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Literary analysis of the great gatsby
Literary analysis of the great gatsby
The use of metaphors in the great gatsby
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The American Dream never died, it never existed in the first place. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby, wealthy and mysterious, is neither a terrible person nor a saint he is simply human. But to choose whether he is truly great or not so great would be difficult because he has both qualities of good and bad. But eventually his fatal flaws will lead to destruction. Gatsby does bad things with good intentions, he is a criminal and a liar but all to achieve the American dream and pursue Daisy, the love of his life. Gatsby is not so great because he is a liar. From the very start Gatsby is said to be an alumnus from Oxford, who fought in WWI, hunted big game, and had parents from the Midwest. He even justifies himself when Nicks asks and Gatsby pulls out a picture of him at Oxford and a WWI medal that he carried around in his pocket. He even changed his name, James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, but why? “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career” (6). Gatsby is mysterious and mystifying, known for his large parties yet no one knows why he has them. Keep in mind this is the prohibition era, but at Gatsby’s parties there is always plenty of alcohol to go around and no one knows where it comes from or how he acquires so much, one of the many mysteries. In attendance at these parties there are people like Meyer Wolfshiem “the man who really did fix the 1919 World Series” (118), to the mayors and governors. More questions arise in this company as to how Gatsby is associated with gangsters and why they attend these large parties. It is completely ironic how so many attend these parties but none ... ... middle of paper ... ...s described in the book he is obviously nothing short of a gangster. All Gatsby wants is connections, connections to money. He needs people to help achieve his goal of the American Dream, he needs to make money, he needs his perfect rich Daisy, and he needs his perfect rich Daisy’s money. Jay Gatsby is truly not so great in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, concluding in this essay that Gatsby is not the person who he comes across as in the novel. This novel is full of illusions that are hard to see, but it is up to the reader to find them. Always keep an eye out while reading this novel; the illusions come out of nowhere in such obvious yet so simple scenes that readers tend to over look. Gatsby does bad things with good intentions, he is a criminal and a liar but all to achieve the American dream and pursue Daisy, the love of his life. Sources
In Nick’s meeting with Gatsby and Wolfsheim, it is revealed that Gatsby is involved with shady business (bootlegging) and that the reason Wolfsheim likes Gatsby so much is that he appears to be the perfect gentleman, a person who would never even look at his friend’s wife. Gatsby has the face of a handsome gentleman but is willing to become covertly involved with gangsters in order to become rich. Gatsby aids the cruelty of the underground organization, which rigs sports games and does other illicit things, but, on the surface, Gatsby appears to be upper-class, almost like an East Egger. The public seems to find it strange that Gatsby, who appears to be a gentleman, lives on West Egg, and thus constantly speculates often ridiculous stories about Gatsby’s origins. Fitzgerald does this to show that, even though people may not be able to see past the disguise of beauty, they may unsuccessfully speculate the
The Great Gatsby is a book filled with dynamic characters, written by a dynamic person. Throughout the book, the themes and situations are on many symbolic levels. The Great Gatsby is such a novel, that the hero is portrayed to the reader by a man who, with seemingly no effort, will not judge a man easily. He perceives him, takes him in, and analyzes him. This man’s name is not, in fact, Gatsby, but Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story. The man who is being perceived, of course, is Jay Gatsby, our hero.
This novel was set in the 1920s, when everything was easy. Money was easy, love was easy, and life seemed easy. The American dream was alive and kicking in every American heart. The primary character in the novel, the mysterious Jay Gatsby, is the embodiment of this time. He is a classically handsome, self-made man who is envied by all, but known by none. He and his wealth appear out of thin air and he flies up the social ladder by throwing lavish parties in his extravagant house. Nick Carraway, the narrator of this novel, reveres Gatsby before they are even introduced. The first time Nick sees Gatsby, the mysterious man was all alone on the lawn and he “stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away” (Fitzgerald 25-26). The reader’s first glimpse of Gatsby reveals a man desperate to procure his dream. As the men grow to be friends, and Gatsby confides in Nick, the narrator discernibly loses respect for Gatsby. Gatsby originally appears to be a worldly, charming man...
When looking at Jay Gatsby, one sees many different personalities and ideals. There is the gracious host, the ruthless bootlegger, the hopeless romantic, and beneath it all, there is James Gatz of North Dakota. The many faces of Gatsby make a reader question whether they truly know Gatsby as a person. Many people question what exactly made Jay Gatsby so “great.” These different personas, when viewed separately, are quite unremarkable in their own ways.
Gatsby does not want to be acknowledged for being “just some nobody.” These insecurities are shown in Gatsby’s past. They arise from his childhood, growing up poor and wanting to be something. This wanting to be somebody causes Gatsby to have the need to be acknowledged. We see this through his extravagant parties, the need to have Daisy, and his false story of going to Oxford. His extravagant parties are used to make an allure on him. This draws people in and makes him
Gatsby came from the western unites states where there was “old money”. He met a person named Dan Cody there, who taught him how to bootleg. So he became incredibly rich in a short space of time because he absolves himself of moral responsibility. But this wealth cause distrust. His huge parties are being attended only by insincere people and the relationships are not base on trust or affection but self interest. Nick notices this near to the end of the novel when he sees that only three people come to Gatsby’s funeral. Gatsby is left alone, nobody shares his sentimentality and nobody even comes to his funeral.
