The Great Gatsby Analysis

The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about the society of New York in the 1920s, and the drama that occurs in their personal lives. One such character is Jay Gatsby. Ever since his youth, Gatsby had shown signs of grit and determination, and the persistence to always follow his hopes and dreams. In the story, Gatsby’s main goal is to be with Daisy, who he believes is his one true love. Along his road to successfully be with Daisy, Gatsby becomes very wealthy and buys a house in sight of hers. One night, Gatsby looks out his porch in his backyard, and reaches out towards the light of Daisy’s house across the pond. In this passage, the author uses symbolism and connotation to convey to the reader Gatsby’s perseverance and hopefulness, while also nodding to the achievements that he and many like him have made along the way.

“’Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!’” (110). Within Jay Gatsby’s desperate cry, the era of dreaming is over. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel The Great Gatsby shows a poor man, Jay Gatsby, struggles to get into the upper class in order to get his love Daisy Buchanan back. Through the narrator, Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and World War I veteran from the Midwest who does bond business in New York, we see that Jay Gatsby works hard persistently and always has hope for his dream. However, Gatsby ends a tragedy because of both the unjust society and his unrealistic dream. Illustrating, Fitzgerald argues that Jay Gatsby’s over-determination eventually leads to his downfall.

“‘Jay… You can’t repeat the past.’ Gatsby wheeled around… ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why of course you can.’”(Luhrmann). The Great Gatsby greatly deals with people trying to relive past relationships and parts of their lives. This why a common theme for the Great Gatsby is that you can’t repeat the past. This is shown when Gatsby dies trying to repeat the past and return to a relationship and feelings that had been gone for 5 years, “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. ”(Fitzgerald 110). The movie better displays the theme that you can’t relive the past because of its style, the symbolism, and the point of view taken in the movie.

In The Great Gatsby, written by Fitzgerald, Gatsby releases an ultimately superficial persona to the world due to his obsession with Daisy. Through the examination of Gatsby’s smile, one can see that his charm is merely a façade hiding his past. The subtle descriptions of Gatsby’s morals, in relation to the effect that Daisy has on him, demonstrates that Gatsby is not all that ‘great’. Through Gatsby’s attempt to achieve the love of the unattainable Daisy, he never realizes that Daisy being ‘nice’ masks the pain she causes him. Because Gatsby’s hopelessly romantic nature was caused by meeting Daisy, Gatsby was later portrayed as superficially charming and well-poised, thus suggesting that Daisy was the main reason for his questionable character.

As Gatsby prepares for his meeting with Daisy, he is depicted as wearing a “white flannel suit, silver shirt, and golden colored tie” (84). Gatsby’s white suit with a gold tie mirrors the image of a Daisy, which just so happens to be the name of the woman he has fallen madly in love with. The golden center of a daisy in this case, symbolizes the person Daisy has become in the eyes of Gatsby. As Gatsby begins to paint the picture of who he wants Daisy to become, the golden center indicates a false view of perfection, and instead of seeing the woman embodied by purity and innocence that everybody else sees, Gatsby tries to influence Daisy to become something she is not. Likewise, Gatsby’s nervousness about seeing Daisy again for the first time in 5 years, is represented by the white suit symbolizing how he is attempting to appeal to Daisy’s innocence, while also representing his immature and childlike behavior. As Gatsby begins to work himself up in Nick’s house, he begins to become very nervous and impatient as he cries out “I can’t wait all day” (84). In this scenario, the once calm and poised Gatsby begins to show his true colors as his tone becomes impatient and hysterical as he looks for an excuse to get out of the situation he has wanted to go perfect for

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby is a detailed and attentively structured book outlining a tragic love story that revolves around Jay Gatsby, a wealthy yet mysterious man, and the dainty and fragile woman of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan. The story is revealed through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway, who significantly becomes a part of Gatsby 's life due to the fact he was harshly involved by him. Throughout the book, it becomes evidentially clear that obsession takes over the personality of Gatsby turning his relationship towards Daisy all the more toxic. Moreover, the obsession that Gatsby accumulates towards Daisy causes severe consequences towards his own life ultimately leading to his own downfall. Overall, Fitzgerald’s

In The Great Gatsby the main character Jay Gatsby not only contends with the past, but also is utterly consumed by the past. The entirety of the novel portrays Gatsby’s overwhelming desire to reinvigorate a love affair from his earlier years. For Gatsby he never fully contended with the loss of the women he desired, and as such Gatsby’s constructed his life completely absorbed in the past.

