The Great Gatsby and the Lost Generation

“... it is a story about failure and death, an idealistic quest for unworthy goals, and the almost total collapse of the aspirations of nearly all of the principal characters” (Nagel 113). The Great Gatsby is a story that represents people’s unachieved aspirations that lead to a sad existence and ultimately death. They are all trying to attain one thing, the American Dream. The American Dream is almost impossible to attain and that is why a lot of people failed when it came to living out the American Dream. In Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby tries to attain the American Dream through Daisy throughout the whole novel but fails and is left heartbroken.

Time remains a universal continuation of the past into the present and bears a strong hold on the future. The destruction of satisfaction in history withholds the contentment of the future with an impeding sense of unalterable guilt. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates “the past is forever in the present” through numerous literary and narrative techniques, suggesting that memories serve as crucial components in the development of individuals.

Overall, Fitzgerald obviously put a great amount of thought in choosing Nick Carraway, and innocent, exclusive, yet completely ever-present character as the narrator of the story. Because of Nick’s circumstance and character,

    The Unreliable Narrator: Nick Carraway starts out the novel by explaining the the reader that his dad gave him advice that he lives by, “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1). Nick says he is inclined to keep all of his judgements to himself, and looks up to his dad and these words. In the very next few pages, Nick describes Tom’s body, someone he knew in college after seeing him for the first time, as, “It was a body capable of enormous leverage-a cruel body” (Fitzgerald 7). Nick goes against his father's words by judging Tom’s body. This tells the readers that Nick might not be very social and be a person that stays in the background of situations judging people and their actions. This action can foreshadow to the remainder of the novel, that the narrator, Nick, will be unreliable.

The Great Gatsby is based upon wealth in the “Roaring 20’s”. The novel itself contains not a single dull moment of the narrators experience in the East, as it reflects people’s aspirations corrupted by greed and money. In addition, the romance between characters can help relate the readers to the novel. The film does a great job capturing almost all the aspects of the novel; through colors and themes. It gives the viewer a clear understanding of how shallow characters get mixed up into complex

In the beginning of the novel, Gatsby is shrouded in mystery and all that is known about him is simple gossip. He appeared to be this complicated individual who threw glamorous parties and drowned in wealth and women. In reality, however, he is a lovesick young man who grew up in poverty, and became fabulously rich through organized crime, like selling

In the book “The Great Gatsby” there is many things that people say made Gatsby a great or a not so much of a great person. Gatsby was a great man because he became someone with almost everything anybody could and would want but grew up from with nothing, He made all this money from working jobs that were not so great and people envied him for it even though they did not know what he did, and he was just a very mysterious and many people found that very intriguing about him. person For people that didn’t know who he was when he was younger, they all expect him to be old money and get the money from his parents, but as we learn he made his money by working, good or bad jobs he still made money and he was successful and he was proud of it.

The great Gatsby is called an American classic because of its use of figurative language and adjectives that enrich the romantic feel and the theme of the story.

Initially, Gatsby stirs up sympathetic feelings because of his obsession with wealth. Ever since meeting Dan Cody, his fascination for wealth has increased dramatically. He even uses illegal unmoral methods to obtain hefty amounts of wealth to spend on buying a house with “ Marie Antoinette music-rooms, Restoration Salons, dressing rooms and poolrooms, and bath rooms with sunken baths.”

Eshani: Classics are debatable and are opinions that we grow up with that sooner or later turn into facts. To me, classics are novels that can relate to your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on so forth. The Great Gatsby is about hardships and how sometimes life doesn’t go as planned but how you must continue living. A classic is a story written in the past that lasts throughout time and relates to everyone is some way, and that is exactly what makes The Great Gatsby a classic novel.

The lost generation was a variety of men and ladies who were American journalists and artists around World War I. This movement originated from the aftereffects of the war in the 1920's. Several outsiders went to the Unified States endeavoring to have a superior life. The war influenced fighters to grow up snappier and for that The Lost Generation needed to end up plainly autonomous. The expression "lost generation" originated from Gertrude Stein, one of the renowned journalists of this age. He saw a carport proprietor say to one of his workers. Some well-known creators of The Lost Generation were F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, E.E Cummings, Archibald MacLeish, Jon Dos Passos, Hart Crane. Gertrude Stein and T.S Eliot. These scholars made the culture of writing during this time.

As the plot progresses and the character is exposed to the conflict, they have an epiphany that ultimately changes his perspectives and persona.

Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that are born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal

These are but a few examples of the judgments Nick passes about the characters in this novel. When Nick judges the characters it shows how he cannot resist the temptation to be critical of every little fault with each character whether it has to do with their appearance, personality, or actions.

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells us a variety of themes-justice, power and greed, The American dream and so on. The Great Gatsby is regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary. The Great Gatsby concerns the wasteful lives of four wealthy characters as observed by their acquaintance, narrator Nick Carraway. Like Fitzgerald himself, Nick is from Minnesota, attended an Ivy League university, served in the U.S. Army during World War I, moved to New York after the war. The narrator, Nick, is a very clever and well spoken storyteller. Nick confides with the reader in the first pages of the novel. He says that he needs to tell the story of a man called Gatsby. It is as if Nick has to overcome disappointment and frustration with a man who has left him with painful memories. This thesis is valid for three main reasons. First, it is evident that dreams and memories are central to the overall plot and meaning. Secondly, the American Dream is a “green light” of desire that Gatsby never stops yearning for and something he will not forget over time, even as he is dying. This is so, even though no one cares about Gatsby or his dreams after he died, except maybe Nick. Finally, the fact that Fitzgerald uses flashback; that Nick is telling us about a main character after he has already died and before the story begins, is ultimate proof.The Great Gatsby is structured by Nick’s memory. Fitzgerald’s clever use of flashback throughout and within the