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Literary Analysis Of'The Great Gatsby
Short summary of the great gatsby f scott fitzgerald
Short summary of the great gatsby f scott fitzgerald
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Recommended: Literary Analysis Of'The Great Gatsby
There’s always been something grotesque about the word gorgeous. Like the iconic character Nick Carraway had once said before in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel “The Great Gatsby”, the acclaimed figure Jay Gatsby was a gorgeous human being, or the well rounded man. Unfortunately, his gorgeousness was a mask that concealed his true identity. It wasn’t the name that mislead its readers, but the reality of who he truly suppressed from the world. Gatsby believed in finding success, the American Dream. Gatsby used to be admired for pushing himself to live up to this dream, but the respect had plundered once he had deceived it. His dream of success changed once he met an ordinary girl named Daisy, but she shattered his dreams, causing him to develop …show more content…
Not even 24 hours after they had first met, Nick already developed an image of Gatsby. While driving towards the city in Gatsby's yellow car, Gatsby develops the urge of having to convince Nick to approve of him, for if he approves of him, it would mean that Daisy would approve of him. Gatsby was aware that Nick knew of stories and legends of Gatsby that weren’t true, and out of desperacy, he asked Nick “Look here, old sport. What’s your opinion of me anyhow?”(65). After hearing the various stories at his own party, Gatsby believed that in order to gain Nicks trust, he had to convince him of the “truth” of who he was. “ I’ll tell you God’s truth”(pg 65) he stated. He then attempted to derange Nicks mind and manipulate him to believe all stories of himself, and pulled various trinkets out of his pocket, such as a medal from the war and a picture from Oxford, all acting as solid evidence that his stories were true. One thing Gatsby was oblivious to was that his true intentions were clear and Nick was not gullible. Being old moneyed, he understand what kind of man Gatsby was. He noticed the little things, like his use of the phrase “old sport”, showing improperness, and Gatsby's medal from montenegro, a hidden state on a map. He even noticed the yellow car and the white suit, both striking attention from all corners. Gatsby craved the idea of fitting in, yet …show more content…
His last extravaganza, in which Daisy had attended for the first and last time. He convinced himself that everything was perfection, and every waiter and drink was modified to her liking, yet, out of ignorance, only ever thought of the new moneyed lifestyle, never taking into account Daisys old moneyed self, likewise, her present life. While at Gatsby's second party, Daisy had attended, yet, didn’t enjoy it as much as Gatsby reckoned. Old Money Daisy was very appalled by the actions and people she came across at this party. She found herself repetitively stating “ I think she’s lovely” showing her disinterest among the other guests at this party. “I feel far away from her” Gatsby said, “Its hard to make her understand”(pg 109). This quote is hypocritical and naive, for Gatsby is clearly the one who didn’t understand her life, or anything about her anymore. Not only was she perplexed by the people, but his hospitality towards her was quite improper, for he paraded her with names of people she never knew, constantly interrupted her, all just to make her approve of something old money condemned. He didn’t stop to think once that the parties she attended were traditionally small gatherings of people whos family names she had been associated with for years. For these reasons, Daisy could never approve of such a man as naive as
...s motivation to reach into Daisy’s heart is the downfall that lead to Gatsby’s persistent nature which concentrate solely the past, Also, emptiness of existence with realization to taint ideal, Gatsby’s heart fill with illusions. As a great man his death overflows with generosity and kindness that people did not notice. The good man Gatsby’s death is a tragic, but in the end it’s another meaningless loss that buried as a lonely hero.
Jay Gatsby is the main character in The Great Gatsby. He is the mysterious character that the story revolves around. Nick is his neighbor that gets invited to Gatsby’s party that set in on Gatsby being a mysterious person that has so many people talking about him and talking about different stories about Gatsby that unravel how big of a mystery Gatsby is. In The Great Gatsby, “Gatsby’s notoriety, spread about by the hundreds who had accepted his hospitality and so become authorities on his past, had increased all summer until he fell just short of being news” (Fitzgerald 105). In chapter six, the real truth is revealed about the great Gatsby. The stories of the mysterious Gatsby in the parties were not true. The stories about Gatsby also went around New York, which made Nick ask Gatsby about his past ("The Great Gatsby," Fitzgerald). Nick also asked about Gatsby’s past hoping Nick would finally hear the truth. According to The Great Gatsby, “This was the night, Carraway says, that Gatsby told him the story (its factual details have been told earlier in the novel) of his early life. The purpose of the telling here is not to reveal facts but to try to understand the character of Gatsby’s passion. The final understanding is reserved for one of those precisely right uttera...
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby many characters are not as they seem. The one character that intrigues me the most is James Gatsby. In the story Gatsby is always thought of as rich, confident, and very popular. However, when I paint a picture of him in my mind I see someone very different. In fact, I see the opposite of what everyone portrays him to be. I see someone who has very little confidence and who tries to fit in the best he can. There are several scenes in which this observation is very obvious to me. It is clear that Gatsby is not the man that everyone claims he is.
Even though he had some thought that the meeting would provoke harmful tensions between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he went along with it anyways, further demonstrating his own innate lack of reservation. 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.
