Imagine walking through the crowded streets of New York, surrounded by dreamers and those willing to allocate their money at the tip of a hat; Passing cake eaters or "ladies men" driving the latest motor cars and women dressed in their finest attire. It's no wonder Scott Fitzgerald set his novel, "The Great Gatsby" in the decade that earns the title, "The Roaring Twenties." Throughout the novel, there is an evident comparison between the themes of compassion and profit. Compassion, known as sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others, is compared to profit, or a financial gain. Fitzgerald's characters all show a willingness to forgive and a stubbornness not to, but when the factor of money is involved, the story changes. The archetypal "happy ending" to this honest novel is unattainable due to the factor of money and a forgiveness that could happen, but does not. Fitzgerald demonstrates the difference between compassion and profit by vividly describing "The Roaring Twenties" and how the age of Fitzgerald's characters is disillusioned by the lavish lifestyles of the jazz age, which causes relationships to be torn apart and the "valley of ashes" to pile higher.
"Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright, passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget." (pg 8) Daisy Buchanan, a young, naive, woman who finds excitement in the lavish lifestyles of the jazz age, has an aura of luxury, grace, and charm. This aura causes Gatsby, whom immediately falls in love with Daisy as a young military officer before leaving to fight in World War I, to lie about his background in order to convince her that he could p...
... middle of paper ...
...er. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Hays, Peter L. "Oxymoron In "The Great Gatsby.." Papers On Language & Literature 47.3 (2011): 318-325. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Hearne, Kimberly. "Fitzgerald's Rendering Of A Dream." Explicator 68.3 (2010): 189-194. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Hobby, Blake, and Harold Bloom. The American Dream. New York, NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Hobby, Blake, and Harold Bloom. Rebirth And Renewal. New York, NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Meehan, Adam. "Repetition, Race, And Desire In The Great Gatsby." Journal Of Modern Literature 37.2 (2014): 76-91. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Wyatt, Neal. "The Great Gatsby." Booklist 110.1 (2013): 54-55. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
"The Great Gatsby." Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 64-86. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.
New Essays on The Great Gatsby. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
...ald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
Batchelor, Bob. Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Print.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “Winter Dreams.” American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. Seventh ed. Vol. II. New York: Norton & Company, 2008. 1010-25. Print. The Norton Anthology.
Fitzgerald's book at first overwhelms the reader with poetic descriptions of human feelings, of landscapes, buildings and colors. Everything seems to have a symbolic meaning, but it seems to be so strong that no one really tries to look what's happening behind those beautiful words. If you dig deeper you will discover that hidden beneath those near-lyrics are blatancies, at best.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Great Gatsby.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. The.
Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
The Modernist movement took place in a time of happiness, a time of sadness, a time of objects, a time of saving, a time of prosperity, a time of poverty and in a time of greed. Two novels, written by Steinbeck and Fitzgerald, portray this underlying greed and envy better than most novels of that period. These novels, The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath, show that despite the difference between the 1920s and the 1930s, greed remained a part of human life, whether superficially or necessarily, and that many people used their greed to damage themselves and others. In both of these novels, greed as a whole is negative, corrosive, abrasive, destructive, and apocalyptic. As an example, in Gatsby the namesake, Gatsby’s, desire for Daisy forces him to become a jester to the rich through many parties, who inevitably fabricate stories about him, destroying his credibility, in order to impress Daisy.
The Ironic Title of The Great Gatsby Titling is a very important part of the fiction-writing process. It is important for authors to be careful in choosing their titles because the titles often can have great influence on certain aspects of the story. In the book, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the title was formulated with the intention of heightening characterization through the use of irony. When readers start to read this novel, they immediately see a man who seems very glamorous and powerful while they have already been predisposed to seeing him in an alluring light due to the book's title.
Hermanson, Casie E. "An overview of The Great Gatsby." Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.
Eble, Kenneth. "The Structure of The Great Gatsby." F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1963. 89-94