The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

"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 is a philosophy based off of starting from nothing and achieving family, fortune, and fame. The belief that self-determination and hard work will lead to the attainment of the American Dream is strongly tied with the American culture. This philosophical idea, however, is not portrayed in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is often referred to as one of the “Great American Novels” to date. In terms, a “Great American Novel” should portray an honest and well-remembered character, rather than a character such as Jay Gatsby who achieved his fortune through illegal business and dies without recognition towards the end. Although Gatsby lives a lavish lifestyle that many people fantasize about, Gatsby’s American Dream is never fully fulfilled due to his failure of not having a family, successfully obtaining money the righteous way, and leaving a legacy; therefore, the novel The Great Gatsby, should not be entitled as the “Great American Novel” today.

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.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is ultimately a love story, which portrays the 1920’s also known as the roaring twenties, as an era focused on money, greed, corruption, obsession, and the pursuit of pleasure in the American people. Gatsby proceeds to criticize the atmosphere in American at the time in regards to the current way of life through the American dream of prosperity and material excess.

Daisy, like her husband, is a girl of material and class at heart, and Gatsby being her escape from a hierarchist world. Daisy has just grown up knowing wealth, so in her greedy pursuit of happiness and the “American Dream” Myrtle Wilson died, Gatsby's heart and life were compromised, without claiming responsibility on her part. Daisy was “by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville...” (116) Jordan says, describing early affections between Daisy and Gatsby. She goes on to say, “...all day long the telephone rang in her house and excited young officers from Camp Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolizing her that night.” (116) . Daisy was a fancied girl who has Gatsby tied around her finger, Jordan explains that he was looking at Daisy “...in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time...” (117). Daisy, abusing Gatsby’s love for her uses it to create security and protection, greedily and selfishly allowing him to take the fault. While Daisy’s beautiful, alluring traits turn her into an innocent, naive flower, she plays the ultimate villain.

Society has an obsession with money. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, wealth is portrayed in two different classes called the new money and the old money. New money refers to those who have recently made their own fortune within their own generation. Old money refers to those who have inherited money from their wealthy families in the past generations. The new money people are more extravagant with their money in order to flaunt their wealth, while the old money people are more conservative with their money because they have been around for longer and people already understand their wealth. The difference between new and old money is not

Often when readers describe daisy an image is created of a selfish and shallow woman. This image is confronted multiple times in The Great Gatsby. When the reader considers daisy 's actions throughout the book with the consideration of the time and the men around her choices become clearer and possible to empathize with.

Differences in a person’s lifestyle in comparison to others holds true in any situation. These differences in lifestyle and choices can be seen the in the novel, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. This novel portrays life in the 1920s as optimistic and extravagant. It also shows the decadence of society and the disproportionate division of wealth through the course of the story. Contrasts between characters can be easily seen and are in fact apparent in every facet of the story. Two characters in particular differ greatly on key themes through the story. With their stark differences, we can see the idealistic or noble views of this aspect of their lives or how their journey may reflect such ideals. Tom Buchanan, is an extremely rich

The point that I am going to talk about the story The Great Gatsby is the way they took care of materialistic things all through the story. A vital topic of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is riches and the procedure of achieving it. This longing for material riches and belonging is known as realism. Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan are both amazingly materialistic and put a great deal of quality into the belonging and abundance of a man while Nick Carraway doesn 't show any materialistic cravings and complements the complexity between characters. Gatsby 's realism is driven by his yearning for riches. He adores the thought of Daisy since she is the encapsulation of riches and the perfect way of life of ceaseless overabundance. Daisy then again speaks to a definitive materialistic way of life. She doesn 't have the same aching as Gatsby since she was naturally introduced to a privileged family. Rather she underestimates inordinate living and is entranced with all things lavish on the grounds that she needs to keep up the riches she has and never lose it. Scratch is the special case to the guideline. He stresses the divergence in the middle of himself and Gatsby or Daisy. He is the control to whom Gatsby and Daisy can be thought about.

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.

The American Dream has been around for years, and is forever changing. However, its basic principles of determination and purpose have always been around, except during the 1920s when they had become corrupted. This idea was shown throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story gives great insight into what life was like during the 1920s from the characters’ perspectives. Through Gatsby’s lavish lifestyle, the readers get to see what the ultimate goal was for the American people at the time. However, what he had was not enough for him since all he ever wanted was to earn Daisy’s love. Gatsby’s dream was symbolized through the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, which he use to stare at night. Fitzgerald uses the green light to compare Gatsby’s hopeless quest for Daisy’s heart to the unobtainable, corrupted American Dream. He does this by showing how obsessed the characters are with having a life like Gatsby’s, and by having him die at the end of the novel without having achieved his dream.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicles the life of Jay Gatsby, a self-made man, narrated by a social outsider named Nick Carraway. The story takes place in New York during the Roaring Twenties. In this decade, American’s lives were characterized by a fascination with new technology, great wealth, and an increased emphasis on social activities and leisure. In addition, many Americans engaged in binge drinking despite Prohibition laws which made the consumption of alcohol illegal. In order to avoid arrest, Americans would smuggle illegally purchased alcohol into private social events and there consume it in excess. This dangerous behavior, in the context of secrecy and exclusivity, caused many Americans to re-evaluate their life

The students that read the Great Gatsby, read it amidst the Islamic revolution, thus their views towards the book were completely different compared to those who had read it previous to them. Revolution in general, radically changes the views of the people involved. In Iran this was no different, the people of Iran that were supporting the revolution, mostly younger men, were extremely radicalized. The Islamic revolution in Iran had brought with it a negative feelings toward the Western countries, mostly the United States. The hatred towards western countries came mostly because of differences in culture, and the student’s refusal to accept other cultures. The Gatsby, to them, was the typical American dream, it even contained all of the adultery, betrayal, and other immoral things that propaganda had spread about Americans. A book, a form of expression, was taken as something completely different just to meet their revolutionary views. They used the Great Gatsby to concrete their ideas about their enemies.

In the novel The Great Gatsby, J. Scott Fitzgerald introduced Jay Gatsby and used him as the mean to comment on the American dream. Although other characters in the story were also built to depict the author’s comment on the American Dream, Gatsby is still the most appealing example amongst any other. In order to entirely expressing his criticism, Fitzgerald used the variety of contrasting ideals and definitions on the American dream itself through out the novel. Most importantly, by focusing on Gatsby’s characterization, putting his character in the perfect setting as well as presenting suitable symbols, the author indicated his despise on the corruption of the American dream and how badly the mere concept of it had been distorted.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most recognized names in American Literature. This is true because of his book titled The Great Gatsby. This work of his seemed to cast a shadow over the rest of his novels and short stories. Although many people may not know about a story called Babylon Revisited, it is definitely one of Fitzgerald’s finest stories and one that is worthy of praise and further analysis.