Is The Great Gatsby Relevant Today

Gatsby’s character is portrayed by Fitzgerald as a tragic hero, as he exhibits many of the same traits. Gatsby, within the realm of the novel is an extremely wealthy man and his wealth translates into high prestige and social status in a society that is separated by wealth and money. Gatsby’s parties are wild and extravagant events where “on the buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams, crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.”(26 Fitzgerald). His parties exemplify his wealth and prestige in the community making him seem like royalty. This noble stature is his first tragic

Nick refers to Gatsby as the person who symbolizes the many things that make him feel “unaffected scorn” (Fitzgerald 2), he refers to Tom and Daisy as “careless people” (Fitzgerald 179), and he refers to Jordan as “incurably dishonest” (Fitzgerald 58). Nick progressively becoming more contrary to being unprejudiced leads into his next imperfection, self-deluding. As Nick flouts his moral of being unprejudiced he is at the same time being fraudulent with himself, why say you don’t judge when in reality you are

The Great Gatsby as Fitzgerald’s explanation of an American Reality which contradicts the American Dream

We know that Nick is an unreliable narrator from the very first page of the book. He begins by telling us that he is the most honest person he knows, and that he does not judge anyone for any reason. However, one paragraph later, he says “Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.”(1) He is saying that Gatsby is the epitome of

One thing that surprises me about Nick is that he was loyal to Gatsby who seemed likeable enough but empty inside. He seemed like the picture was more important than the real person. Nick was interested in person and would put himself in a bad light to help a friend. “I didn’t want to go to the city. I wasn’t worth a decent stroke

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, is a portrayal of American society during the Roaring Twenties and a story of a man who climbs his way up from rags to riches. Jay Gatsby, is a low class American from the mid-west whom is a dreamer and has a goal of becoming successful like any other American hopes and dreams for. Gatsby begins his life as a typical ordinary, lower class citizen, who has a goal of fulfilling his dream of soon becoming wealthy. Jay Gatsby is presented within the novel as being great in several senses such as the way he is perceived, his potential, as well as being romantic. Although, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays Jay Gatsby as a lying, thieving, scam artist, Jay Gatsby throughout the novel receives the title of being great.

Great Gatsby Short Essay The American novel, The Great Gatsby, was written in 1925 by an author with the name of F. Scott Fitzgerald. This novel is about a rich young man, Jay Gatz, who’s falls in love with Daisy. With all the difficulties in the roaring twenties, Gatz, also know as Gatsby, love becomes more difficult and difficult to maintain, but that pushes Gatz to try even harder to make his love work. Is The Great Gatsby still relevant today?

In The Great Gatsby, Nick is a credible and dependable character. He attended an Ivy League School, Yale. In the beginning of the novel Nick tells about Gatsby and explains what he is like. Nick is very credible compared to Gatsby. Jay Gatsby’s credibility is shaken when he tells stories out of the proper order. Some of the other characters start to believe that he is just lying. However, Nick is able to observe the situations without judging others. There are rumors spreading about Gatsby throughout the story and Nick has to decide what is right and what is wrong. Nick has a moral sense about him. He is more practical than the other characters in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby even says to Nick, “I don’t want you to get a wrong idea of me from

Nick presents himself as a very honest and simple person living in a small house and is content with whom he is. On the other hand Gatsby has an amazing ability to reinvent himself as his own dream character by transforming it into reality all because he felt empty inside. He does this by changing his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby. This was evidently shown in the scene where Gatsby was taking Nick to the city and explained to him who he really was saying he was related to wealthy people whom were all dead, adding that he attended oxford and that he was a war hero whom won many gold medals from different countries. Letting Nick know that he didn't want him to think that he was a nobody.

