The Great Gatsby is often considered to be the great American novel. However, this notion must be challenged because the ideas that F. Scott Fitzgerald presents in his classic masterpiece clash with the distinctly “American” ideologies that citizens of this great country have been spoon-fed since birth. Ideas such as capitalism, the American Dream, and self-actualization are presented in one form or another and then systematically dismantled to show just how fragile they really are. In his famous novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the despondency of class struggle and other Marxist ideologies through literary devices such as setting, imagery, and character development. Ultimately, Fitzgerald offers a negative critique on how social …show more content…
The story arc follows the rise and fall of the summer months; including massive parties that take place at Jay’s mansion and the rekindling of their previous romance. All of these events are set against the backdrop of a time when the rich prosper and the poor wallow in continuous poverty. Or, in the immortal melodies of Mr. Klipspringer, “In the morning, In the Evening, Ain’t we got fun—One thing’s sure and nothing’s surer, The rich get richer and the poor get—children” (Fitzgerald 95). To begin, it is pertinent to examine the conditions of the working class poor to which Fitzgerald is comparing his gang of upper crust personalities. This group of individuals is headlined by everyman George Wilson, the owner of an automotive repair shop in the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes is a stretch of land between the Eggs and New York City that is barren and filthy. “A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). This desolate place is the home of the labor force that powers the industrial endeavors throughout the New York City area. This is an excellent example of how Fitzgerald uses setting to convey his perception of the class struggle. The men and women in
‘ "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember the advantages that you 've had..." In consequence I 'm inclined to reserve all judgments.’
Colors can invoke feelings for people. Certain colors are attached to moods. Red can represent anger, green sometimes represents envy and blue can represent calm or even melancholy. Much art, music, and literature is dependent on color to convey the intended mood of the artist. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a man with wealth, power, and possessions is on a quest for the dream that he will never attain. He cannot have all that he already has plus the true love of Daisy. Fitzgerald creates his own unique motifs surrounding certain colors and uses these colors to emphasize the futility in Gatsby’s quest for this dream. Through the use
In this quote Fitzgerald illustrates the crucial contrast between the rich and poor when George Wilson, a resident of the Valley of Ashes, confronts Tom Buchannan about the car he is interested in. In reality does Tom need the car? No; nevertheless he goes out of his way to assert his superiority over the lower social class when he essentially makes George take back his comment. During the roaring twenties there was an enormous dissimilarity between the miserable struggles of the poor and the trouble free rich. It became impossible to reach this unrealistic goal of immense wealth when they couldn’t get out of the poverty stricken town they inhibit. Fitzgerald distinctly highlights this when George and his wife, Myrtle, finally have to opportunity to leave the desolate setting and she is killed. “’I’ve got my wife locked up in there,’ explained Wilson calmly. ‘She’s going to stay there till the day after tomorrow, and then we’re going to move away.’[…] A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting – before he could move from his
[OPENING STATEMENT] The Great Gatsby does not clearly yield to either poem or prose causing it to be considered as a lyrical novel rather than the more common narrative. Poetic devices and techniques used by author F. Scott Fitzgerald are more commonly seen with poetry. Yet it is these techniques that give meaning to his work of fiction; how Fitzgerald states his ideas becomes more important than the ideas themselves. Poetic devices he uses are called litotes, which express a positive statement by using its opposite negatives. To say “the ice cream was not bad” would be an intentional understatement, when instead one could say the ice cream was “good.” Litotes are used for irony, which is “using words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.”1 Also commonly found throughout the novel, litotes are used for emphatic effect to benefit setting, plot, and character development.
There were many symbols in the Great Gatsby that shows how Fitzgerald was affected by the times of the 1920s as he was writing the book. One of the places, the Valley of Ashes that was in the book and was shown in the movie was that the Valley of Ashes was a poor and dusty place. The Valley of Ashes would symbolize the poverty of the poor class and the hopelessness that goes with it. “... a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Fitzgerald, pg 26.) The descriptions in the book also helps support the idea that the Valley of Ashes
Fitzgerald depicts 1920’s America as an age of decline in traditional social and moral values; primarily evidenced by the cynicism, greed and the relentless yet empty pursuit of prosperity and pleasure that various characters in The Great Gatsby exhibit. He presents a society in which uninhibited consumerism, materialism and an all-pervading desire for wealth have perverted the previously righteous qualities of the American Dream, corrupting it in the process.
