The Great Gatsby Research Paper

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, explores the themes love, lawlessness and fraud, three prominent themes throughout America during the 1920’s. The novel delves into the life of Jay Gatsby and its triumphs and tragedies, as narrated by Nick Caraway. Descriptive language infatuates the audience with Gatsby and leads them to believe he is great. However, some revelations via first person narration soon throw into question whether he is indeed great or not. Through the application of irony, the audience is led to believe that great does not deserve to be called great.

Fitzgerald’s use of descriptive language effectively portrays to reader that Gatsby is great. Whether it be Gatsby’s car, his mansion or his clothes, they are

Fitzgerald introduces Gatsby’s story via Nick and his narration of the story, and Nick is constantly lied to and mislead by Gatsby throughout, whether dinner with Jordan, Gatsby being an Oxford man or it actually being Daisy that hit Myrtle. Fitzgerald’s first use of narration comes as Nick and Gatsby are seated in the speakeasy discussing Nick’s upcoming dinner with Jordan and it is suddenly revealed to Nick there is an agenda afoot. Nick is annoyed and considers if meeting Gatsby was a mistake, “for a moment I was sorry I’d ever set foot upon his overpopulated lawn.” (Page 72). Fitzgerald does this to plant a seed in the audience’s mind that Gatsby is not all her is made out to be and maybe he is not great. Moreover, we constantly hear that Gatsby is an Oxford man, but Fitzgerald still has our narration have reservations until he sees a picture, “There was Gatsby … cricket bat in his hand… it was all true” (Page 73). It is later revealed that Gatsby barely spent five months at Oxford, furthering the doubt that Fitzgerald has imbedded into the audience that nothing about Gatsby is true and he is not a great man. Finally, as Fitzgerald’s choice of narration has us doubting everything we hear from Gatsby, Nick catches Gatsby in a lie. As Gatsby tells Nick about the car crash, Nick realises what really happened, “He broke off, and suddenly I guessed at the truth.

Gatsby had created a fantasy for himself that involved he and Daisy living a respectable life together having only ever loved each other and ironically, none of it came to fruition, and the opposite ended up occurring. After his death, as Nick looked over Gatsby’s corpse, he envisions Gatsby telling him, “Look here, old sport, you’ve got to get somebody for me.” The irony Fitzgerald used was not lost on Gatsby, who knew was alone. It had come out he was fraud, Daisy had not only loved him and only him and he was dead. The fantasy life that Gatsby so desired and worked for was not going to eventuate. To further rub salt into the wound, the people who were enamoured with his parties, the people flocked from New York who, “parked five deep in the drive” (Page 44) did not care for him. To them, he was simply a means to a good time rather than someone they cared for. Not one of the hundreds of people who had made countless trips to his mansion could do the same trip for him funeral. Fitzgerald choice of irony successfully illustrates to the audience that despite Gatsby striving to be respected as an honourable man, no of it came to