The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

At its most simplistic form, nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past. It is a subtle phenomenon that is associated with a person or place. Fitzgerald plays this concept into his novel The Great Gatsby, which is narrated by a character named Nick Carraway. Nick tells of his neighbor Gatsby, who goes to extreme lengths to reclaim a lost love. Throughout the novel, Gatsby serves as a conduit for humanity’s nostalgic depictions of the past. He accumulates massive amounts of wealth and even changes his identity in efforts to relive something that has already passed. Fitzgerald draws from this, and conceptualizes how nostalgia distorts a person’s overall perception of being.

"Never has symbolism played such a crucial part in the very foundation of a novel as it does in Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby." Harold Bloom has written about this book. The author used several types of symbolism in The Great Gatsby. The colours are probably the easiest to be recognized and guessed what they symbolized. According to the definition “symbolism” is "the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships."

The American Dream has long been thought the pinnacle idea of American society. The idea that anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or financial status, could rise from the depths and become anything they wanted to be with no more than hard work and determination has attracted people from all around the world. Two writers from America’s past, however, have a different opinion on the once-great American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck have given the public their beliefs on the modern Dream through the novels they have written, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men, respectively. One novel placed during the Great Depression and the other during the Roaring Twenties both illustrate how their author feels about the Dream

Do 
obstacles 
in someone’s 
life
 change 
their 
passions?
 If 
something
 
 unexpected 
occurs,
 does 
one 
turn 
his
 or 
her 
back
 on 
all
 that 
has 
been 
worked 
for? 
In
 an
 American
 society,
 there
 is
 an
 idea
 of
 a
 dream.
 Most
 people
 have
 dreams
 that
 differ 
from 
one
 another. 
Dreams
 are 
not 
limited 
only 
to 
society. 
Countless 
numbers
 of
 times
 in
 American
 literature,
 there
 are
 moments
 when
 an
 obstacle
 slows
 or
 possibly
 halts
 progression.
 Dreams
 can
 also
 be
 found
 in
 American
 literature;
 however,
 like
 the
 reality
 of
 society,
 barriers
 can
 be
 a
 component
 of
 having
 aspirations.
 Barriers
 create
 obstacles,
 whether
 emotional
 or
 physical,
 that
 make
 achieving 
a
 dream 
difficult 
or
 even 
appear 
to 
be 
impossible. 
In 
American 
literature
 dreams 
seem 
to 
be 
unattainable 
because 
of 
barriers.

Many consider The Great Gatsby a beautiful love story. A literary review site, for example, says about Fitzgerald’s most famous work: “The Great Gatsby is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald 's greatest novel […] Gatsby is really nothing more than a man desperate for love”(The Great Gatsby Review). Popular opinion paints Gatsby as such: A man desperate for love, devoid of any evil. But a closer look uncovers a new side of Jay Gatsby because Gatsby, underneath his glorious façade, is a sociopath.

During the 1920’s, most Americans cared about their wealth and social standing. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the characters striving for happiness, love, and wealth, in which none of the characters can have all of the options in the life they have. He does this to explain his own struggle with his American dream by never having a lot of money, never being a very successful writer, and losing his golden girl. Fitzgerald portrays his pessimistic view on the struggle of fulfilling the American dream by portraying different types of people trying to achieve their own dreams with the obstacles of social status, and the influence of reputation getting in the way of their individual dreams.

While learning about The Great Gatsby preface, I learned that the Gatsby is not an uplifting story, its just a classic. I learned that F. Scott Fitzgerald was an alcoholic, and not the best of role models. I also learned that The Great Gatsby contains many memorable characters and that I may run into a lot of situations that reference this story, so I should read it.

In The Great Gatsby, the major male figures could be defined as both guys and men as their characters at certain times go beyond just guys trying to fulfill their need for “neat stuff” or accomplishing “pointless challenges”, and develop into men with real emotional qualities, expressing their wants and desires for the woman they both love, or in Nicks case: the respect and admiration he feels for Gatsby towards the end of the story. Throughout Barry’s essay, are stereotypes he attributes solely to guys in order to draw a distinction between what makes a guy, and how they differ from men. In the subsequent paragraphs, I will attempt to analyze each of the major male characters with Barry’s definitions of “guyness”, and demonstrate what makes these characters both guys and men.