As a child Gatsby was a poor boy who lived on a farm in North Dakota with his parents. “James Gatz immediately introduced himself as Jay Gatsby, a name he had already invented for himself in an effort to escape his poor upbringing.” (Wyly, Michael J 51) Gatsby as an older man changes his name to escape poverty. He becomes superficial, self-centered, materialistic, and dishonest just like everyone else in New York. He [Gatsby] only cares about his personal gain and builds artificial relationships with others. “A souvenir of Oxford days.” (Fitzgerald 67) Gatsby exaggerates his past to appear more accomplished and fit in better with the wealthy and
At a first glance, The Great Gatsby is an account of a failed relationship between a man from a modest background and a woman from high society. This aspect of the novel however also serves to develop a much bigger theme. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel is a story about the value of the so called American Dream and the polarity between its particular ideas. Fitzgerald uses many different means to express a certain perspective on the subject. The most significant articulation of this theme is reflected in Jay Gatsby's tremendous quest for the woman he loves, which is punctuated by a conflict between his idealised vision of his love and the actual conditions. This is a repeating pattern. The novel is punctured by many
Jay Gatsby is a morally corrupt figure that should be watched. He is a dangerous and manipulative man that you should distance yourself from. As the story unfolds, we learn that Gatsby is a bootlegger who makes his money illegally. This was shown when Tom said, “I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t far off” (Fitzgerald 143). Even when accused Gatsby doesn’t try to oppose Tom’s remark, he just goes more in detail about how he has “helped” people make money when they needed it. Also, the book doesn’t go much into detail about who Gatsby is. The author only tells us small sections of Gatsby's life and even then there is no way to tell if they are true, especially when it’s from Gatsby’s perspective. All the people
In the beginning of this novel everyone seems to know, or at least have heard, about Gatsby. He is talked about a lot and it is manly in a good way. Gatsby appears to be a very powerful person who also has a lot of respect from people. He has a very strange and kind of mysterious personality. For example when he has his party’s, usually on ever Saturday night, he seems to isolate himself from ...
Gatsby is a mysterious man that no one really knows of. There are only rumors of him floating about at the lavish parties he host. Some saying he has committed a murder and others saying he was an American or German soldier during the war (WWI). Gatsby can also be depicted as a hardworking and honest man. Although he earned his money in an illicit way, his strive to be wealthy and achieve the American Dream exhibits his determination and his pursuit of happiness and material success. As Gatsby’s past is revealed, we learn about his bootlegging, “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (Fitzgerald 141). Gatsby does not deny this and confesses the truth to Daisy. We also learn that Gatsby legal name was James Gatz and he was from North Dakota. We are also informed that his parents were unsuccessful farmers and attended college St. Olaf college in southern
Gatsby seems to be a well put together man, but the way he got his riches was in a corrupt matter. Gatsby is rich because he is involved with the selling of alcohol, which was illegal during the time period of the novel. Gatsby hides this fact about himself making him a mysterious character to the readers and characters in the book. One of the characters who is curious about Gatsby is Tom Buchanan. Tom has dug up some dirt on Gatsby and reveals it in front of Daisy and the other characters. Tom says, “‘That drug-store business was just small change,’ continued Tom slowly, ‘but you’ve got something on now that Walter’s afraid to tell me about’” (Fitzgerald 134). Tom has learned where Gatsby gets all of his money from. Gatby says he owns drug-stores but Tom knows that the drug-stores can’t make you as rich as Gatsby. During this scene, it is revealed to the readers that Gatsby is not as great as he was thought to be at the beginning of the novel. Gatsby’s greatness is revealed to be
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character Jay Gatsby is a dreamer. His tendency to have high expectations for the outcome of his life has led to the debate over whether Gatsby is actually “great” or not. His hopes of winning over the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, is essentially his American Dream, but this dream does not work out for him. No matter how much money he has, how many expensive things he owns, or how over-the-top his million-dollar mansion is, Gatsby will never be able to obtain this dream of his. In the end, no matter how hard he tries, Jay Gatsby cannot be considered “great” by any means.
The Great Gatsby was a story which addressed many human flaws that many people saw no problem with. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the story, used the story of Jay Gatsby to show how many of these flaws can negatively affect us in a huge way. Some of these negative traits included concepts such as: the idea that money equals happiness; the belief that we control our own fates; and that people always want more than what they have. These may seem normal and some people also may even say positive concepts. But as shown in The Great Gatsby, they can be dangerous and even deadly.
What makes somebody so great? The way they look? The money they make? How they are living? Being great has a lot to do with being great at something and you hardly ever make a mistake. Well the author F. Scott Fitzgerald is very descriptive of the “Great” Gatsby not being so great after all. There was many errors in his life and the decisions he made. Is it because he was after something so prosperous like the American Dream or because he started from nothing and turned out to become something. Seems to me that Nick Carraway has all the answers for us because he knows a lot about the Gatsby not being so great.