The roaring twenties was a time for happiness and celebration, but the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows a different side of this dynamic decade. Fitzgerald uses a poignant, yet hopeful tone to show the shadier side of the nineteen twenties most refuse to look at, while tying in the brighter side. In The Great Gatsby, the reader is sucked into a story of corruption, and empowerment by the rich hidden by extravagant parties and bright colors. Jay Gatsby, who only dreamt of wealth and love had an ideal dream life, that ideal life could be defined as his “American Dream”. His dreams were later crushed by very powerful people, careless people, people who used and abused others to get their way, no matter the consequences. Those people were Tom and Daisy Buchanan, they were the empowered rich. They crushed Gatsby’s American Dream, by being careless. Gatsby created this extravagant life for one reason, and one reason only; to impress the girl he fell in love with, years ago. The girl he gave his heart to hold forever, but after Gatsby left for war, she married someone else, someone who was from old money, like her. She married Tom Buchanan. Although Daisy was married, Gatsby held onto the hope that they would find a way to be together again, and forever. Close to the end, the reader wonders if matters will work out in Gatsby’s favor or not, but after the tragic accident that bring three dreams to an end, the reader ignores Gatsby’s hopefulness and just hopes for a happier ending, when in reality, nothing ends the way anyone wishes it to. Gatsby is a hopeful man. No matter what happens he holds on to the hope of what could be, of what he always dreamed could be, of his “American Dream.” A dream in which he has ac... ... middle of paper ... ...hed everything he had ever dreamt of, only to die tragically in the end, with no one by his side. Good things only last so long, The Great Gatsby showed the darker side of the 1920’s, which was hidden behind false identity, and fake smiles. The corruption, the affairs, the abuse that most got away with, just so long as they could pay off their dues with their riches. The poignant, yet hopeful tone is about life and how it almost always ends in heartbreak or death. Life, no matter your accomplishments, ends in a depression, it sucks you down, and you either fight it or it kills you. The world is a dog eat dog world. You fight to stay alive, to make something of yourself, to survive, and in the end you usually always end up dead in a ditch somewhere, because the world took everything you had and so much more, and you have been drained of your ability to fight back.
The 1920’s was an age of prohibition, illegal parties and flapper culture. This era of time is marked as the Jazz Age, because of the big parties, fluidity of jazz music, and fast moving cultural boom. As a writer for this Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald created Jay Gatsby to be his symbol; “’Gatsby?’ demanded Daisy. ‘What Gatsby?’” (Fitzgerald 11). Gatsby was Fitzgerald’s enigmatic symbol of the American Dream, the symbol of a boisterous age, and most importantly an allegory for the decadence that America found in the time period. “Gatsby epitomizes the mystery and glamour of the future dream; without question, the struggle to fulfill a lofty unrealized conception of self is prominent American Values…” (Wilson). He was a metaphor to the struggle of becoming something in a society which declares that it is possible to climb up the ladder of culture. He stood as a symbol to the, what could be, of a self-made man. He was also a tragic character, “[he was], a figure marked by failure and shadowed by death throughout most of the novel, nevertheless, [he] achieves a form of...
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.
“When it comes to cars, only two varieties of people are possible - cowards and fools.” This quote by Russel Baker perfectly exemplifies the meaning of cars in the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Careless driving is a common symbol throughout the book representing the aloofness of the wealthy characters and their inability to establish control in their lives. The characters in this story are constantly “driving”, trying to convince the world that wealth is all that it’s cracked up to be. Cars are, in this situation, both the figurative and literal driving force of life. When the characters climb into the wrong seat of the car, they are surely headed for trouble By comparing those born into money and power and those that had to work for their status, Fitzgerald shows us the carelessness and the inability to establish control in life that comes along with predetermined wealth.
curious way, and as far as I [Nick Carraway] was from him I could have
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story of rags to riches, passion, and the hollowness of the upper class. A common wonder regarding this piece is the question of what it is that makes Gatsby so great. Through the use of works by Harlem Renaissance poets such as Langston Hughes and Claude Mckay, with a connection to the themes of the story, the questionable greatness of the notorious Jay Gatsby can be proven valid.
Nick describes Gatsby as “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life(Ch.3).” Such description unifies the appearance of Gatsby with people’s expectation of a man who accomplished the American dream. The obsession with wealth often blinds people from the potential crisis. The crisis of having everything they worked and struggled for redefined if the reality fails them. Just like strivers who chase the American dream, Gatsby also spent his whole life in pursuit of his American dream, which Daisy was a major component of.