Gatsby is a man that is out to impress others and he tries dearly to gain acceptance from others but he is not always successful at this. This is clearly shown when he hosts these immense parties that he creates to impress others but to mostly lure in Daisy so that he can meet her again and finally show off his social status to her. But before this could happen, Nick, Gatsby's new neighbor and cousin of Daisy, meets Nick. As they began to talk, Gatsby starts to discuss portions of his past to Nick and he seems the need to shows proof to back up his claims. For example when Nick was with Gatsby in his car heading toward New York, Gatsby boasts how he had gone to Oxford University and how he had been promoted to major and was given a momento from Montenegro. What was odd was that he had evidence to back up both of these claims. From his pocket he pulled out 'a souvenir of Oxford days. It was taken in Trinity Quad…'; 'It was a photograph of a half a dozen men in blazers loafing in an archway through which were visible a host of spires.'; (71) And then again he reached into his pocket and pulled out his war momento,'To my astonishment the thing had an authentic look.'; (71) showing that he was obviously trying to impress t Nick and prove himself correct so that he could fit in and look like a man with a normal past.
For five years, Gatsby was denied the one thing that he desired more than anything in the world: Daisy. While she was willing to wait for him until after the war, he did not want to return to her a poor man who would, in his eyes, be unworthy of her love. Gatsby did not want to force Daisy to choose between the comfortable lifestyle she was used to and his love. Before he would return to her, he was determined to make something of himself so that Daisy would not lose the affluence that she was accustomed to possessing. His desire for Daisy made Gatsby willing to do whatever was necessary to earn the money that would in turn lead to Daisy’s love, even if it meant participating in actions...
At the beginning of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a mysterious shady man. In the beginning of the chapter Nick somewhat resents Gatsby. In Nick’s opinion Gatsby was the representation of “…everything for which I have unaffected scorn.” (Fitzgerald 2). Nick sees Gatsby as what he hates the most in life, rich folk. Since the start of the novel it was obvious that had “Disapproved of him from beginning to end.” (Fitzgerald 154). As time passes, Nick realizes his neighbor has quite a mysterious past. Some think he’s a bootlegger, and a different person wa...
Gatsby has all the money yet he is not happy when he throws gigantic parties at his house. Daisy, the one he tried to lure in with his parties, never cared to show up. The love shown by Gatsby towards Daisy, “’I want to wait here till Daisy goes to bed. Good night, old sport.’ He put his hands in his coat pockets and turned back eagerly to his scrutiny of the house as though my presence marred the sacredness of the vigil. So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight – watching over nothing” (Fitzgerald 145).
Gatsby is not so great because he is a liar. From the very start Gatsby is said to be an alumnus from Oxford, who fought in WWI, hunted big game, and had parents from the Midwest. He even justifies himself when Nicks asks and Gatsby pulls out a picture of him at Oxford and a WWI medal that he carried around in his pocket. He even changed his name, James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, but why? “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career” (6). Gatsby is mysterious and mystifying, known for his large parties yet no one knows why he has them. Keep in mind this is the prohibition era, but at Gatsby’s parties there is always plenty of alcohol to go around and no one knows where it comes from or how he acquires so much, one of the many mysteries. In attendance at these parties there are people like Meyer Wolfshiem “the man who really did fix the 1919 World Series” (118), to the mayors and governors. More questions arise in this company as to how Gatsby is associated with gangsters and why they attend these large parties. It is completely ironic how so many attend these parties but none ...
The Great Gatsby is an emotional tale of hope of love and “romantic readiness”(1.2) that is both admirable and meritorious .Yet, the question of Daisy ever being able to measure up to Gatsby’s expectations is one that reverberates throughout the course of the novel. Be that as it may, Daisy is never truly able to measure up to Gatsby’s expectations because the image of Daisy in Gatsby’s mind is entirely different from who she actually is. Even during his younger years, Gatsby had always had a vision of himself “as a son of God”(6.98) and that “he must be about his fathers business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty”(6.98). Gatsby’s desire for aristocracy, wealth, and luxury is exactly what drives him to pursue Daisy who embodies everything that that Gatsby desires and worked towards achieving. Therefore, Gatsby sees Daisy as the final piece to his puzzle in order realize his vision. Gatsby’s hyperbolized expectation of Daisy throws light on the notion if our dreams as individuals are actually limited by reality. Since our dreams as human beings are never truly realized, because they may be lacking a specific element. Daisy proves to be that element that lingers in Gatsby’s dreams but eludes his reality.
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.
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...
At the beginning of the book, Nick's dependability is demonstrated as he recounts various information about himself. He is “inclined to reserve all judgments”(1), a trait that implies objectivity and therefore reliability as a narrator. However, he continues to say that this reservation of judgment has certain limits, especially recently in his life. These limits, apparently, do not apply to Gatsby, as evidenced in the next line. Nick says that only Gatsby “was exempt from [his] reaction”, even though Gatsby “represented everything for which [he has] an unaffected scorn”. He then continues to praise Gatsby's “heightened sensitivity to the promises of life”, and his “extraordinary gift of hope”(2). This beginning excerpt from the book in the first two pages sets the tone for the rest of the book and foreshadows the events that are going to happen. It is one of the most important sections of the book, as it lays out ...
From the first couple of chapters that we were introduced to Gatsby, we could instantly tell that he was not your average and or ordinary person living in the 1920’s. There is a sense of mystery that he holds; which is not a prevalent characteristic
He becomes our eyes and ears in this world and we have to see him as reliable if we are to proceed with the story's development. In The Great Gatsby, Nick goes to some length to establish his credibility, indeed his moral integrity, in telling this story about this "great" man called Gatsby. He begins with a reflection on his own upbringing, quoting his father's words about Nick's "advantages", which we could assume were material but, he soon makes clear, were spiritual or moral advantages. Nick wants his readers to know that his upbringing gave him the moral fiber with which to withstand and pass judgment on an amoral world, such as the one he had observed the previous summer. He says, rather pompously, that as a consequence of such an upbringing, he is "inclined to reserve all judgments" about other people, but then goes on to say that such "tolerance. . .