Narrator's Role in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Kerouac's On The Road
Over the last fifty years, since the release of On The Road in 1957,
it has not been uncommon for critics to draw parallels between
Kerouac’s semi-autobiographical novel and Fitzgerald’s The Great
Gatsby, released thirty-two years previously. It is for certain that
both the novels share many similar traits, both examine concepts of
American ideals and The American Dream, both are heavily influenced by
the jazz age of the time, but nothing binds the novels closer to one
another than the authors’ use of the first person narrative and that
narrators relationship with their leading character.
It is perhaps the most common reading to see both Jay Gatsby and Dean
Moriarty awarded iconic status by their corresponding narrators. The
connotations concerning the epithet found in the very centre of
Fitzgerald’s title alone can bring an image to the reader’s mind of
one of history’s great leaders, putting Gatsby in league with
characters such as Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great, Peter the
Great and Frederick the Great. It would seem obvious from the title
that Gatsby is one beheld with admiration and respect by the narrator.
The relationship between Kerouac’s Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty is
often viewed in much the same light. The importance of Dean to Sal is
visible from his very first paragraph, where he states that, “the
coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life you could call my
life on the road”. Within a short time period, Sal allows his life to
be turned in a completely different direction by someone who is
basically a stranger. This willingness to uproot and follow somebody
else’s lifestyle pays a great complim...
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... with the door flapping, and roar off to the next available
spot, arc, pop in, brake, out, run.
It would be easy to substitute the car in this instance with a woman
to come up with a justifiable description of Dean’s attitude towards
women. Just in the way Sal admires and enthuses about his car-parking
abilities, describing him as, “…the most fantastic parking-lot
attendant in the world…” Sal admirers and enthuses about his sex life.
In 1991, Eagleton published an essay with a Marxist sentiment
declaring that, much like Nick, “Sal is suffering from ideology – a
false consciousness that is imposed on them by the hegemonic social
order”. This adds to the link between the two narrators concerning
their feelings towards their leading characters; in particular the
manner in which they both admire the achievements made by Gatsby or
Dean in their love lives.
Jay Gatsby is an enormously rich man, and in the flashy years of the jazz age, wealth defined importance. Gatsby has endless wealth, power and influence but never uses material objects selfishly. Everything he owns exists only to attain his vision. Nick feels "inclined to reserve all judgements" (1), but despite his disapproval of Gatsby's vulgarity, Nick respects him for the strength and unselfishness of his idealism. Gatsby is a romantic dreamer who wishes to fulfill his ideal by gaining wealth in hopes of impressing and eventually winning the heart of the materialistic, superficial Daisy. She is, however, completely undeserving of his worship. "Then it had been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor" (79). Nick realizes Gatsby's estate, parties, shirts and other seemingly "purposeless" possessions are not purposeless. Everything Gatsby does, every move he makes and every decision he conceives is for a reason. He wants to achieve his ideal, Daisy. Gatsby's "purposeless splendor" is all for the woman he loves and wishes to represent his ideal. Furthermore, Gatsby believes he can win his woman with riches, and that his woman can achieve the ideal she sta...
Nick?s statement that people are only ?pursued? (generally the upper classes, being chased due to their lifestyle) or ?pursuing? (chasing the lifestyle of the pursued). These mutually exclusive states mean that Nick believes all the characters with which he interacts can be stratified into one of these two groups, seemingly based on class. The narrator also claims that people can also be ?busy and?tired?. Again, these two vaguer classes cannot exist together. At first examination it may seem that this ?black and white? observation of the members of Gatsby?s America is shortsighted. However at that stage on the novel Nick is entitled to make such a judgement.
Damn. I wish I was in one of the bigger classes. At least in there there’s a lower probability of me being called on.
A) I think Nick will be a suitable narrator for the story because he is non-judgmental therefore I think this will give us an unbiased view. Nick also says this himself here, ‘“I’m inclined to reserve all judgments (1)”’ which shows that he does not judge people. This is why I think that Nick will be a suitable narrator for the story.
