F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Essay

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald presents multiple themes and characters that have an overlaying façade that they portray throughout the novel. Fitzgerald’s main representation of illusion is with James Gatz or Jay Gatsby as he is known in the time covered in the novel. Gatsby can also be considered to be the embodiment of illusion within the novel.

Man dreams of living the life of the elite social class and of the power and admiration inherent within. F. Scott Fitzgerald comes to terms with this American dream in The Great Gatsby, a novel about social life in the 1920’s. The social hierarchy of the times plays a very important role in this novel. Here Fitzgerald illustrates three specific social classes: old money, new money, and lower class, with old money and new money taking center stage. Gatsby himself personifies new money; he made himself into a rich man through shady dealings. Tom Buchanan, on the other hand, represents old money. He received everything he has on a silver platter. He earned nothing but his inheritance. At the time, it was extremely desirable to be old money,

The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “In the years immediately after the completion of The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald was unable to provide his art with any such endorsement” (Collins). Fitzgerald was unable to get his book published because of insufficient funds. According to Harris, “F Scott Fitzgerald wrote his greatest novel in France in 1924, having exiled himself in order to get some work done” (Harris). The best novel Fitzgerald has written he wrote when he was in France. According to Kenneth, “The hard work was the eleven stories and articles Fitzgerald wrote in six months to get himself out of debt after the failure of The Vegetable.”(Kenneth). F. Scott Fitzgerald was a very hardworking author when his book The

After The Great War concluded in 1918, America entered a state of prosperity and luxury throughout the 1920’s. This significant accumulation of wealth marked the start of the Roaring 20’s, a time the American economy grew to be the most powerful worldwide but in which people began exploiting their earnings on excess materialism. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, The Great Gatsby, accurately re-creates this time period yet criticizes the changes of societal attitudes and its values that occurred, making Fitzgerald the first “American writer to write seriously about money and the effects of money on character” (Bruccoli). The two main characters, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, both made the decision to reside in New York in hopes of obtaining their own fortune in order to achieve the wealthy, comfortable lifestyle they always desired. However, their growth and change of perspective as the novel progresses in response to the constant presence of immeasurable wealth reveals how the novel criticizes this time era as an “American social order delimited by patriarchal capitalism in which there is little possibility for authentic love or desire” (Froehlich). The two novel inspired poems “Changing Hours” and “Carried Away” express differing perspectives and reactions towards the idea of progressing into a carefree and extravagant lifestyle. While “Changing Hours” and “Carried Away” both illustrate the deceptive and futile nature of a luxurious lifestyle within The Great Gatsby, only

Imagine if the love of your life betrays you in a way that you would have never imagined. The pain that you feel may be forgiven but never forgotten. This is clearly represented in the novel and adaptation The Great Gatsby written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and directed by Baz Luhrmann. Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s novel appropriately portrays the Roaring Twenties, also known as the Jazz Age. Every individual’s goal during this time was to accomplish their own version of the American Dream. Luhrmann’s adaptation is both unfaithful and faithful through mise-en-scene in various scenes throughout the film adaptation.

By 1925, America had become the wealthiest country in the world. This newfound wealth created a culture of excess: lavish cars, expensive clothes, and fine dining every night—but only among the upper class. In fact, this new wealth directly benefited the rich through making them even richer, while the poor remained in the lowest social division—struggling to survive, let alone thrive. This ever-growing wealth gap was the basis for which the American Dream was created. The American Dream idealized the notions of potential and possibility, thusly giving the lower class hope of social mobility and economic success. Two tales written during this era epitomize the American Dream through lower class protagonists who find financial fortune. The first is The Great Gatsby, written by Scott F. Fitzgerald in the midst of this extreme social hierarchy he witnessed in 1920’s New York. Secondly, Stella Dallas: originally a novel by Olive Higgins Prouty which was adapted into the 1937 film of the same name; directed by King Vidor. However, both these stories are cautionary tales. Although the protagonists find economic success, their knowledge of the upper class is solely limited to a wishful idealization of their lifestyles. Because the protagonist’s understandings of the upper class are not equivalent to reality, through trying to fulfill the standards their glamorized perceptions of an affluent life have set for them, they are never fully accepted into the highest social class.

