More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary Analysis Of'The Great Gatsby
Literary Analysis Of'The Great Gatsby
Literary Analysis Of'The Great Gatsby
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Gatsby’s Ambition
In the book The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author uses the setting and the characterization to build an idea of personal ambition to display Jay Gatsby’s ambition throughout the book. The author uses characterization of Daisy and Dan Cody and the setting of East Egg and West Egg to show the relationship they have with Gatsby. Jay Gatsby’s ambition throughout the book is to achieve what he calls the American Dream. His vision of the American Dream is to become the wealthiest and be accepted by his society and have the women he loves, Daisy, beside him the whole time. Gatsby is a man who would do anything within his power to accomplish this American Dream. The book starts of when the narrator, Nick, notices his neighbor, Gatsby, standing out on the dock reaching out to this mysterious green light across the water. During the book, the green light becomes a symbol of Gatsby’s ambition and the green light also appears to be the light at the end of Daisy’s Dock at her home in East Egg.
One of the main characters that is an influence to Gatsby’s ambition is one of his good friends, Dan Cody. Most people can say that Dan Cody was one of Gatsby’s leading inspirations when he was growing up. When Gatsby was seventeen years old he had no money and had no clue what his future held, but then he meet Dan Cody, who was very wealthy man and earned his money by mining silver. Dan Cody was motivated to transform Gatsby so that he would have a future and become rich. Dan Cody took Gatsby for five years to achieve this. Before Cody and Gatsby met, the author described how Gatsby would get any job and work anytime just to get food and shelter “ he had been beating his way along the south shore of Lake Superi...
... middle of paper ...
...East Egg she doesn’t want change even though how much she loved Gatsby at a younger age. “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end”(104). After all the hurdles that Gatsby had to overcome, he turned into a rich and wealthy man. He was able to change his life for the better in such a positive way. Gatsby did not let the setting of living in West Egg, even though Nick said that West Egg was “the less fashionable of the two” (Fitzgerald 5) get in the way of achieving his ambition.
Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby tells the story of wealthy Jay Gatsby and the love of his life Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby dream was to secure Daisy just as things were before he left to the war. His impression was that Daisy will come to him if he appears to be rich and famous. Gatsby quest was to have fortune just so he could appeal more to Daisy and her social class.But Gatsby's character isn't true to the wealth it is a front because the money isn't real. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the rumors surrounding Jay Gatsby to develop the real character he is. Jay Gatsby was a poor child in his youth but he soon became extremely wealthy after he dropped out of college and became a successful man and create a new life for himself through the organized crime of Meyer
“(Gatz's) parents were shiftless and unsuccesful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby was of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must b...
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.
The year after he dropped out, he worked on Lake Superior fishing for salmon and digging for clams. One day, he saw a yacht owned by Dan Cody who was a wealthy copper mogul and rowed out to warn him about a coming storm. The grateful Cody took young Gtz, who gave his name as Jay Gatsby. On board, Gatsby worked as Cody’s personal assistant. Traveling with Cody to the Barbary Coast and the West. At that time ,Gatsby fell love with wealth and luxury. When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000. But Cody’s mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man. At the same time ,he had gained the skills of making money which was vital to his success, However, his poor background and exorbitant desire for wealth and success were obstacles to him.
That influenced Gatsby in his already growing dream. Dan Cody spent his time with Gatsby prior to Gatsby making all his money and putting himself out to the world, as a man that had "made it" I guess you could say. It was from Dan Cody that Gatsby received that little extra drive he needed to push all the way. When Gatsby returned from war, he set back to his goal. When he had reached the first part of the American Dream, the money, he bought a house in the West Egg close to the other part of his dream.
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.
“For over a year,” as a young man, “he had been beating his way along Lake Superior as a clam digger and a salmon fisher or in any other capacity that brought him food or bed,” (98) before meeting Dan Cody and getting his first taste of real wealth. When Gatsby meets Daisy, he sees the same carefree lifestyle of Dan Cody that only the rich can achieve and is soon seduced by it. Daisy comes to love Gatsby, for the poor soldier he is, instilling him with the idea that wealth plays no part in love.
