The Great Gatsby is a book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the year 1925. It is set in a fictional town of West Egg, in the summer of 1922. Throughout the book, Fitzgerald describes Gatsby, Nick, Tom, and Daisy. He describes Gatsby in a sense of being mysterious because of a shady past. Then there is Nick who plays the most important role of the book, and is the narrator of the story. Fitzgerald also describes Tom and Daisy as the couple who just cannot seem to get it right. The Great Gatsby is a mysterious book with twist and turns all along the way. Gatsby is a nice person, but his character seems fishy because of his unknown past. Nick is the one that actually takes the time to understand Gatsby and he is successful at it but it takes him a minute. Gatsby was a sneaky and smooth individual (Fitzgerald 54). At the beginning of the book, Gatsby tricks even Nick. For example, When Nick first moves in beside Gatsby, he notices a shadow in his neighbor’s yard. Nick believes it to be Gatsby and the next moment he looks up the shadow is gone. Nick is confused for a second because he did not hear any noises. There is one point in the book where Gatsby lies to Nick. In The Great Gatsby, Nick and Gatsby have a conversation about how Gatsby received his money. Gatsby told Nick that he had inherited his money. Then Gatsby starts coming up with different lies to cover up what he had told Nick before. Gatsby then tells Nick that he was in the drug business and then in the oil business, but he was not in either one now. Nick can tell he is lying because he cannot keep his stories straight. Despite this, Nick stays in Gatsby’s corner throughout the novel, even when others are spreading lies and rumors about Gatsby (Hermanson). Even though Ga... ... middle of paper ... ... Pidgeon, John A. "The Great Gatsby." Modern Age 49.2 (2007): 178+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. Roulston, Robert, and Helen H. Roulston. "The Great Gatsby: Fitzgerald's Opulent Synthesis (1925)." The Winding Road to West Egg: The Artistic Development of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Lewisburg, Penn.: Bucknell University Press, 1995. 155-169. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 176. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. Sutton, Brian. "Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby.' (interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel)." The Explicator 55.2 (1997): 94+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. Young, Thomas Daniel. "The Great Gatsby: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. Jim Kamp. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 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.
Hooper, Osman C. "Fitzgerald's ‘The Great Gatsby'," The Critical Reputation of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Article A353. Ed. Jackson Bryer. Archon Books, Maryland: 1967.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner,1996. Print.
Trask, David F. "A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." University Review 33.3 (Mar. 1967): 197-202. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Trask, David F. "A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." University Review 33.3 (Mar. 1967): 197-202. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
Raleigh, John Henry. "F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: Legendary Bases and Allegorical Significances." F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Arthur Mizener. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963. 99-103.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
Fraser, Keath. "Another Reading of The Great Gatsby." F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Ed. Harold Bloom. NY:
Novels for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 4 November 2008. http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/>.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Great Gatsby.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Eble, Kenneth. "The Structure of The Great Gatsby." F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1963. 89-94
In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, a novel set in The Roaring Twenties, portraying a flamboyant and immortal society of the ‘20s where the economy booms, and prohibition leads to organized crimes. Readers follow the journey about a young man named Jay Gatsby, an extravagant mysterious neighbor of the narrator, Nick Carraway. As the novel evolves, Nick narrates his discoveries of Gatsby’s past and his love for Daisy, Nick’s married cousin to readers. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald develops the theme of the conflict which results from keeping secrets instead of telling the truth using the three characters – Tom Buchanan, Nick Carraway, and Jay Gatsby (James Gats).
Sutton, Brian. "Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." Explicator 59.1 (Fall 2000): 37-39. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol. 157. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.
Throughout the book, Nick strings together pieces of Gatsby’s past. However, his uncertainty grows as Gatsby reveals himself one day while driving to town, “[Gatsby] hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all” (65). With hesitation in his voice, Gatsby is surely not revealing the truth. The many holes in his storyline can certainly lead one to question the validity of his past.