The Great Gatsby Analysis

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, takes place in the 1920s. It discusses class alongside the injustices of greed, temptation, and the human instinct to compete. The novel shows a distinct development of emotions in response to love, and the pursuit of happiness.

The story unwinds from the perspective of Nick Carraway, who was born into a family of wealth. Nick states, “My family has been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Caraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we’re descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch” (Fitzgerald, 2).

The protagonist, Jay Gatsby, falls in love with a woman whom he couldn’t be with due to the fact that he wasn’t as wealthy as she was.

The reader

He didn’t acquire wealth and social status to enjoy them, he didn’t drink, and he’s never even used his own pool. The real motivation for his wealth and status was to impress Daisy, who lived across the bay. Fitzgerald uses clever imagery and symbolism to represent a deeper, continuous meaning that pervades the book. By doing this, he is able to outline the major themes in the novel, including the elusive American dream, honesty, and love. An example of foreshowing at the end of chapter one as to the violence to happen later in the novel, is when Nick says he is “alone again in the unquiet darkness” (21).

By using the word “darkness” at the end of the first chapter, Fitzgerald suggests that eventually, the story is going to take a dark turn for the worse. Moreover, it shows the vagueness of the first chapter, because the reader does not yet understand the characters’ traits or behaviors.

The author portrays the rich as immoral conmen. They wear masks that depict them as intelligent and honorable, when in reality, the opposite is true. This is shown when a man admires Gatsby’s book collection “Absolutely real-have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard… It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph” (45-46). He suggests that Gatsby hasn’t opened any of his

The answer is no.

We learn that Gatsby earned his money though illegal means by becoming a bootlegger. He had the sole intention of becoming rich to recapture his past, and win the heart of Daisy. His disingenuous acts eventually caught up with him when she found out he was a fraud and decided to stay with Tom.

Fitzgerald is shaming the rich by pointing out that they are likely to be heartless and cold-blooded. An example of how he does this is through the way Tom was described. “His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts” (20).

Even though Tom had done nothing to earn his wealth, it made him “paternal”. He felt like he could order anyone to do anything, as if he was the most powerful human.

The author takes this concept and displays it to the audience, while making them feel disgusted with Tom, who represents some of the snobby millionaires of our