The passage begins ‘One autumn night’, autumn is commonly thought of as a season of death and renewal, when the leaves fall from the trees, so do the metaphorical leaves that are referred to throughout the novel, in many places where the theme of nature is prevalent. The garden itself is commonly used as a symbol for Gatsby’s social standing, and the vibrancy of his life. Now that the ‘leaves are falling’, we can see that daisy has captured his ‘godlike’ attention, as it is portrayed throughout the novel, but also his heart. As the life of his garden is given to the ground, so is his life given to daisy, whose name itself refers to the theme of nature.
Many of these events from Fitzgerald's early life appear in his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. Like Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is a thoughtful young man from Minnesota, educated at an Ivy League school (in Nick's case, Yale), who moves to New York after the war. Also similar to Fitzgerald is Jay Gatsby, a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed at a military camp in the South.
"It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which is not likely I shall ever find again." (2). The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that takes place in the Roaring 20's. It's about a man who changes everything he is for the inaccessible woman of his dreams. After losing her before the war because of his financial status, he finally tries to win her heart back through his newly attained money. She is faced with a cheating husband and a man who wants to repeat the past. In the end, she has blood on her hands. After all his effort, he loses her in a heated argument and he loses his life to a misunderstanding. The one thing that Gatsby yearned for his entire life was, in the end, what corrupted him and did him in, love.
The Roaring 20's was a time of celebration, but to many the 20's were instead
Mobs. The Mafia. Gangs. Organized crime has been a part of America’s history for a long time. The height of their glory days in the US occurred during one specific time period: the 1920s. They are featured in novels of the time, reminiscences, and have held a strange pull over the American people since. People are fascinated with the inner workings of the organizations and the lives of those on the inside. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s affiliation with organized crime prevents him from attaining his ultimate dream of living in East Egg and taints him in the eyes of Daisy Buchanan, forever preventing them from having a relationship.
In Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden, Thoreau talks about his experiences dining with the wealthy. He speaks about how they have no hospitality and all they talk about is money. Thoreau says, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth” (436). Thoreau is stating how he would rather have truth than money. The characters in the Great Gatsby want exactly the opposite as Thoreau. Where he wants truth all they want is money. They want to hide their problems behind their money and enjoy the carefree activities of the rich and famous. The Roaring 20’s was a time of carefree enjoyment. However, what is often over looked is how those who indulged themselves refused to accept the consequences of their actions. Instead, they hid behind their shield of money, which gave them the freedom and privilege to live a careless, and sometimes-unscrupulous lifestyle. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the wild parties and other unruly actions of the rich to show how the more money one has in a society, the more privilege and freedom they have to get away with immoral and unethical things.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby and Nick talk about Gatsby's attempt to impress Daisy in order for her to leave Tom Buchanan and they to finally be together. Nick reminds Gatsby of a very true concept on the subject of the past, “I wouldn't ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can't repeat the past” (Fitzgerald, ch. 6). I feel that Nick said these lines in order to allow Gatsby to realize that not all things can be as they once were and you shouldn't get your hopes up. Of course, Gatsby reiterates back, “Can't repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald, ch. 6). Reading that quote, I felt that I could actually be there when Gatsby said it, the tone had such conviction behind it and you could feel that he had such an undeniable belief that it's possible and that he could just step through the echo's of the past and change it all in a heartbeat. Just for a man to rekindle the sparks of an otherwise, dead relationship with the woman of his dream. As time propels forward, people and ideas change and what may have worked out before, may not work out now. I feel that Gatsby's clinging to the past and his obsession with Daisy is what ultimately led to his downfall. I agree with Nick, the past cannot be undone and you cannot relive it and no amount of money or power of will, can change that and it was Jay Gatsby's obsession with the past, affections for Daisy and his deceit about his past that are the reasons why you shouldn’t try to relive the past.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a one of the best stories written during a chaotic period in our nation’s history, The Jazz Age. The Twenties were a time of social experiments, self-indulgence, and dissatisfaction for majority of Americans. Fitzgerald depicts all these characteristics throughout the novel with his interesting themes, settings, and characters. The most elaborate and symbolic character Fitzgerald presents to his readers is Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby as a vehicle to explore the idea of The American Dream, which was a key element in shaping American society and it’s citizens. Fitzgerald does not sugar-coat his definition of the American Dream, but lets his protagonist voice these elements and its decline, challenging the reader to explore the true nature of America in the 1920s.
Wealth and economic success struck the lives of the Americans living during the 1920s. Lavish lifestyles, overindulgence, and gaudy apparel were the rage of this decade. At this time, “America [had become] the wealthiest country in the world with no obvious rival” (America in the 1920s). Francis Scott Fitzgerald, an American writer of that time, employed the events of his life and the realities of the world around him in order to create one of the most influential works in the history of America: The Great Gatsby. Through his work, Fitzgerald was capable of portraying the truth behind the luxurious scenes of the 1920s. Fitzgerald’s unveiling of veracities produced a strong reaction from those of his time and has left a lasting impression on the centuries that have followed.