More handpicked essays just for you.
How Fitzgerald portrays moral corruption in the Great Gatsby
How Fitzgerald portrays moral corruption in the Great Gatsby
How Fitzgerald portrays moral corruption in the Great Gatsby
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, reveals thin threads woven between himself and the novel, revealing the truth about a corrupted society filled with discontentment and superficiality. From marriages to women to an impossible dream, all these aspects of Fitzgerald’s life influences his work, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s novel quite closely resembles his own circumstances through his portrayal of the characters and the society of the 1920’s. Though Fitzgerald himself lived in a society of shallowness, he was able to portray that the emptiness in society would not bring anyone happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the characters in The Great Gatsby to represent the people in his own life and to show that wealth causes corruption. Mirroring his own unsuccessful love story, Fitzgerald incorporates the idea of failing marriages into his novel. ““Neither of them can stand the person they’re married to” (Fitzgerald 33).” Fitzgerald implies that marriage in the 1920’s was so corrupted by wealth that though the couples nearly hated each other, they still remained together for monetary and convenience purposes. Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda Sayre much like Daisy, married Fitzgerald for money. Until Fitzgerald started to become rich off his first novel, she had refused to marry him, much like how Daisy broke her promise to Gatsby and married Tom Buchanan. Zelda also cheated on Fitzgerald with a French naval aviator, mimicking Myrtle Wilson who pursued her own American Dream through having an affair with Tom (Willett). Not only was Zelda portrayed in the novel but Fitzgerald himself identified a character similar to himself: Jay Gatsby. Both men spent lavishly on parties that had been held to impress the love of their ... ... middle of paper ... ... would fare in the real world, and how Zelda caused Fitzgerald great grief and strife. The novel reflects his own ideals and places them in society where they fail, as it is reality. His themes of a failing romance show he doesn’t believe in relationships or the like. Works Cited Bryfonski, Dedria, and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. Print. Kirby, Lisa A. "Shades of Passing: Teaching and Interrogating Identity in Roth's The Human Stain and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." Philip Roth Studies 2.2 (2006): 151. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. Will, Barbara. "The Great Gatsby and the Obscene Word." College Literature 32.4 (2005): 125. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. Willett, Erika. "F. Scott Fitzgerald and The American Dream." PBS. PBS, Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
Often times authors develop their characters or plots from people and events in their lives. F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for “describing in semi-autobiographical fiction the privileged lives of wealthy, aspiring socialites” which in turn created a new breed of characters in the 1920’s (Willhite). It is said that “His tragic life was an ironic analog to his romantic art” (“Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald”). Fitzgerald’s most famous work,The Great Gatsby “extends and synthesizes the themes that pervade all of his fiction: the callous indifference of wealth, the hollowness of the American success myth, and the sleaziness of the contemporary scene” (“Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald”). In the novel Daisy Buchanan and Gatsby’s relationship are a representation of his own marriage to Zelda Sayre. Fitzgerald depicts his forced and uneasy marriage with Zelda through his characterization and actions of Daisy Buchanan.
...ald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
... of attention he gives his wife. Instead, though, he made his writings, books, etc. have a higher status over anything or anyone. The couple loved, but they did not deeply love. Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Zelda, as Daisy, was very accurate. Zelda was very flirtatious and beautiful, and that is how Fitzgerald portrayed Daisy in The Great Gatsby.
Bewley, Marius. "Scott Fitzgerald and the Collapse of the American Dream." Modern Critical Views F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 1985. p. 41.
Batchelor, Bob. Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Print.
Magill, Frank N. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Vol. 3. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem, 1983. 953-67. Print.
"F. Scott Fitzgerald." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2013): 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
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.
When Fitzgerald originally proposed to Zelda, she declined his proposal because he wasn’t wealthy or famous enough for her. Scott then put copious amounts of work writing and publishing his novel, This Side of Paradise and when it was finally published, along with short stories in the paper, she agreed to marry him because he was beginning to gain the success she wanted. Gatsby did the same for Daisy Buchanan. He spent almost his whole adult life gaining wealth and possessions to impress her and show her that he was good enough. Even though Daisy married Tom instead of Gatsby because of his status and financial security, Gatsby never stopped chasing after her. Jordan reveals to Nick that, “Gatsby bought the house so that Daisy would just be across the bay,” and he realizes that Gatsby has centered his
We often desire what we cannot have and ponder on what could have been. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, explored the clandestine lives of the rich and affluent; especially that of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s wealth, however, came at a cost. Gatsby is an aficionado in the licit world of fashion and glamour, as well as the world of bootlegging and corruption. Fitzgerald insinuates that Gatsby’s ill-gotten wealth came from bootlegging operations during the prohibition era. Corruption ultimately led to the rejection of the American Dream.
It is no surprise that Fitzgerald’s female characters were portrayed as lustful pieces property. Also, historical views about the famous American Dream shine bright through F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work. Dexter and Gatsby both start out with very little money and reputation, but by the end of each composition both Dexter and Gatsby are rich and well known. This perfectly depicts the 1920’s view of the American Dream. The era was famous for making average people into stars. Characterization is not the only aspect of Fitzgerald's writing which incorporates historical social views. History is also portrayed through the settings of many of his
Sutton, Brian. "Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby." Explicator 59.1 (Fall 2000): 37-39. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol. 157. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.
Like many of the greatest writers of all time F. Scott Fitzgerald implemented many of his own life experiences into his books. Fitzgerald’s life was very difficult and plagued with alcoholism, which greatly affected his relationship with his wife Zelda and his writing. Many of his most famous books, The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, and Tender is the Night show the 1920’s culture that Fitzgerald lived around. The modernist period of the 1920’s was reflected in F. Scott Fitzgeralds marriage to Zelda through the now critically acclaimed The Great Gatsby.
“She never loved you, do you hear he cried. She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me (Fitzgerald 139)”. Tom is married to Daisy (Lisca). Even though daisy is marring Tom, Daisy has feeling for Gatsby (Lisca). Tom and Daisy relationship is wrong because they are married. People may say that Tom and Daisy does not love each other. When it was a week after their honeymoon, Tom and a girl got a wreck and the girl broke her arm and was a maid from the hotel where Tom and Daisy had their honeymoon (Lisca). Daisy was remembering a time at their wedding where the thought that tom collapse on the floor but it was someone else (Fitzgerald 136).