Beneath the Surface Glitter, 'The Great Gatsby' is a Profoundly Pessimistic Novel. Do You Agree? F. Scott Fitzgerald has created a very intricate world in 'The Great Gatsby'. It is a world that includes the exceedingly rich and also those who are much worse off. The novel focuses around the wealthier section of this world, those who live in East and West Egg. Fitzgerald is very thorough in his descriptions, in order to fully convey to us the glamour, sparkle and hope of that world. The 'glitter' is very present, but as the story progresses the surface begins to become translucent, and there are many clues leading to more pessimistic depths of the story. This is where we can see the collapse of The American Dream and all the hopes it brings. The glitter in the novel is presented in several ways. The state in which most of the characters live and the seemingly endless flow of wealth certainly are main contributors. East and West Egg are seeping with money; the houses are not merely houses but mansions, the cars are luxurious and the clothes worn are incredibly glamorous. The parties that Gatsby has are vast and magical. Vivid and colorful language is used to detail his parties, which all adds to the glitter effect. "Champagne like the stars" "glistening hors-drover Harlequin designs bewitched to a dark gold." "Floating rounds of cocktails" Another element of the novel's glitter is Gatsby's idealism. The party is also full of horrible people such as Mr. and Mrs. McKee. Nick is quite compelled by the way the people act, but is also greatly saddened, by the way in which they feel they must act. Gossip is spread round the part like a fire. Needless to say all the gossip is false and lies of some sort or another. The party ends with an act of severe violence that inevitably follows Tom around with his corrupt lifestyle, and Nick wakes up the next morning with a hangover in a cold station. Things do seem to become more optimistic when Nick learns of Gatsby and his dream. When he is told that Gatsby bought his house just so he could be close to Daisy. "He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor." The whole ideal that Gatsby has for Daisy, his hope, his optimism, his
These characters live in the age of the “Hollow Men,” and are portrayed as empty and absent-minded people. In fact, Nick voices his grievances with this at the end of the story; after Nick meets Tom Buchanan a couple months following Gatsby’s death, he takes time to reflect, pondering, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” (179). Shaking Tom’s hand, he states that he feels like he “were talking to a child” (179). Nick feels a personal disdain for the carelessness of the characters in the book. Gatsby, however, acts with real thoughtfulness, as he exhibits his authenticity multiple times in the novel. Reflecting on Gatsby’s life, Nick proclaims that Gatsby’s heart “was in a constant, turbulent riot” (99). He then tells that “the most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted [Gatsby] in his bed at night” (99). These examples help validate that Gatsby, unlike the other characters, was genuine enough to feel passionate and convey emotion. While the readers dislike Tom and Daisy’s emptiness, they favor Gatsby’s compassionate and sincere personality, as they can relate to his
Without using depth of thought, The Great Gatsby is essentially a love story of the impossible forbidden desire between a woman and a man. The primary theme of the novel, however, shows off a much larger, less romantic scope of the novel. Though most of its primary plot takes place over simply a few short months through 1922’s summer, and is set in a small area in relative proximity to Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a a view on the 1920’s in America, and uses a lot of varied symbolism with it, in particular the loss and dismemberment of the American dream in an era literally named after the amount of wealth and industry it produced in material excess. Fitzgerald is able to showcase the 1920s as an era of dying social and moral values, evidenced in its overwhelming pessimism, desire, and unfulfilling pursuit of pleasure. The carelessness of the parties and celebrations that led to wild jazz music, exemplified in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night, eventually was created, in the corruption of the American dream, as the rampant desire for wealth and pleasure surpassed more worthwhile ideals.
The story of The Great Gatsby is a novel that consists of a historical American context during the Harlem Renaissance. This was an excellent novel published in the 1920’s and was considered one of the best novels of its time. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald was an incredibly talented poetic author. Fitzgerald was able to emphasize and create the mood of the generation in a political time. The novel The Great Gatsby is a remarkable novel but also a very sad one. The novel took place during an age or era known as the “Roaring Twenties” which was a time of American wealth. Politics and corruption at the time is possibly what made Gatsby to be the business man he was.
