F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'

In chapter 8, Gatsby reveals to Nick what his life was truly like. While reading about Gatsby's past the read comes to realize how much he changed just for one person. Gatsby was actually born James Gatz, a man from a poor family who had fallen in love with Daisy. With the love that James had for Daisy he was willing to give her up to try and better himself for her. James had known that the only way he could be with her, was if he was wealthy. When analyzing this chapter, we truly see how much James had changed himself and left his family just so he could have money to be with the women he loved. Now it seems to be something romantic, however one should not to gain more wealth to be with someone. The reader will read more and find out that, however Jay Gatsby had actually bootlegged to earn more money. It seems to be that Gatsby had been worried about his social status just to have Daisy back.

Since American literature’s emergence, the American dream has become a conceptual ideal for many people throughout history. Although the dream has its own distinct aspects throughout different time periods, it predominantly focuses on the foundations of wealth, success and a desire for something greater. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is primarily known for the numerous lavish parties he throws each weekend at his ostentatious mansion in West Egg in an attempt to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, a woman he falls in love with prior to entering the war before the Roaring Twenties. However, he is seized with an impotent realization on the fact that his wealth cannot afford him the same privileges as others that are born into the upper echelon. Gatsby is completely blinded from his opulent possessions until he becomes oblivious of the fact that money cannot buy love or happiness. Throughout the story, the predilection for materialistic features causes many characters to lose sight of their aspirations, demonstrating how a dream can become easily corrupt by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power.

“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so,” once said Charles de Gaulle. This valiant quote by a former president of France accentuates my opinion of the Great Jay Gatsby. From humble beginnings rises our main focus of F. Scott Fitzgeralds’ The Great Gatsby. Young Jimmy Gatz is brought to West Egg from his heavily impoverished North Dakota family. His desire to be something greater than a farmer drove him to fortune and love through any means necessary; his life long obsession, Daisy Fay, infatuates Jay in his own insatiable thirst for her affection. James follows Daisy in the years after he is deployed to World War 1, and when he sees she has married Tom Buchanan he becomes hell-bent on replicating the success Tom has inherited in order to win over Daisy. Through moderately deceitful ways, Jay Gatsby builds his wealth and reputation to rival and even supersede many already lavish family names. Astonishingly, the great Mr. Gatsby, overrun with newfound affluence, stays true to his friends, lover, and his own ideals to his blissfully ignorant end.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers. Fitzgerald uses the Roaring Twenties as the setting of this novel. The twenties were a time of promiscuity, new money, and a significant amount of illegal alcohol. Fitzgerald was a master of his craft and there was often more to the story than just the basic plot. He could intertwine political messages and a gripping story flawlessly. In the case of The Great Gatsby, he not only chronicles a love story, but also uses the opportunity to express his opinion on topics such as moral decay, crass materialism, individual ethics, and the American dream.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the compelling story of the lengths one man goes to in order to try and win back the love of his youth. In order to do so, the titular figure of the novel, Jay Gatsby, reinvents himself from the hardscrabble soldier of his younger years into an enigma of a millionaire; during his time living at West Egg, Gatsby is revered by all, but known by none. Despite the lavish lifestyle which has made him ever so well known, Gatsby is never able to win back Daisy, the girl who has for so long represented the culmination of all of his desires. To convey the complex themes of the novel, Fitzgerald makes use of the literary techniques discussed in How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster, especially in his portrayal of the geography of the Eggs and in Gatsby’s quest to win Daisy’s affection. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s desperate struggle to ingratiate himself into Daisy’s life to illustrate how one can never overcome the socio-economic barriers placed upon them at birth.

Following the destruction caused by World War I, it became obvious that the United States needed to rebuild itself. Jay Gatsby, even though fictionalized character, represented many of the hardships of the time, he “was promoted to be a major, and every Allied government gave me a decoration” (Fitzgerald 71), but yet when he came back from the war he had a very hard time finding a job or work.This lead to many long-held pre-war values and customs being rejected by a new rising youth culture, which made them seem irrelevant. Because of this, the American youth began rebelling against many of the social norms of their parents ' generation as they strove to create something uniquely their own. Even adults played a part with this new youth culture, as some attempted to imitate the new trends while others found themselves repulsed by them. But whatever adults of the time felt, they could not deny that the new world created by their country 's youth was having a drastic effect on the American population as a whole, as they synthesized new ideas from embattled traditions creating a complex movement that was reckless and moved without regard to others. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald highlights how the rising youth culture was personified by "flamboyant, reckless spirits" (Drowne and Huber 29). It was this spirit which lead to the moral depravity so often seen and exemplified by the youth culture, both the youth culture of the 1920s and the contemporary one.

