The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has been read in schools for decades. The experience is different for everyone. Some may love this book while others just purely hate it. I have to say I am in between loving and hating this book. I do like the look into the lives of the rich of the 1920s and I did enjoy the overall story. However the cheating I wasn’t fond of. I do understand that is what happens with the rich so I do enjoy the fact that it historically accurate. Another topic that I will touch upon is the drunkenness and reckless driving portrayed, quite accurately, for this time period.

Symbols such as the green light are significant throughout the novel because it represents society’s want and the appearing infeasibility of achieving the American Dream, and the corruption behind it. When Gatsby is first seen in the novel, Fitzgerald describes him: “— he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him I could’ve sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 20-21). Gatsby’s ultimate unhappiness is explored by his throwing his arms out towards the green light, which is at the end of Daisy’s dock, as a cry for help from Daisy. Gatsby is

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.

Dance has shaped the way we look at many different things throughout history. It has shaped how people socialize, what music people listen to, and even whole eras. One such era is the roaring 1920s. How did people socialize in the 1920s? They danced the evening away. What music did people listen to? Jazz music that they could listen to while they danced the evening away. Dance was a huge part of what made up the glorious Jazz Age. So, when a book was written to describe the 1920s scene, no doubt there had to be dance, and lots of it. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the energy level of the parties, music, and dancing to represent a vast array of emotions within the characters.

A symbol that most readers miss is that of time. Fitzgerald creates a” time symbolism” when Gatsby and Daisy meet again after five years. There were awkward pauses throughout their conversation, and during one of these pauses a clock that Gatsby was leaning his head on begins to tip over, as if about to fall. Gatsby gracefully catches the clock before it falls, and Nick proclaims that “I think we all believed for a moment that is had smashed in pieces on the floor” (#) thus creating a symbol of pressuring time. Gatsby resting his head on the clock is equivalent to the pressure that Gatsby puts on time, and the clock falling shows that time could not “support the demands that Gatsby wanted because he can’t turn back time” (Name) He also had not seen Daisy in a long time, making Gatsby want to cram all his emotions and longings for Daisy into a short period of time out of fear that they may not meet again.

Class structure of the 1920s was based on popularity and how well off people were compared to those around them. F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates class structure in the book The Great Gatsby through the different characters in different social classes. Fitzgerald gives settings that correspond with the social classes of the characters to better illustrate what environment he placed each character in. The Buchanan’s, Gatsby, and the Wilsons are examples of the different conflicting social classes Fitzgerald lays out for his readers.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, an influential writer in the 1920’s writes the American classic novel The Great Gatsby, following the rekindling of a past love between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan through the perspective of Nick Carraway. Nick observes as the couple reconnects despite Daisy’s cheating husband, Tom Buchanan, and Gatsby’s obsessive manner. He then witnesses as Gatsby takes the blame for Daisy’s mistake of killing Myrtle Wilson and later Gatsby’s death. Myrtle Wilson a minor character in the novel who is also the mistress of Tom Buchanan, along with the person Daisy kills. Notably, Nick Carraway “feels a palpable repugnance for the Myrtle Wilsons of the world” (Voegeli). Set in 1922, Myrtle embodies the failure of the American Dream during the roaring twenties; furthermore, Myrtle and her husband George Wilson “preside over the valley of ashheaps” (Telgen), and George has a meager job working for Tom Buchanan. Because Fitzgerald develops the character Myrtle Wilson as a catalyst to Jay Gatsby’s death, a foil to Daisy Buchanan, and an archetype for temptation, he constructs a minor character with a significant presence.

Daisy happily went with Gatsby and seemed excited to ride in the coupe with him. The heat clung on to Tom’s brute personality and was making him frustrated on anything. Jordan and Nick rode with Tom in Gatsby’s flashy yellow car. Hearing his wife’s excited cries of laughter drowning in the sounds of the blue coupe’s roaring engine, Tom drove to catch up. Tom was angry and told Jordan and I what he found out on Gatsby 's character. I couldn’t bear his bruteness any longer and told him that I really didn’t care what he thought any longer. Jordan, looked at me with such a deep surprise and laughed off the awkwardness that followed quietly behind.

In the famous novel, The Great Gatsby, by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, the image of the American Dream is portrayed as a desire of wealth and happiness. This proposed idea connects with our current controversial debate sponsored by Intelligence Squared U.S. by representing the aspiration of economic success. The “visceral topic” is questioned, “Does income inequality impair the American dream of upward mobility?” In the beginning, Mr. Robert Rosenkranz provides the audience with a comparison of one’s income to a ladder with many rungs. He sets a perspective about the increase in inequality creating a difficulty or perhaps a neutrality of mobility within our capitalist economy. The importance of the issue brings a rise in discussion about the relationship between social positions affecting economic success. As a society we all acquire a social status, a position within a social structure, and through our interactions and relationships we develop recurring patterns of behavior. Sociological imagination provides a framework for understanding our social world that far surpasses any common sense notion we might derive from our limited social and personal experiences. People are able to recognize the social differences in finances and income, but might not be aware of how income inequality could possibly have an effect on upward mobility.

The extent to which ones opinions and views can be altered without them even noticing is impeccable. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of ‘The Great Gatsby’, explores the ways in which one can influence a person’s thoughts in such a minute way that they themselves don’t even realise it. He, as a writer, is “communicative in a reserved way”. This leaves the readers perspective altered to believe what the author wants. Different minds will acknowledge and recognise different aspects of any text thus leaving every reader with a changed outlook on the discussed topic yet feeling as though they created this thought themselves. The following speech gives an insight to my perspective and what changed it.

Gatsby does not belong to his own class and he is not accepted by the upper class, therefore he becomes an exception. Because of disappointment of being looked down upon and impossibility of accept by the upper class, he has nothing left except his love, which is also his “love dream”. Gatsby’s love for Daisy has been the sole drive and motive of his living. Gatsby’s great love is also the root of his great tragedy, because he is desperately in love with a woman who is not worthy of his deep love. Fitzgerald offers Gatsby with the spirit of sincerity, generosity, nobility, perseverance, and loyalty. All his good natures can be seen

Romanticism and modernism are two philosophical thoughts so unlike each other, modernism embracing the cold truth of reality in the industrialized world of 1920s America, romanticism this same world through rose filtered lenses, summed up in the words of Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald, “we are all just humans… drunk on the idea that love, only love, could heal our broken bones.” Fitzgerald was a romantic living in the modernist 1920s, and his classic work The Great Gatsby was certainly a romantic book, and thusly did not succeed in his time; in fact, it did not succeed until after his death in the 1940s. Fitzgerald saw the green light, but it was just as out of reach to him as it was to Mr. Gatsby. Though The Great Gatsby was unappreciated

F. Scott Fitzgerald is well known for his numerous short stories and novels during the “Jazz Age”. Take for instance, his best-selling novel The Great Gatsby and one of his short stories “Winter Dreams”. Each tell a cunning tale of romance and “the one who got away”. These two tales provide a glimpse into the lives of the rich and poor in the dazzling “Jazz Age”. However, these two stories have their differences, and they each have similar points for the reader to discover. Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels there are numerous differences and similarities that bring out the best of the plot, setting, and imagery.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick – the narrator – is an incredibly observant and perceptive young man who is quick to notice the subtext hidden under people and their relationships. Nick uses the imagery of windows frequently in his descriptions of significant people and decisive events to express his observations of the unspoken truths these people and events hold. Because Nick is interested in having deep insight and observation into the lives other people lead, he often uses the imagery of windows in his narrative, allowing him to demonstrate his ability to see through people’s inner lives, particularly Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s.