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses The Great Gatsby in order to display the wretchedness of upper-class society in the United States. The time period, the 1920s, was an age of new opulence and wealth for many Americans. As there is an abundance of wealth today, there are many parallels between the behavior of the wealthy in the novel and the behavior of today’s rich. Fitzgerald displays the moral emptiness and lack of personal ethics and responsibility that is evident today throughout the book. He also examines the interactions between social classes and the supposed noblesse oblige of the upper class. The idea of the American dream and the prevalence of materialism are also scrutinized. All of these social issues spoken about in The Great Gatsby are relevant in modern society. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses this novel as an indictment of a corrupt American culture that is still present today.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life. The occasional insights into character stand out as very green oases on an arid desert of waste paper. Throughout the first half of the book the author shadows his leading character in mystery, but when in the latter part he unfolds his life story it is difficult to find the brains, the cleverness, and the glamour that one might expect of a main character.
“This is the final irony - that the dark image of Fitzgerald in the 1930s came from Fitzgerald himself” (“Fitzgerald: The Authority of Failure” 288). When Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, he did not have to look very far for a source for his masterpiece; the events in the book are similar to the events in Fitzgerald’s life. The author shared an upbringing with the narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald's failure and death were also similar to that of the main character, Jay Gatsby. The affairs and relationships in the story were based on Fitzgerald's relationship with Zelda Sayre. In The Great Gatsby, aspects of F. Scott Fitzgerald's own life were reflected in the lives and actions of the characters.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrates what Marie-Laure Ryan, H. Porter Abbott and David Herman state about what narratology should be. These theorists emphasize the importance of conflict, human experience, gaps and consciousness, among many other elements, in order for a story to be considered a narrative. The Great Gatsby shows these elements throughout the book in an essential way. This makes the reader become intrigued and desperate to know what will happen next. The Great Gatsby is unpredictable throughout the use of gaps, consciousness and conflict.
Life can often be portrayed in literature in many ways. Characters are often inspired by feelings or real life people. Our society can still see the effects of literature today. A novel that shows this well is “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The main character Jay Gatsby shows the struggle with his new life. Gatsby is unstable, determined, and dishonest.
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).
Does The Great Gatsby merit the praise that it has received for many decades? “Why I despise The Great Gatsby” is an essay by Kathryn Schulz at New York Magazine in which Schulz states that she has read it five times without obtaining any pleasure from it. Long viewed as Fitzgerald’s masterpiece and placed at or near the uppermost section of the English literary list, The Great Gatsby has been used as a teaching source in high schools and universities across the United States. The novel is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner who moved to Long Island, next door to an elegant mansion owned by a mysterious and affluent Jay Gatsby. The story follows Gatsby and Nick’s unusual friendship and Gatsby’s pursuit of a married woman named Daisy.
Hooper, Osman C. "Fitzgerald's ‘The Great Gatsby'," The Critical Reputation of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Article A353. Ed. Jackson Bryer. Archon Books, Maryland: 1967.
“The great Gatsby” is an inspiring novel written by the famous American author Scott Fitzgerald. The novel was published in 1925. It is regarded as Scott’s supreme achievement and also as a masterwork in American literature, and it’s entirely justified.
In every piece of fiction, there is always a point of view. Behind novels, short stories and poems, there is always a speaker narrating the story to the reader. The point of view is very necessary to the piece in that many times it can give a reader a great amount of understanding, but it can also make it much harder to comprehend the text. When there is an all-knowing narrator, the person benefits from knowing the thoughts of more than one character and finds that it is easier to discern the meaning behind certain events. When the narrator is a main character, the individual reading the novel may have a difficult time understanding occurrences in the novel because of the limited perspective the character offers. That is the case of The Great
In the famous great American novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character Jay Gatsby is portrayed as a romantic hero, hopeful dreamer, and as someone who is completely unforgettable. What makes Gatsby so great was not his wealth, position in society or his personal belongings, but his determination to make something of himself during a time in which moral corruptions were common. Jay Gatsby’s personal greatness was exemplified in his struggle against his own fate, devoted love towards Daisy, and self sacrifice.