The Many Flaws of The Great Gatsby
There are a few, very rare, moments where Fitzgerald allows some insights in the characters of his novel, The Great Gatsby. These occasions should be marked red. Most of the time, the story annoys the reader with imaginary pictures of the Golden 20’s, which really were never that golden, or images of our hero, Gatsby. All the wonderful things that critics see in the story: the novel of manners, love, American Dream, and romance have been interpreted into the story long after the fact. There are some slight hints towards these topics, but they are not really developed by Fitzgerald (e.g. the love between J. Gatz and Daisy Fay).
The missing relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is but one of the flaws of the novel. Fitzgerald shows a lack of care in developing Gatsby as a person of the "New Money", dreaming all the day, having and being tasteless in everything he has and is, in addition to being a criminal (though there´s no real evidence for that), and developing Daisy as a character, coming from a well-known family "Old Money" and being not guilty ("white", to use Fitzgerald´s riduculas color symbolism). It was just impossible for a mediocre writer like Fitzgerald was, to develop a relationship between such different persons (though they have one thing in common: their lack of taste).
The Great Gatsby is an absurd story. One cannot consider this “masterpiece” as a love story - the only love is one by a shy daydreamer, admiring a lady from the upperclass and doing every possible stupid thing to get her, but who, after not having succeeded, becomes a "tragic hero". Just blindly applying ancient and worn storylines doesn’t make a good book. One cannot consider it as a plain record of lifestyle in the 20´s because it simply is not. To suppose that it is a symbol for the American Dream (which isn´t dreamt by Americans only) it is just ridiculous. These things are not definable by some characters written on a virgin white (color symbolism !!!) sheet of paper. The same goes for those who consider The Great Gatsby as a romantic novel: Ripping off people who buy alcohol, accumulating that dark (color symbolism !!!) money and then filling a pool with it, just to impress a teen love is not very romantic in the opinion of most people.
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and is based throughout the ‘roaring 20’s’. Throughout the novel there are affairs and corruption, proving life lessons that the past cannot be repeated. Fitzgerald uses many forms of symbolism throughout the text some of these include; colours, the eyes of T.J Eckleburg, clocks and the East and West Eggs. The Great Gatsby is a story of love, dreams and choices witnessed by a narrator against the ridiculous wealth of the 1920’s.
Thesis: How does F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, compares the American Dream in today's generation and back in the 1920's-30's? What did the American Dream really mean and why? So why did this issue happen? Do you think America can change in the future? What is the american dream really about? When did the phrase: ‘american dream’ started? Have you ever wondered what the 20s and 30s were like back then? How can this so called dream ever bring hope to our country? These are all the questions I would like to know myself. I’ve found three online sources & one source from the novel that can help explain about the 20th century, the Gatsby novel, today's generation, and about Mr.Gatsby from the book.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald is criticizing American society of the 1920s. He uses the characters to demonstrate the power than men had over women during these times, as well as their mindless, self-indulgent actions, where consequence was only an afterthought. The attitude towards and the role of women is shown throughout the novel. Fitzgerald also shows how many people in America during this time were delusional and had meaningless existences.
From childhood to death Clara Barton dedicated her life to helping others. She is most notably remembered for her work as a nurse on the battlefield during the Civil War and for the creation of the American Red Cross. Barton was also an advocate for human rights. Equal rights for all men, women, black and white. She worked on the American equal Rights Association and formed relations with civil rights leaders such as Anna Dickensen and Fredric Douglass. Her undeterred determination and selflessness is undoughtably what made her one of the most noteworthy nurses in American history.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald many of the characters could not be classified as a truly moral, a person who exhibits goodness or correctness in their character and behavior. Nick Carraway is not moral by any means; he is responsible for an affair between two major characters, Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. Jay Gatsby does show some moral qualities when he attempts to go back and rescue Myrtle after she had been hit by Daisy. Overall Gatsby is unquestionably an immoral person. Nick Carraway and Gatsby share many immoral characteristics, but a big choice separates the two. Daisy Buchanan is an extremely immoral person; she even went to the lengths of taking someone's life. Jay and Daisy are similar but Daisy is borderline corrupt. The entire story is told through Nick Carraway's point of view and by his carelessness it is obvious the narrator possesses poor values.
