Escapism In The Great Gatsby

Human nature empowers even the most unfortunate people to reach for superiority. In search of these aspirations, some people become obsessed with perfecting past decisions, or returning to a “golden time”. However, human nature renders the seeker unable to achieve such a delusion. F. Scott Fitzgerald explores this principle within his novella, The Great Gatsby. Establishing déjà vu throughout the novel, Fitzgerald juxtaposes cyclical plot with the unattainability of the past to portray flaws in human nature at what seems to be the zenith of Gatsby’s American Dream.

The Human Condition is a big part of our understanding of literature, it can mean death, acceptance, judgment, and several other diverse things. It is about the positive or negative aspects of humans that everyone all universally deals with at least one time in one’s life. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the short stories Raymond Carver’s “Everything Stuck to Him”, and Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”, all have the most prominent human condition: love. Love is portrayed as society’s primary concern in literature, and is represented as a main concern in today’s society .

“Writers consistently use novels as a lens through which they scrutinise society.” To what extent do you agree with this view?

In The Great Gatsby, the author, F Scott Fitzgerald depicts the post - war roaring 20’s, a time of overwhelming prosperity and a new found sense of hope for the future. While this novel is often perceived as a romance, it is also a criticism on the devastating nature of the elusive american dream. The story of Jay Gatsby is a representation of what had become the values of the individual at the time. With the progression of the early 1920’s the vision of the perfect life, or the american dream, had been skewed. It was replaced with greed, and an abundance of reckless spending in which the wealthier individuals placed their misguided ideas of happiness. In the Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald chooses to expose the hidden truth behind the illustrious concept of the American dream. Through his use of literary devices such as, symbolism, metaphor, and, irony the central idea of the truly unattainable American dream is supported throughout the novel.

“So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight—watching over nothing” (153). Nick explains in this quote how he leaves Gatsby watching over nothing. Gatsby spends his whole life trying to achieve this dream of recreating the past with Daisy. He goes through illegal means to try to accomplish this goal and because he is so focused on doing this, he never realizes that Daisy isn’t worth the pursuit. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the main protagonist of the novel portrays how people often tend to be blinded by a dream or illusion they have created in their minds which prohibits them from seeing reality. This is shown through the careless characteristics of his former love, Daisy and the way Gatsby cannot see her many flaws or his own when trying to receive Daisy’s love.

The Great Gatsby is a film that is starring a man by the name of Jay Gatsby, but originally named James Gatz, who grew up in a low status household. Being an officer in the war, Jay met the love of his life, Daisy, who he could not marry due to his low status and the fact that he was in the war. Later, after war, Gatsby disguises himself as an upperclassman who is rich and tries to get Daisy back- through the work of her cousin, Nick Carraway, who is also Gatsby’s next-door neighbor- who at this point is married to Tom Buchanan. The film finishes with the death of Gatsby. Midnight in Paris is a film about a man named Gil Pender, who is traveling to Paris with his wife. While in Paris, Gil goes out every night at midnight and travels back to the 1920s. While he in the 1920s, Gil meets a woman named Adriana, who was splendid during her time. Gil ended up having a short romance with her. At last, Gil decides to stay in the future and confront the reality. The effectiveness of the

“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, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock”(Fitzgerald 21).

Towards the middle of the book Nick finally got to know Mr.Gatsby a little better. Gatsby had made it clear to Nick that he shouldn’t believe the rumours that he heard because Gatsby doesn’t want Nick to get the wrong impression of him. The reason behind this is because he knew that Nick had a closeness with Daisy so he was trying hard to impress those surrounding Daisy’s family life because

The Great Gatsby was written during the 1920s, which is also known as the Roaring Twenties. In the narrative F. Scott Fitzgerald gave a critical view of this time. In the 1920s and the 1930s there was a lot going on, for example bootlegging, drinking, criminal activity, and an evolution of jazz music. The women were also going through an evolution, in 1920 they got the right to vote and since then they changed a lot and they became known as Flappers. Women not only wanted to take care of their families but also wanted to have a career. “The independent New Woman, who rejected marriage for career and political action who often rooted her emotional life […] was gradually discredited. In her place came the flapper, who celebrated her sexual independence

Growing up I was never a big fan of reading, but as I got older I noticed books are very essential. They are filled with adventures and lessons that only exist in wildest imagination. Without books many of us wouldn't know half the things we know today. Books teaches us math , science, history ,and even how to use a computer or how to play a sport. With so many different genres to choose from and millions of books to read , the task of reading can never get boring, especially when you're actively reading

There is a beauty in books. Each book opens up your mind to a world unknown. Each page of a book makes you think to yourself "what's going to happen next?". Books give you thoughts and opinions. Books teach you things you never knew. They allow you to escape reality and enter someone else's world. Books

Before we divulge into the topic of this essay, let me begin by stating that neither the author of the main source, Steven Johnson, nor I intend to devalue books or look down upon them. In his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, he starts off talking about the importance of books. He says, “We should all encourage our kids to read more, to develop a comfort with and an appetite for reading” (Johnson 21). Reading provides many different benefits, some including “concentration, the ability to make sense of words, to follow narrative threads, to sculpt imagined worlds out of mere sentences on pages” (Johnson 23). As an avid reader myself, I have always had an interest in books.

Desiring the Unobtainable “No one ought even to desert a woman after throwing her a heap of gold in her distress! He ought to love her forever! You are young, only twenty-one, and kind and upright and fine. You'll ask me how a woman can take money from a man. Oh, God, isn't it natural to share everything with the one we owe all our happiness to?

“Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing morea bout what is bad in human nature than what is good.” This quote an be interpreted to mean that in books, the reader more often sees negative views of the characters than they do positive aspects; one learns more about the darker sides of humanity in books that they do about the goodness in people. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the protagonist, Nick Carraway, is a man living in New York during the 1920s. While there are good, innocent people in the book, the novel is dominated by those who act against the moral standard set by F. Scott Fitzgerald and society.. Through the narrator, the reader learns about the darker side of people and human nature living in this time.

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells us a variety of themes-justice, power and greed, The American dream and so on. The Great Gatsby is regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary. The Great Gatsby concerns the wasteful lives of four wealthy characters as observed by their acquaintance, narrator Nick Carraway. Like Fitzgerald himself, Nick is from Minnesota, attended an Ivy League university, served in the U.S. Army during World War I, moved to New York after the war. The narrator, Nick, is a very clever and well spoken storyteller. Nick confides with the reader in the first pages of the novel. He says that he needs to tell the story of a man called Gatsby. It is as if Nick has to overcome disappointment and frustration with a man who has left him with painful memories. This thesis is valid for three main reasons. First, it is evident that dreams and memories are central to the overall plot and meaning. Secondly, the American Dream is a “green light” of desire that Gatsby never stops yearning for and something he will not forget over time, even as he is dying. This is so, even though no one cares about Gatsby or his dreams after he died, except maybe Nick. Finally, the fact that Fitzgerald uses flashback; that Nick is telling us about a main character after he has already died and before the story begins, is ultimate proof.The Great Gatsby is structured by Nick’s memory. Fitzgerald’s clever use of flashback throughout and within the