Criticism In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes American society in the 1920?s for its tendencies to waste, advertise, form superficial relationships, and obsess over appearances. The work has been praised for both its brutal realism and its keen depiction of the age that The New York Times referred to as the era when, 'gin was the national drink and sex was the national obsession'(Fitzgerald vii).  ' . . . indifference is presented as a moral failure - a failure of society, particularly the society of the American east to recognize the imperatives of truth and honesty and justice? (Gallo 35).

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896. He was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and his parents were both born in Maryland and Irish. You could say he grew up very lower middle class. Fitzgerald’s views of relationships began at an early age. It was interesting because many of his best books came from the idea that women & men relationships is just a game with one person ending up being a winner. He claimed to forever have a jazz-age attitude that would stick with him for life, and it worked. F. Scott Fitzgerald died December 21, 1940 at the young age of 44.

In America the repercussions of World War 1 resulted in, the roaring twenties, a time period characterized as an era of economic prosperity. The stock market sky-rocketed, advances in technology were distinct and demands were shifting, but what value prominently elevated above everything else? Wealth. The widespread wealth was desired and people valued social class with such high regard that to attain these two fixations became the standard “American Dream” of the 1920’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction exposes an era of poor social and moral values, and it was a miserable desire for wealth that progressed this. Fitzgerald utilizes the setting, a combination of the time period and geography, to reveal the message that it became

Now everyone I want you to close your eyes and imagine what you think living in the 1920s would be like.

The main theme of the novel “The Great Gatsby” focuses on the American Dream and it is portrayed through the life of Jay Gatsby. Through Gatsby’s life we see the withering of the American Dream, a tragedy that struck Jay’s near finished dream. The American Dream is what many have hoped of achieving, it has existed in the past and is in the present. The American Dream gives people a goal that they can work towards, it also gives them a purpose in life. The American Dream represents luxury and wealth it believes the goodness of the quality of life. For Jay Gatsby, he was so close to achieving the American Dream. He had the wealth and the class, all he needed was his long lost love, Daisy. Gatsby truly believed that he

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, a man named Jay Gatsby dreams of winning the love of a Daisy Buchanan, an upper-class woman who is married to Tom Buchanan. Before the current time present in the novel, summer of 1922 in Long Island and New York City, Gatsby and Daisy meet during October 1917 when Gatsby was a military officer who was stationed in Louisville. They fell in love, but Gatsby had lied about his social class to present himself as someone who was good enough for her. Gatsby had to go overseas and Daisy said she would wait for him but by the time he came back, Daisy was already engaged to Tom. Five years later, Gatsby and Daisy meet again and the two lovers act as if the five years in between never happened. Daisy and Gatsby drive to Long Island and on their way, Daisy runs over Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress. Gatsby takes the blame for her leading to Mr. Wilson shooting Gatsby. Nick tells Gatsby, “You can’t repeat the past.” Gatsby responds saying, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” Throughout the novel and the last five years, Gatsby tried to win back the love of Daisy but never rekindled the relationship they had in Louisville and although at the surface it seems as though Daisy loves Gatsby as he loves her, Gatsby never truly had a real chance of getting her back.

dedicate his life to the development of the idea of himself that existed in his head.

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the characters live in an illusory world and only some can see past this. In the novel, West Egg and its residents represent the newly rich, while East Egg represents the old aristocracy. Gatsby seeking the past, Daisy is obsessed with material things, Myrtle wanting Tom to escape her poverty, George believing that T.J. Eckleburg is God, and Tom believing he is untouchable because of his power and wealth are all examples of the illusion v. reality struggle in the novel and Nick, the only character aware of reality, witnesses the fall of all the characters around him to their delusions.

1. We see all the action of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of one character whose

“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... I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of the dock” (25-26). In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, the narrator, offers his first observation about Jay Gatsby. Although Carraway did not know him well at the time, his first Gatsby moment truly revealed Gatsby’s purpose-to repeat the past and find his old love, Daisy who loved across the bay near the green light. Despite the geographical differences of East egg and West egg, the roaring twenties made Gatsby shine in a light of his own that others tried to reach for.

The Roaring Twenties. The time of The Great Gatsby. A time of wealth and success, especially for a young man in the West Egg of New York by the name of Jay Gatsby. However, is Gatsby truly successful? Gatsby’s success is represented by his parties… and by his funeral. How do these events show the successes and failures of Gatsby’s life? By showing how Gatsby’s parties and his funeral relate and differ, and what each event represents, Gatsby’s victories and failures can be revealed.

Any American is taught a dream that is purged of all truth. The American Dream is shown to the world as a belief that anyone can do anything; when in reality, life is filled with impossible boundaries. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives us a glimpse into the life of the upper class during the roaring twenties through the eyes of a moralistic young man named Nick Carraway. It is through the narrator's dealings with the upper class that the reader is shown how modern values have transformed the American Dream's pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power, and how the world of the upper class lacks any sense of morals or consequence. In order to support Fitzgerald's message

Donald Trump once said, “My whole life is about winning. I don 't lose often. I almost never lose.” Jay Gatsby has a similar outlook on life. Gatsby and Trump view themselves as winners because their pockets are stuffed with cash. Jay Gatsby and Donald Trump can agree on one thing: money. Both men are ruthless, business tycoons, and measure their success in life based on their wealth. Jay Gatsby meets his demise towards the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby, while Donald Trump is just getting started on a new business venture. Donald Trump is the modern-day Jay Gatsby. Donald Trump and Jay Gatsby find comfort in lavish lifestyles, are willing to go to desperate measures for a business deal, and attempt to win the hearts of the ladies they love.

Another representation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s critique of society in the 1920s in The Great Gatsby is exhibited at Gatsby’s parties. In the novel Gatsby throws big expensive parties full of random individuals who just show up uninvited at his mansion. In The Great Gatsby it illustrates “ people were doing “stunts” all over the garden while happy vacuous of laughter rose toward the summer sky. ”(Fitzgerald 51). In this passage it shows how individuals acted during the 1920s by partying and enjoying life in ways seen previously as abnormal.

What is intertextuality? Intertextuality is a word that introduced by Julia Kristeva, a philosopher, literary critic, feminist and a novelist. Kristeva defined Intertextuality as a “mosaic of quotation”, which means that all texts that are derived from the natural process and transformation of other type of content (Martin, 2011). It is also called referencing an original idea that has previously been produced. In essence, it is to take an original work of art and turn it into a whole new idea or artistic style. The following essay will explore of how intertextuality is used in Baz Lurhmann’s “The Great Gatsby”.