Parents always warn their children to steer clear from shady and unreliable characters. Real life situations are the target of this notion, but such a claim also stands true for literature. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Nick, the narrator, is a shady character who disclosed no personal information about himself and expected the viewer’s trust in return. As a result, Scott Donaldson, in his article “The Trouble with Nick” deliberates his opinion over what a terrible person Nick is, however later determines that regardless of how shady Nick may be, he is still the only one fit to narrate The Great Gatsby. Some of Scott Donaldson’s views of Nick as an unreliable narrator may stand true; however, it is definitely agreeable that Nick Carraway is the only acceptable narrator for The Great Gatsby.
"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 dead. This is the main theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel The Great Gatsby. In the novel Fitzgerald gives us a glimpse into the life of the high class during the roaring twenties through the eyes of a moralistic young man named Nick Carraway. It is through the narrator 's dealings with high society that readers are shown how modern values have transformed the American Dream 's pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power and further, how the world of high society lacks any sense of morals or consequence. In order to support this message, Fitzgerald presents the original aspects of the American Dream along with its modern face to show that the once impervious dream is now lost forever to the American people.
In the novel “ The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick describes Tom and Daisy as careless people which they are. Nick and Daisy are careless people because they can afford to be careless because of their money and use other people or do nothing at all for their own benefit. For example, When Tom told Myrtle that he could not marry her because he was in a relationship with daisy and she was catholic and did not believe in divorce and told lies to myrtle to use her as a toy even though myrtle was also using Tom to get to a higher social class for her own benefit even Nick stated that when she was with Tom that she would act like from a higher class when she was with tom. Another example of Tom 's and Daisy 's carelessness is that daisy wanted Gatsby and had her fun with Gatsby for a while, but did not face the consequences when it was time to tell Tom the truth of Daisy and Gatsby and instead ran away. Another reason that tom and daisy are careless is that neither Tom or daisy went to Gatsby 's funeral and just forgot him like nothing ever happened between the Buchanan family and Gatsby. All of this proves or is evidence that tom and daisy are careless people and money helps them take care of their problems.
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.
In today’s society, people are judged by their values or are frightened to take sacrifices to better benefit their lifestyle. Characters like Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Myrtle are shown as evidence of greed and how wealth surrounds their values. Fitzgerald uses social commentary to offer a glance of an American life in the 1920s. He carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups, but in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving powerful ideas for readers to adapt(add morals characters inhabit). By creating distinct social classes, old money, new money, and no money, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism running throughout every perspective of society. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays characters like Nick,
Throughout his works, Fitzgerald has continuously included a wealthy class of characters and another class holding fewer riches, each given a certain type of personality relating to their financial standings. The characters in the lesser class have always had a distrust of some sort for the wealthier individuals in their life. This fascination with the rich shows how much Fitzgerald was impacted and concerned about these people throughout his own life.
American classics such as The Great Gatsby, have been known to recapture and invoke feelings, potentially spark feelings towards, but most importantly, give readers a passage into a different time. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s main focus was to first captivate an audience of readers. He gave the readers a sense of the good side, and what it was like to grow up in the 1920’s in new work. During this time period, there were certain people who faired better than others, and there was not much in between. At this point in America, either money was available or it was not. This caused a rift in the system, and it continued to balloon, with the poor getting poorer, and the rich, getting richer.
Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ is set in America of the 1920’s, a predominantly materialistic society revolving around wealth and status above all else. Fitzgerald depicts this obsession with money and luxury through complicated relationships full of trouble, infidelity and sorrow. The relationships Fitzgerald portrays all symbolize the materialism and hedonism of the age; each relationship is doomed to a certain extent based on the social class of each character.