The Great Gatsby Research Paper

Dean Zirolli

5/12/14

Mrs.Wendler

Period 5

The American Dream in the Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby written by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is the account of newly rich Nick Carraway and his relationship and encounters with his elusive “Somebody told me that he killed a man once”(Fitzgerald 29). and inexplicable neighbor “Dan Cody” or Jay Gatsby. The narrative unfolds in a few mere months in the early 1900’s, subsequent World War 1. This was a time period in which money flow was in excess for many and at a standstill for others. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby fall into the category of excess. The story materializes in sections of long island New York called the “East Egg” and the “West Egg”. Through ought the story there are many literary devices

During the reunion of Gatsby and Daisy a heavy rain begins representing the awkwardness of the situation. On the same day when their love is rekindled the sun begins to come out from behind the clouds, “Come here quick!’ Cried Daisy at the window. The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in the west, and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea. “Look at that,’ she whispered, and then after a moment: ‘I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around” (Fitzgerald 99). Again later in the novel when Gatsby and Tom get into a dispute the motif is used once again to give away the emotions of the characters. In this scenario as emotions and anger rise the temperature outside flares. Described as the hottest day of the year, “But it's so hot,' ...’and everything's so confused” (125). Daisy describing the situation while trying to diffuse the situation. Lastly near the conclusion of the novel when Gatsby is shot dead it is the first day of the autumn. Everything is still and the leaves in the swimming pool barely move. The chill in the air and the setting sets the tone perfectly for the emotions. Gatsby trying to make time stand still and go back to when it was him and Daisy and the chill in the air foreshadowing the death of

Hope is used again as the desire for a better life or the pursuit of the American dream. The reader is eventually revealed to the fact that Gatsby’s extravagant parties were of the intent to impress Daisy, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. This refers to Gatsby peering over the water to Daisy’s house reminiscing of the time when they were together before the war. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness” (Fitzgerald 20). The motif of hope is just as evident and recurring as the motif of false hope. Going back to the theme of the American dream Gatsby believes and hopes that a life with daisy is a better more promising life or the “orgastic future” (Fitzgerald 180). Nick Carraway describes Gatsby’s hope as running “faster, stretch out our arms farther….And one fine morning when our dreams begin to crumble, we stretch out further and further in desperation, and we fail” (Fitzgerald 180).Gatsby’s incidence of false hope is presuming that he will simply regain