To make this possible, Gatsby has to secure a high status in society to even be in the same circle as Daisy or even have contact with her. After this, he waits as week after week passes, “half expecting her to wander into one of his parties, some night” (79). Eventually this paid off because one night Tom and Daisy decide to attend one of Gatsby’s celebrations (104). Gatsby now has attained his status as part of his American dream through this, and, in his mind, is closer to achieving the other parts as well. Fitzgerald’s experience during the 1920’s was one of great influence on his life and writing. In relation to the novel, he led a life based on status and shallow relationships, and this was typical of the time period he lived in. The decade of the 1920’s changed the way the typical American’s priorities were ordered. Even Fitzgerald “relied on personality, which depended upon appearance, grooming, gesture” (Lehan 58). The fact that the author lived this kind of lifestyle shows how it influenced his writing including The Great Gatsby. The disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream in the story is caused by these choices and changes that Fitzgerald experienced throughout the 1920’s. In addition, Fitzgerald shared a similar routine as Gatsby as he was a frequent partier and drinker (Brackett 58). This most likely produced the leading role that the image of parties played in the story. Fitzgerald’s

Nick is a dynamic character. Starts to leave his values behind, temporarily and in one instance, he gets drunk for the second time in his life “… either it was terrible stuff of the whiskey distorted things, because it didn’t make any sense to me” (29). Only has gotten drunk twice in his life, and the reader can come to the conclusion that the whole scene at Myrtle's party is skewed. "Instead of being the warm center of the world, the middle west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe" (3). Gatsby's Influence The title of the story is The Great Gatsby Is Fitzgerald being ironic about how "great" Gatsby is or is it to emphasize how great Nick thinks he is? Nick thinks Gatsby is admirable and see that he is driven by love to achieve his dream. He finds that praise-worthy and thinks its an honorable dream. He believe he truly is a good person. Thinks Gatsby is an unfortunate victim to the Easts eccentric ways but is respectable. In the end he sides with Gatsby. It sets up his biases. He hears rumors that Gatsby is a "spy" and "killed a man" (48). He had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person" (48). Time vs. Opinions His outlook gradually alters towards corruption as “the events of three nights several weeks apart” took effect on his writing and he found that they ” gave the impression that… they were all that absorbed” him (55). He has been focusing on one event and giving it great importance. He was partially opinionated

Since he died for taking the wrath of something he did not do. Gatsby is a man who struggled to get what he wants and who much reach a certain status before marrying the woman he is in love with. He was basically an outsider who comes from an uncertain past. Gatsby was able to win the hearts of many of the people around him with his tales of adventures and showing off his wealth. Yet, there is not a view that shows the success of Gatsby. He tries to convince Nick about his upbringings and his heroic exploits. Gatsby’s stories seemed extraordinary to the point where people questioned it but they still believe

The real contradiction to Nick is The Great Gatsby himself, Jay. Jay and Nick share a similar small town upbringing but Jay was able to parle his stolen trades into the corrupted version of the American Dream. Most of what Nick knows about Jay is based on his reputation and it’s not until they actually meet and Nick sees the “quality of distortion” in Jay’s New York lifestyle that Nick sees for himself the illusion that Jay created. Nick is attracted to the high life that Gatsby has created in the valley of ashes. Who can blame him with all the lavish parties, cars, mansions, women and other temptations. It’s like Fitzgerald has placed Nick in the Garden of Eden and the two characters; Nick and Jay, represent the good

Secondly, Gatsby is a very mysterious character. Nick has been Gatsby’s neighbor, or so he thinks, and has never met him. Nick says “It was Gatsby’s mansion, or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name” (5). This shows you that even Gatsby’s own neighbor does not even know who he is; which shows that Gatsby is mysterious. Later on, once he actually meets Gatsby, Nick goes on to say “I don’t like mysteries, and I don’t understand why you won’t come out frankly and tell me what you want. Why does it all have to come through Miss Baker?” (71). As expected, this frustrates Nick and gives him more reason to believe that Gatsby is mysterious and not trustworthy. Nick doesn’t understand why someone who seems to be his friend is hiding so much

Gatsby refuses to not meet his aspirations and will fulfill his dream by any means necessary. Although Gatsby’s intentions and motivation to become successful are pure, the way he obtains his status is extremely foul and criminal. Gatsby participates in organized crime, trades stolen securities, and bootlegs illegal alcohol. Instead of Gatsby using his wit and intelligence in an honest hard working way, he participates in corrupt acts, which will guarantee him his wealth and status. It is this aspect of Gatsby’s life where Fitzgerald expresses the decline of The American Dream. He tries to show his readers the demoralization of our society and how greed and power are a form of empty success that a lot of Americans buy in to.