Clouds of dust linger. A hand placed straight outward, and nothing is visible. The atmosphere is gray, and darkness closes in. Take one step forward and an object appears. It is a body. Three bodies piled on top of each other, biodegrading, to be exact. They turn completely into dust, leaving only a pile of ashes and many questions’. Who are they? Where did they come from? Why are they here? What did they have in common? All these questions have an answer. It may take some time, of course, but they are retrievable. The topic is death. An idea illustrated throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Three characters live in completely different ways. Jay Gatsby, a desperate man, got his illegal wealth fast in his early twenties. Myrtle Wilson spent her time as a mistress of a wealthy polo player who lives in West Egg. Finally, George Wilson made his fortuneless living as an Automobile Garage owner. The three all have one thing in common, and that is wealth. They either have it, want it or are longing for it. Fitzgerald illustrates the absence of wealth in poverty causes a gray death.

F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the common characteristics of perseverance, hard work, and wealth in 1920s America through the protagonists of The Great Gatsby and how those certain ideals inevitably clash. In a time period swelling with the prospect of wealth and aspiration, The Great Gatsby twists the common ideals of the 1920’s by illustrating the iniquity of these prospects. Protagonist, Jay Gatsby, plays the role of the wealthy cultural icon, throwing grand parties while being adored by many. His intentions, however, resonate on a deeper level than simply rising above in social status. All that Gatsby does is based around winning the heart of his long time love, Daisy Buchanan. While Daisy is beautiful, her beauty is not what mesmerizes Gatsby, but her wealth. Gatsby being born into a poor family generated an obsession with wealth and status that he has worked to attain his whole life. In Daisy he sees wealth, explaining the motives behind Gatsby’s desire while incorporating themes of the American Dream and mendacity. Jay Gatsby epitomizes the American dream which necessitates his obsession with Daisy Buchanan, the personification of wealth. Gatsby’s failure to achieve his goal of winning Daisy illustrates the hypocrisy of the American dream.

In the book, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby is exemplified through many symbols and idols. Fitzgerald uses cars to represent wealth, success, status, and glamour. As Friedrich Nietzsche states, “There are more idols in the world than there are realities.” Nietzsche’s quote shows how idols and symbols are used to create impressions. Images are powerful and set a stage for others to judge one’s character, enabling human beings to avoid seeing what realities are. Idols are potent enough to mask the truth. In the novel, despite Gatsby 's own insecurities, he is viewed as an idol in society. Idols impact and influence Gatsby’s life and those living around him. Gatsby’s car represents an idol, illustrating his wealth, capturing attention, creating impressions, and covering misconceptions throughout life in the West Egg.

Confrontations are nearly impossible to avoid. As one goes through the journey of life, ideas often conflict. When ideas conflict they need to be resolved, and this is what often leads to confrontation. As defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, confrontation is the clashing of forces or ideas. To confront someone is to accuse them of having a different idea, or doing something directly opposed to you. In the Plaza Hotel scene within his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the power of confrontation as the climax of his scene with the quote, “What kind of a row are you trying to cause in my house anyhow?”(129). This is the key question. At this point in the novel Tom Buchannan has just become aware that his wife, Daisy, is in love with Jay Gatsby. Every previous event in the chapter has been leading up to this confrontation; this question. By pinning the “row” on Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates an accusatory tone in Tom. The phrase “in my house”, implies Gatsby is a home-wrecker. When looked at alone, this innocent question seems as though Tom has been completely wronged by Gatsby, and has every right to directly accuse Jay of is seemingly repugnant actions. But, it is due to Fitzgerald’s context and story line that this accusation of Gatsby is easily viewed as an attack. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald is continuously using literary devices to imply that the climax of this scene is this confrontation in the context surrounding it and in doing so is

In The Great Gatsby, by Frances Scott Fitzgerald, social class is a predominant role, characterizing the mentalities of the people from different social classes, which affect the events that arise among the characters. A classic novel in which money is the center of many characters’ lives, however that money could not buy happiness. In reality, there is no such thing as an American dream, you are who you are born, and trying to change your social class will not end up all right.

Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald addresses the morality of the people he saw as representative of his time through the behaviors of the characters in the novel and how these characters react to various situations. The 1920s were an era marked by money, cars, and breaking down social barriers. While certain characters, who are not always led by their moral compasses, are able to question the morality of the actions of other characters, nearly all of the characters in the novel evolved to change the shifting views of the time. Various characters throughout the novel, including Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom, used their money as a shield to protect them from taking responsibility for their actions.

Satisfaction does not comes easy nor does it occur right away. Those who live a prosperous life and those who don’t are seen as different in society, but both may crave more in life to become satisfied. The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is narrated by Nick Carraway who lives in the East Egg of New York. Nick has only lived in New York for a short period of time and starts to become fascinated with his notorious neighbor, Gatsby. Shortly after becoming acquainted with Gatsby, Nick discovers that Gatsby is madly in love with his cousin Daisy, who is married to Tom Buchanan. Tom trusts Nick immediately since he is Daisy’s cousin and allows Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle. Even though it may seem as if Tom lives the perfect