In The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, dreams, goals, and ambitions have a way of enticing and enchanting the characters. A goal becomes more than a goal; it becomes something into which the characters submerge themselves and by which they define themselves. These dreams then set up impossible expectations which are detached from what can realistically be achieved. Gatsby dreams of love with Daisy, a dream which eventually consumes his life. It seduces him into giving himself up entirely for its attainment. Similarly, Tom's ambitions to control every aspect of his life end up consuming him. It might be considered this fundamental tendency of human dreams to seduce the dreamers into dedicating themselves completely to those dreams which constitute their dangerous nature.
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emerging trends of the 1920’s. More importantly, the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dreams and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive to acquire the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the author's view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.
The novel, The Great Gatsby focuses on one of the focal characters, James Gatz, also known as Jay Gatsby. He grew up in North Dakota to a family of poor farm people and as he matured, eventually worked for a wealthy man named Dan Cody. As Gatsby is taken under Cody’s wing, he gains more than even he bargained for. He comes across a large sum of money, however ends up getting tricked out of ‘inheriting’ it. After these obstacles, he finds a new way to earn his money, even though it means bending the law to obtain it. Some people will go to a lot of trouble in order to achieve things at all costs. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, conveys the numerous traits of Jay Gatsby through the incidents he faces, how he voices himself and the alterations he undergoes through the progression of the novel. Gatsby possesses many traits that help him develop as a key character in the novel: ambitious, kind-hearted and deceitful all of which is proven through various incidents that arise in the novel.
F. Scott Fitzgerald brilliantly wrote many novels as well as short stories. One of his best known works is The Great Gatsby. In the novel, the main character Jay Gatsby tries to obtain his lifetime dreams: wealth and Daisy Buchanan. Throughout the story, he works at achieving his goals while overcoming many obstacles. Fitzgerald’s plot line relies heavily on accidents, carelessness, and misconceptions, which ultimately reveal the basic themes in the story.
In the book , The Great Gatsby, the character Jay Gatsby is developed. The story is set in the 1920’s in the New York area. Gatsby grew up as a poor boy, but aspired to be more. He met a wealthy girl named Daisy. She pushed him to go after his dream more intensely. He worked for a man named Wilshiem as a bootlegger and became very wealthy. Unfortunately, while Gatsby was away, Daisy married Tom. Daisy’s approval of his new, wealthy life was Gatsby’s ultimate dream. Fitzgerald’s presentation of the hero Jay Gatsby illustrates that Gatsby’s dreams should be admired because through his perseverance he achieves the lifestyle he wants.
In the novel “The Great Gatsby,” author F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about a character that goes by the name Jay Gatsby, who captures the attention of those around him by surrounding himself with rich people and materialistic possessions. The title of the book itself is named after the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, who is a well-off man that moves from the west to the east to obtain the one thing in his life that he deeply desires; to be reunited with his one true love, Daisy Buchanan, who he had lost five years prior. Gatsby’s physical appearance, mannerisms and impressions contribute to his pursuit for The American dream drives him from rags to riches, into the arms of the love of his life, and ultimately to his death.
As Fitzgerald unfolds the story of Gatsby’s childhood, her reveals a character who is not satisfied with his fate as child of poor and unambitious parents. “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people- his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all”(98). Gatsby’s childhood was living in poverty and by viewing the life of his parents as unsuccessful, blue-collar job holders, he becomes inspired to change the course of this life. Gatsby places a great importance on being wealthy and he becoming more than ever determined to abandon his modest roots by climbing up the social ladder immersing himself in whatever it took to get him there. Gatsby starts a schedule in the back of a book of how he was going to finally bring his imagination to reality. “...pulled from his pocket a ragged old copy of a book called Hopalong Cassidy. He opened it to the back cover and turned it around for me to see. On the last fly-leaf was printed the word SCHEDULE and the date September 12, 1906”(173). This little schedule that Gatsby created shows step by step his path to how he was going to create the facade of Jay Gatsby.“Jay Gatsby” is from a materialistic concept of what James Gatz thinks what it means to
Starting at a young age Gatsby strives to become someone of wealth and power, leading him to create a façade of success built by lies in order to reach his unrealistic dream. The way Gatsby’s perceives himself is made clear as Nick explains: “The truth was Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God… he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 98). From the beginning Gatsby puts himself beside God, believing he is capable of achieving the impossible and being what he sees as great. Gatsby blinds himself of reality by idolizing this valueless way of life, ultimately guiding him to a corrupt lifestyle. While driving, Nick observes Gatsby curiously: “He 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…” (Fitzgerald 65). To fulfill his aspirations Gatsby desires to be seen an admirable and affluent man in society wh...