The novel, “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, features the decay of the American dream during the 1920s. It is a critique of human actions and hypocrisy, with the main character being Jay Gatsby, a rich man who pines for his lost love Daisy.

Many of us want to be remembered when we pass away. For most, the best way is through an obituary. Almost every day, there are numerous obituaries submitted to many newspapers, such as The New York Times. There are brief obituaries submitted by family members in which the said deceased individual played a major role throughout his/her life (whether it be charity or a major work accomplishment) and there are longer obituary articles written by reporters, usually on a well-known individual. When looking at those two kinds of obituary articles, there are many similarities and differences.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby”, depicts the lavish and privileged lives of an affluent cast of characters living in East and West Egg (Long Island), during the height of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald illustrates an “up for grabs” world where anyone can make it to the top. No one better embodies this than Jay Gatsby, a midwest farm boy turned self-made millionaire. While many such as Gatsby were able to amass a large amount of wealth during the Roaring Twenties, it was a futile endeavour for many, and came with consequences. However, Fitzgerald recognizes this and demonstrates to the reader that this world of glamour that Gatsby and the

This modern notion of the importance of appearances- visual, reputation, gestures- and the opinions of other people is relevant to the novel The Great Gatsby, even in its 1920s persona. We see that these are the factors to the means in which bring us to the end: the succession of the American Dream. Appearances- visual, reputational, and gestural as well as the opinions of other people are achieved through self-reliance in creating the

Illusions make the reality almost impossible to see, the theme of illusion vs. reality occurs many times in Fitzgerald’s novel. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader observes many of the characters living in an illusionary world, however, through one character, the reader can discern authenticity. Throughout the novel, the reader perceive Jay Gatsby, as a main and one of the many characters, who are living in an imaginary world, far away from the the reality. Gatsby, who could not even stay true to himself, changed his identity

The great Gatsby shows an American culture in a certain time period. F. Scott Fitzgerald fits the modernist movement, as he writes about the horrid truth about desire and hope and how the necessity for material gain can destroy the value of life. He focuses on the culture of the twentieth century, including the growing of urbanization using the idea of self-interest through his literature. He describes the modern concept through reflecting on the flourishing middle and upper classes. The great Gatsby shows the desire of reaching the American dream and the frustration of losing this dream. The narrator of the novel, Nick says, "However glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders." (Bunce) This passage shows Gatsby 's continuing struggle with his untrue identity. Historical facts are clearly represented in the novel, which gives the reader a typical impression of the events occurred in the tale. A very obvious interpretation of prejudice that existed towards non- white citizens and against women in the society during the twentieth century was the main result that the conclusion of The Great Gatsby was reached.

What she doesn't realize, however, is that Tom and his friends will never accept her into their circle. (Notice how Tom has a pattern of picking lower-class women to sleep with. For him, their powerlessness makes his own position that much more superior. In a strange way, being with women who aspire to his class makes him feel better about himself and allows him to perpetuate the illusion that he is a good and important man.) Myrtle is no more than a toy to Tom and to those he

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone...just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Fitzgerald 11). The Great Gatsby is a brilliant American novel written by J. Scott Fitzgerald, during the 1920s in West Egg, Long Island. The story is told by Nick Carraway one of the main characters and narrator, he is described as a rich young man and a war hero. As Nick recounts the events other important characters are revealed; Jay Gatsby, a wealthy young man that enjoys hosting parties; Daisy Nick’s cousin is married to Tom and loved by Gatsby; Tom is a very wealthy Yale man, married to Daisy and having an affair with Myrtle; Jordan is a wealthy single professional golfer and a friend of Daisy; Myrtle is married to George and having an affair with Tom; George is married to Myrtle he’s abusive and a mechanic from the other side of lake. These individuals share many of the same qualities, such as socioeconomic status, power, greed, mysterious disguises and tragic, yet as each chapter is read their individual differences appear. I will attempt show how the characters from The Great Gatsby help me understand the power of the mind. The novel and articles that I read help us better understand the characters from The Great Gatsby.