As depicted by Scott F. Fitzgerald, the 1920s is an era of a great downfall both socially and morally. As the rich get richer, the poor remain to fend for themselves, with no help of any kind coming their way. Throughout Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the two “breeds” of wealthier folk consistently butt heads in an ongoing battle of varying lifestyles. The West Eggers, best represented by Jay Gatsby, are the newly rich, with little to no sense of class or taste. Their polar opposites, the East Eggers, are signified by Tom and Daisy Buchanan; these people have inherited their riches from the country’s wealthiest old families and treat their money with dignity and social grace. Money, a mere object in the hands of the newly wealthy, is unconscientiously squandered by Gatsby in an effort to bring his only source of happiness, Daisy, into his life once again. Over the course of his countless wild parties, he dissipates thousands upon thousands of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to attract Daisy’s attention. For Gatsby, the only way he could capture this happiness is to achieve his personal “American Dream” and end up with Daisy in his arms. Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is somewhat detrimental to himself and the ones around him; his actions destroy relationships and ultimately get two people killed.
The whole point of the American dream was basically life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In the 1920 's the whole idea of the American dream crumbled. Instead of searching for happiness, people were searching for money, and didn 't matter if they were happy as long as they were rich, it didn 't matter. So there was no American dream in the 1920 's. It shouldn 't matter how much money you have, all that should matter is that you are happy, and your family is happy. What is the point of life if you just run after money your whole life then die. You probably will have no relationships and everyone will hate you. There are two different sides to "The Great Gatsby". The first side is that it is a love story. there is romance, unrequited love! But the other side is the disintegration of America. "The Great Gatsby" itself is a symbol of 1920 's America, yes people were rich and had a lot of material things but emotionally, everything was falling
Clara Barton attacked many social problems of the 1800’s. From creating a free school, to being on the front lines helping soldiers in the Civil War, to creating the American Red Cross, Clara Barton was a humanitarian. She fought for what she believed in and because of her never-ending fight for people, the world is a different place.
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During the 1920's America was a country of great ambition, despair and disappointment. The novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of this decade, it illustrates the burning passion one man has toward his "American Dream" and the different aspects of the dream. Fitzgerald's work is a reflection of America during his lifetime. The Great Gatsby shows the ambition of one man's reach for his "American Dream," the disappointment of losing this dream and the despair of his loss.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is well known for being an excellent writer, for expertly describing the Jazz Age, and for having a drinking problem. However, he is not so well known for creating deep and intriguing characters. In The Great Gatsby, the majority of the characters remain one-dimensional and unchanging throughout the novel. They are simply known from the viewpoint of Nick Carraway, the participating narrator. Some insight is given into characters in the form of their dialogue with Nick, however, they never really become deep characters that are 'known' and can be identified with. While all of the participants in the novel aren't completely flat, most of the main characters are simply stereotypes of 1920's people from the southern, western, and eastern parts of America.
As Matthew J. Bruccoli noted: “An essential aspect of the American-ness and the historicity of The Great Gatsby is that it is about money. The Land of Opportunity promised the chance for financial success.” (p. xi) The Great Gatsby is indeed about money, but it also explores its aftermath of greed. Fitzgerald detailed the corruption, deceit and illegality of life that soon pursued “the dream”. However, Fitzgerald entitles the reader to the freedom to decide whether or not the dream was ever free of corruption.
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The Roaring Twenties is considered to be a time of excessive celebration and immense corruption. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a criticism of American society and its values during this era of history. This criticism is first apparent in the people who go to Gatsby's parties. They get absurdly drunk, do not know who their host is and are rude by excessively gossiping about him. This commentary is also shown in the corruption of the police. Gatsby is able to pay off the police so that the activities going on at his home will go unnoticed and so that he may behave as he wishes. This criticism is finally shown in the corruption of friendship and love, the simple fact being that there is none. People use Gatsby and then throw him away. Fitzgerald's criticism of American society and its values during this time period is first shown in the behaviour of people at Gatsby's parties.
Among other things, I find Gatsby to be rather vague. My eyes could never quite focus upon him, his outlines are dim. Everything about Gatsby was more or less like a mystery, something that you had to figure out yourself. Fitzgerald writes "Gatsby had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obsucurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic roled on under the night". At first Gatsby did not know that his dream, his American Dream was away, past him, far away from everything he ever owned in life. This American Dream cost him his life. He died with honor and with pride.