To begin, Gatsby worked as hard as he could to be good enough for Daisy throughout the book. To demonstrate the commitment Gatsby has to find Daisy again, he creates such enormous parties hoping his love would be there. Gatsby invites numerous amounts of people to his festivities, but it is all just a stent to win Daisy over. Specifically, Gatsby conveys this when Jordan exclaims, “I think he expects Daisy to stroll by one day through a party.”() All Gatsby wants is a chance to at least see her; making the end of the book extremely sad because Daisy acts as if she does not know Gatsby. Furthermore, to display the love Gatsby has for Daisy, he begs Nick to tell Daisy to come to his house. He is asking Nick to be the messenger in essence. Therefore,
The Great Gatsby has been around for ages; it is a story of a young man in the 1920’s who is thrown into a new world made up of the new and the old rich. He is confused by the way these people act and in the end cannot stay another minute in this strange, insensitive, materialistic world. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many techniques to help the reader understand how Nick Carraway (the narrator) is feeling throughout the story. In the book The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses effective language to make his writing successful. He uses the techniques of imagery and irony to display this message.
Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ is set in America of the 1920’s, a predominantly materialistic society revolving around wealth and status above all else. Fitzgerald depicts this obsession with money and luxury through complicated relationships full of trouble, infidelity and sorrow. The relationships Fitzgerald portrays all symbolize the materialism and hedonism of the age; each relationship is doomed to a certain extent based on the social class of each character.
“It had seemed as close as a star to the moon.” A star and moon, close and far, both in outer space, with only one thing that sets them apart, distance. In a symbolic way, dreams relate with this example. Every person is a star that is trying to reach the moon or a dream. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the American Dream as untrue through Jay Gatsby’s persistence, difficulties, and corruption, to grant his desires. (pg.93)
The Great Gatsby entails of a story of a bright young man, Nick Carraway, who moved to New York City in search of a successful life in the bonds business, but becomes suffocated by the lifestyles of those in wealth and power at the time. As Nick settles himself in a new job and new city, in the only cottage among mansions on West and East Egg, he finds himself neighbor to a mysterious, wealthy man known for his extravagant parties and elusive persona. This neighbor, Jay Gatsby, emerges to be one of the main characters of the novel and the only person in all of New York that Nick can call a friend. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, encompasses the hollowness of the upper class as well as the deterioration of the “American Dream” within the plotline of the lives of Nick, Gatsby, and the Buchanan’s. Because of the themes Fitzgerald created, it prompts people, such as Bruccoli, to make the claim “The Great Gatsby does not proclaim the nobility of the human spirit; it is not politically correct; it does not reveal how to solve the problems of life; it delivers no fashionable or comforting messages. It is just a masterpiece.” While the Great Gatsby is a masterpiece, Bruccoli correctly examines the text in revealing no nobility of the human spirit, no solutions to the problems of life, and it is politically incorrect. However, despite the dismal themes, Fitzgerald does deliver fashionable/comforting messages to the audience. Bruccoli’s claim brings to light the
Fitzgerald uses connotation, simile, kinetic imagery and temporal diction in the passage to suggest that in 1920’s American culture, displaying a prosperous outward appearance is the only viable means of achieving one’s goals. During the rightly named “Roaring 20’s”, America undergoes a progressive societal metamorphosis. However, the attractive nature of material wealth still holds tight within American minds. Gatsby longs for both authority over his peers, as well as a favored status within his class. It is implied through connotation, simile, temporal diction, and kinetic imagery that he can only reach these objectives by having a successful exterior profile.
