorer members of American society – why do you think he chooses to give Wilson the occupation of repairing cars? List...
Words: 1220 - Pages: 5
...lifestyles, including parties and events. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of how a group of wealthy individuals gets wrapped up in conflicts while trying to convey their wealth to one another. Jay Gatsby, the main character, became wealthy by getting involved in the stock market after the WWI, where he originally fell in love with Daisy. Daisy Buchanan is married to a wealthy man named Tom Buchanan, who later resents Gatsby, leading to his contribution to Gatsby’s death. A whirlwind of events occurs after the reunion of Gatsby and Daisy that is furthered with the symbolic messages created by Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald uses a variety of symbolic messages, including the green light of Daisy’s porch, the valley of ashes, and the East and West Egg, to help with the development of the plot and to give the novel...
Words: 954 - Pages: 4
...incredibly convenient character conjured by Fitzgerald to give the audience a first person experience of his take on America in the 1920’s, whilst still maintaining a comparatively neutral standpoint on the events that occurred throughout the novel. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, can be considered and appreciated by the audience as quite atypical to the status seeking and self-rewarding concept that was prevalent throughout 1920’s America. As though Fitzgerald himself needed readers to know that he antagonised this mentality by making Nick (humble and quite accepting) the main character of the novel. The author also devotes very little to giving the readers a background of Nick, and often deviates from information about him to focus on the plot revolving around Gatsby’s shady past and Daisy’s relationship conflict within herself. This works suitably well for Fitzgerald as it “kills two birds with one stone” in the sense that whilst the readers are being won over by Nick, they are also growing more curious in the growing relationships between the other main characters of the book, opening the door for Fitzgerald to manipulate the character of Nick in any way he deems necessary. A prime example of how Fitzgerald used Nick as a completely neutral observer of events that transpired was how he always tended to stay out of other characters’ affairs as though he had long since taken up the mentality that he either had no right to interfere in people’s private matters or...
Words: 902 - Pages: 4
...After reading The Great Gatsby, Jacqueline Lance, author of the article “Driving to Destruction with the Rich and Careless at the Wheel” in the journal Studies in Popular Culture, wrote about her observations of automobiles which represented the social status of the characters in the novel: Not only are characters defined by the kind and color of automobile they drive, but the way they behave behind the wheel strongly indicates their attitude towards life and relationships; those who are “careless” drivers approach life in the same manner with which they approach the open road. The characters in the novel who are the most careless drivers emerge as those who are the most careless in their personal relationships. Lance suggests that during the 1920s, the automobile represents the class structure and the type of automobile determines a person’s status. Color symbolically displays a person’s important characteristic. For example, Gatsby’s Roll Royce advertises his “new rich,” and its yellow color, which applies to gold,...
Words: 1056 - Pages: 5