(9 Fitzgerald) It has become clear to why Gatsby is capitated by her, he is so infatuated that he devises this meaning to Daisy. Gatsby then falls more deeply in love with his idea of her, rather than the real Daisy. Critic W. J. Harvey states that “Gatsby “is not the simple antithesis of Tom and Daisy; he is implicated in their kind of corruption too, and his dreams is proved hollow not only by the inadequacy of the actual correlative—that is, Daisy—to the hunger of his aspiring imagination, but also by the means he uses to build up the gaudy fabric of his vision.” (Harvey) Harvey explains that Gatsby has imagined this character he aspires to become, he has invested himself in this character and “love” for Daisy that was in actuality just a figment of his imagination.

Gatsby began to see the truth that lies within Daisy and instead of be taken back by the truth of her privilege that he had never experienced, he is blinded by her youth and beauty. The use of the simile in this moment, not only portrayed the beauty that Gatsby saw in Daisy, “Daisy, gleaming like silver” but what she stood for in society, higher than the struggles of the poor and higher than Gatsby. Gatsby and Daisy were from two different worlds, that inevitably could never work within society but in Gatsby’s eyes, it could. When Gatsby had to leave for war, he asked Daisy to wait for him, but because of Daisy’s social class and her impatience, she decides to marry a man of power and money. On the eve of her wedding day she had gotten a letter from Gatsby—“she wouldn’t let go of the letter” and “she cried and cried” knowing she truly loved Gatsby but her family was able to convince her that this marriage was best for her.

An obvious tension between the relationship of Gatsby and the mysterious light is visible from the “trembling”, and this tension creates the ambiguousness in Gatsby’s role in the novel (21).

Given that Gatsby created his entire persona in the hopes of receiving Daisy’s attention, he seemed to have finally reached his goal once Daisy spent the entire day at his house. As Nick, Daisy, and Gatsby stand in Gatsby’s house looking into the sound, “Daisy put her arm through his abruptly…Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock” (Fitzgerald 93). At this point in time, with Daisy by his side, the green light finally represents nothing more than just a light. Instead of it constantly beckoning him to chase after Daisy, he seems to finally have her within grasp. However, she escaped his reach. As Nick, Jordan, Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy spend a day at the Plaza Hotel, the truth of Gatsby and Daisy’s affair comes to fruition. Gatsby exposes that he and Daisy are in love and attempts to force Daisy into saying that she never loved Tom. Unfortunately, “… she realized at last what she was doing – and as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all” (Fitzgerald 132). With this, Daisy eludes Gatsby’s grasp one final time. All along Daisy never truly intended to leave Tom and be with Gatsby, but Gatsby never realized this. Even though the house and the shirts were all for Daisy, he could never be with her (Fitzgerald 92). Ultimately, Gatsby’s fruitless efforts to court Daisy propagates the idea of never being able to obtain everything one desires. Even though Gatsby was able to make impressive accomplishments to physically be with Daisy, with her putting her arm through his, it was impossible for him to achieve the final aspiration. The final step was for Daisy to claim she never loved Tom and Gatsby would have everything he ever desired. However, this could

His endearment for Daisy is intertwined with lust and wealth, meaning that Gatsby would be one step closer to the yearning lifestyle of prosperity if he has her. It is identifiable that Daisy’s selection on her men is solely based on their level of wealth since she is mainly drawn to this quality. From this, we can see that Gatsby is chasing after an unattainable dream that will leave him with nothing but

Frances Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores the concepts of the struggle of achieving the American Dream, how the pains of the past can affect the present, and how one can become consumed by it through the characters of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. Daisy, who represents the appeal of the American Dream for financial and cultural success, becomes Gatsby’s motivation for everything that he does throughout the novel. Gatsby feels drawn to hear through her charming one of a kind voice. Gatsby, who Fitzgerald utilizes to represent the average American, while striving to win Daisy’s hand in marriage, loses sight of himself thus giving up the control he had over his life.

Gatsby’s affluence was fueled by his love and compassion for Daisy, who’s shallow ineptitude distracted her as she fell for Tom Buchanan’s inflated ego and old money. Sadly, Gatsby’s dream of a life with Daisy was not only an illusion, but in reality an obsession—like the American Dream

This passage located at the falling action of Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, after Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan’s argument (page 128-129) focuses on Gatsby recounting his initial courting of Daisy Buchanan. It contributes to the development of the novel, for it is the first time that Gatsby confronts his past and reveals his desperation to preserve his dream of attaining Daisy, which, the reader senses through Fitzgerald’s ominous tone, is coming to a hopeless end. Through Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship and Gatsby’s unconscious illusions, the passage addresses the themes regarding the arrogance of the rich, and the illusionary nature of the American Dream.