The American dream is a tacit promise given to all citizens in this country, which states that regardless of social class, any individual can aspire to new heights based upon the ideology of meritocracy. The American dream is a “recurring theme in American literature”(Pearson) and in American society. However, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed novel, presents the American dream as an illusion which can never be achieved, and according to recent events in America, Fitzgerald is evidently correct. The personification of Daisy as the American Dream, the issue of meritocracy, Myrtle’s death, the image of the green light, as well as the manner in which Gatsby is denied entry into the

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby chronicles Jay Gatsby’s ill-fated attempt to recreate a lost love from his past. Through single-minded focus, he transforms himself from penniless James Gatz of Minnesota to the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby of West Egg, New York. Despite the fact that Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby’s lost lover, has come to terms with their separation, Gatsby maintains his firm belief in the notion of rebirth, convinced he can recreate the past. Furthermore, the novel serves as Fitzgerald’s personal introspection, voicing his own desire for renewal in the search for his identity. Therefore, a central theme in the novel is rebirth, exemplified by the actions and motivations of Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s examination of his own life.

Money, commonly associated with happiness and success, is deceiving because it doesn 't necessarily breed enjoyment at all. Lorraine Hansberry 's A Raisin in the Sun and F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby examine the difference between wealth and appreciation of life. Lorraine Hansberry explains this with Walter, a negro father in a poor family who seeks more money than is realistic to bring happiness into the family. Fitzgerald uses the character Jay Gatsby to show that wealth doesn 't imply success or happiness. Both characters occupy strikingly different roles in their stories, yet decently portray money 's impact on life. In The Great Gatsby and Raisin in the Sun, wealth is made to seem as the key to happiness, but, in essence,

In hindsight, it is simple to recognize what led to Gatsby demise. Blinded by his pursuit of a lifeless dream, Gatsby abandoned all of his integrity. He would mostly ignore his guests at his parties and isolate himself while scanning the crowds for Daisy. The money he used to try and charm Daisy was all acquired through illegal means, and it only proved to be the catalyst for a string of events that led to his murder. While attempting to win Daisy back, he argued without any care about how Daisy felt about the situation. On their drive home, Gatsby did not make Daisy stop the car when she hit and killed Myrtle Wilson, but rather he switched seats with her and took the fall for her wrongdoing. Even with the death of another human being, he could not see beyond his own desire, so “Gatsby became a victim of the greed, apathy, and indifference that corrupts dreams, betrays promises, and destroys possibilities” (Emin). His dream never even had a chance to reach fruition because he had already lost everything that made it possible for his dream to

What Gatsby means by that thought is that in that moment with Daisy, he felt like he could accomplish anything. With Daisy, he felt that life was wondrous and full of opportunity.

Some people go through many obstacles to meet their dream, only to find out in the end it was all for nothing. In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, focuses on the life of Gatsby and how he spent his entire life reaching for his dream and never met it. Nick, who is Gatsby 's neighbor, thinks that Gatsby is above the rest of society because he comes from new money and devoted his life to Daisy. However Gatsby is not superior; he ended up not getting the one thing that he wanted most and wasted his life away for Daisy. Through Gatsby Fitzgerald is showing even though you work your whole life to attain a goal, it might not end up working out.

The American dream is a dream that aspires for one to rise from the lower classes of society and to place in the higher ones. While achieving their dream one hopes to accumulate wealth, love, and power. The dream has been manipulated many times since the founding of America though its commonly based upon the concepts of independence and wish for something greater. In America’s beginnings the dream was to set outward west to acquire land and riches. Though during the 20th century the American dream had shifted to earning material goods like having a nice car, house, and a ease of life. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a man who was born extremely poor; he try’s to achieve the American dream and succeeds. Thought Fitzgerald shows that an American dream can become very corrupt by being blinded by luxurious goods to acquire love and happiness.

Humans continually search for success. This success surfaces in forms such as fortune, fame, glory, et cetera. The American Dream encapsulates the ideals of the “New World,” bringing together not only the idea of limitless success, but also its newfound availability and encouragement for embracing the promise land. The Great Gatsby explores the American Dream and “the actual nature of this dream... the manner in which people try to achieve it, as well as the moral implications their actions bring” (Smiljanić, 2). Through The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals the truth of the American Dream by showing that it incorporates the drive for prosperity as well as the actual prosperity itself, but ultimately, the class distinctions amongst Americans, and the never ending search for fulfillment, prevent the dream from being achieved.

In Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, there are numerous themes, resonating ideas, and patterns that occur, but none are as crucial to understanding Fitzgerald’s character Gatsby and the overall story than Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the dying American Dream. Before exploring the American Dream within the context of the text, readers should consider the changing concept of defining ‘the American Dream. While there are several interpretations of the American Dream, the one that is continuously presented throughout the text is best portrayed by Gatsby himself when he states, “My life, old sport, my life my life has got to be like this. It 's got to keep going up.” The American Dream, as contextualized by Fitzgerald, is illustrated as a chase or a race from poverty or state of discomfort to a state in which individuals achieve elite, often materialistic goals. Fitzgerald demonstrates this chase for success throughout his text and uses his characters as vehicles to portray civil society’s idealized conception of The Dream, while simultaneously critiquing the concept of his perception of the ridiculousness of living only for the purpose of obtaining the Dream’s expected riches. Moreover, Fitzgerald’s varied uses of the American Dream is an effective literary technique to not only critique overt materialism, corruption, greed, elitism, and the Roaring 1920s society, but also aim to illustrate a subliminal message to American society about the negative aspects of the Dream as well