Nick points out a “secret place above the trees” that Gatsby could reach if he “climbed alone”; this secret place is the high-society life Gatsby has wanted all his life, but the only way for him to attain is it by leaving Daisy behind. Gatsby knows this and chooses to kiss Daisy anyway, where he “forever wed[s] his unutterable visions to her perishable breath”. Gatsby’s dreams were so vast and could have been gained had he not signed a death certificate by involving himself with Daisy, and Nick understands this. Gatsby loses a major part of himself to Daisy at this point in the story by devoting literally everything he does to her and remains just steps away from literally worshipping her. Another example of details is when Nick tells Gatsby not to “ask too much of [Daisy]” because “you can’t repeat the past”. This is something Gatsby refuses to accept as the truth and insists that he’s “going to fix everything just the way it was before”. At this point Nick registers that Gatsby’s life has been “confused and disordered” since he met Daisy and that he is actually stuck in the past. Nick is trying his best to deter Gatsby from pursuing Daisy yet Gatsby continues to ignore his one true friend that has only his best interests at
In The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan are two wealthy but careless residents of East Egg, New York. Jay Gatsby, Daisy’s old boyfriend, lives in West Egg and recently became wealthy, as opposed to the inherited wealth that she and Tom have. Gatsby is still in love with Daisy, and throws parties every weekend in an attempt to get her attention. Towards the beginning of the novel, Gatsby invites the narrator Nick Carraway, who is also his neighbor and Daisy’s cousin, to one of his parties. In chapter three of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick uses vivid imagery, figurative language, and syntax in descriptions of Gatsby’s parties in order to communicate both the enticing appearance of wealth, as well as its destructive nature.
Nick throughout the story Nick tries to understand what causes people to be lured by his cousin Daisy, but never truly understands until Gatsby, who has held Daisy so high throughout the novel, says that “Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 120). Nick, through these words, has a revelation he can’t believe he was so naïve to have been fooled by Daisy’s lure of money. Daisy is driven by greed and Nick finally, sees that the secret Daisy voice has always hidden was the secret of her greed. Daisy lured those around her to feel comfort in her vast wealth but she could never have enough of it, never enough wealth, never enough people surrounding her because she herself feels weak and feels like a fool. She believes that “…the best thing a girl can be in this world a beautiful fool.” (Fitzgerald 21) Nick and Daisy share a weaker side and hide it from the world and Nick can see that in even listening to Daisy he has shown weakness “It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me” (Fitzgerald 21) He believes that he is so weak as to allow Daisy to make him feel sympathy for her. Nick believes that Daisy has tricked him all throughout the evening but in reality, Nick has been fooled by Daisy throughout the novel and Nick would have been trapped in his naïve and weak state had it not been for Gatsby giving Nick hope
In the story, Gatsby is a man who is perceived to be a legend. No one really knows much about him but people seem to know who he is. At the party where thousands of people go every week, it seems as if everyone has a different perspective of Gatsby. As Nick strolls through the party he encounters people who tell him, “Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once” (44). The mask that Gatsby has put on to fool everyone of who he really is shows his dedication to his cause. His only goal is to find the love of his life, Daisy. The parties that are thrown at his house weekly are just there for hope that Daisy might walk in one time. The people who attend are people who simply party and are from the city. Nick, in his astonishment, comments on himself, “I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited” (41). The reason Nick was invited is ultimately to eventually get Daisy back. This shows the true purpose behind the parties and basically Gatsby’s decisions. When Daisy finally goes to Gatsby's house, she comments on his huge house and Gatsby’s response is, “I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated People” (90). The significance behind this is the emptiness Gatsby really has in his life. He bought this whole house for the sole reason of marrying Daisy and he fills it with interesting people that he
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story that has many different themes. Fitzgerald shows the themes that he uses through his character’s desires and actions. This novel has themes in it that we deal with in our everyday life. It has themes that deal with our personal lives and themes that deal with what’s right and what’s wrong. There are also themes that have to do with materialistic items that we deal desire on a daily basis. Fitzgerald focuses on the themes of corrupted love, immorality, and the American Dream in order to tell a story that is entertaining to his readers.
Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a vulgar, gaudy party in the apartment that Tom keeps for the affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, a surprisingly young man who affects an English accent, has a remarkable smile, and calls everyone “old sport.” Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan alone, and, through Jordan, Nick later learns more about his mysterious neighbor. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion. Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt to impress Daisy. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy, but he is afraid that Daisy will refuse to see him if she knows that he still loves her. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. Their love rekindled, they begin an affair. After a short time,