F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

1011 Words3 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby “So The Great Gatsby house at West Egg glittered with all the lights of the twenties, there were was always Gatsby’s supplicating hand, reaching out to make glamour with what he had lost be cruel chance...of how little Gatsby wanted at bottom-not to understand society, but to ape it”(21-22). The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald features constant parties, glamorous houses, and extravagance to reveal the values of the characters and the society they live in. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby exemplifies the innate values and morals of its characters and the society in which they live by using continual partying, glamorous houses, and extraordinary extravagance. The ridiculous wealth and obvious garishness of Gatsby’s parties reveals the reckless values of West Egg society. Nick observes that, “There was music from my neighbor’s house all through summer nights. In his blue gardens, men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars…” (22). Every night, random assortments of people come and go, “like moths” moving towards the light of Gatsby’s parties and wealth. These West Eggers conduct themselves “ according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks”(48). West Egg society focuses on spending their money rather than keeping the money like East Egg society. Instead of being polite and refined, West Eggers, who have “new money”, are outspoken and rude in the eyes of East Egg society. At first sight, Daisy “…w... ... middle of paper ... ... The ethics of society in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are clearly noted through the endless partying, fancy houses, and the lavishness of their lives. Time and time again Fitzgerald displays his skills of developing his characters through plots and scenes of enchanting parties and mansions. Through these scenarios, the reader develops a sense of the purposelessness of the rich, the values of West and East Egg society, and Gatsby. Each individual scene reveals the subtle nuances of each and every character. Is shown to the reader in such a way that the reader picks up an idea of who each character is. By a landslide, the Great Gatsby owes a lot of its character development to its settings. The settings of The Great Gatsby provides for its substantial character development.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
727 Words | 2 Pages
Crossing the porch where we had dined that June night three months before, I came to a small rectangle of light which I guessed was the pantry window. The blind was drawn, but I found a rift at the sill.
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Jay Gatsby is a Sympathetic Character in Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby
591 Words | 2 Pages
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. Initially, Gatsby stirs up sympathetic feelings because of his obsession with wealth.
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gatjay F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Lessons from Jay Gatsby
969 Words | 2 Pages
The Great Gatsby: Lessons from Jay. In the novel The Great Gatsby, not many people really knew the man known as Jay Gatsby. When he was rich and powerful, he was the man you "want to know." But when he died, life went on without him. It seemed as if nobody cared that he was the man behind the parties and all the good times.
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Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1040 Words | 3 Pages
Toady a new patient came in named Nick Carraway. Carraway is a struggling bond salesman that just moved next to that big place on the island, Gatsby’s place. He seems to like his new home, but he often talks about how the homesickness he feels is relating back to his fathers conduct. "Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth"(Fitzgerald 6). It kind of struck me how Carraway’s attitude could be shaped by a simple code of conduct. He began to talk about how this person eluded some moral standards. "I wanted to no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart . Only Gastby, was exempt from my reaction"(6). He said that he gave this a reason because Gatsby was, basically, everything Carraway hoped to be. I thought a while before I gave my reply. I explained to him that life was about how rich a man was in experience, not how much material he has. He kind of shrugged it off like it was a cheap psychiatrist line. The more he told me about Gastby, it seemed the more he felt he needed to emulate him. He then began to talk of a Mr. Tom Buchannan. Tom was not to Carraway’s liking. He seemed harsh and too masculine to have any relation in Nick’s life. Nick is simple, innocent, and he is just starting out. From what he has told me about him, Tom seems to be a bigot of sorts, not to fond of Nick’s existence in this side of town at all. How does tom fit in to all this, I asked myself. Tom is Daisy’s husband; Daisy is Nick’s cousin. Kind of confusing, eh? Carraway started to finish up the session with a story of how he and Tom took a trip to Manhattan. On the way they stopped at Wilson’s Gas Station to meet "Tom’s girl." I was shocked by this finding. Nick carried a new burden upon his shoulders. Should he tell Daisy about they affair? I told him not to worry and to wait until next week.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1236 Words | 3 Pages
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. James Gatz, better known as Jay Gatsby, is the main character in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This novel is a story about Gatsby, and his relentless pursuit of his one and only dream and goal: Daisy Buchannon. Gatsby and Daisy met in 1917, five years prior to the setting of the novel. They fell in love immediately and spent countless hours together.
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Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
541 Words | 2 Pages
I strongly disagree with Isabel Paterson’s opinion. I do not think The Great Gatsby lacks universal appeal at all. Many of the issues touched upon in the story can be directly connected or related to events that are still happening in today’s society. To say that this book is only good for one time period is not realistic due to all the proof against it.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1022 Words | 3 Pages
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the characters live in an illusory world and only some can see past this. In the novel, West Egg and its residents represent the newly rich, while East Egg represents the old aristocracy. Gatsby seeking the past, Daisy is obsessed with material things, Myrtle wanting Tom to escape her poverty, George believing that T.J. Eckleburg is God, and Tom believing he is untouchable because of his power and wealth are all examples of the illusion v. reality struggle in the novel and Nick, the only character aware of reality, witnesses the fall of all the characters around him to their delusions.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1427 Words | 3 Pages
The greatness of an individual can be defined in terms far beyond tangible accomplishments. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby's greatness comes from his need to experience success and his will to achieve his dreams. Nick Carraway narrates the story, and his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, is Gatsby's love. Daisy, however, is married to Tom Buchanan, a wealthy, arrogant womanizer who despises Gatsby. Gatsby feels the need to be successful and wealthy, and his participation in a bootlegging operation allows him to acquire the wealth and social status needed to attract Daisy. In his narration, Nick focuses on Gatsby's fixation of Daisy and how he longs for her presence in his life. Gatsby's greatness comes from his power to dream, his competence in turning dreams into reality, and his absolute love for Daisy.
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The Great Gatsby Essay: The Great Gatsby is Not So Great
505 Words | 2 Pages
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.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1400 Words | 3 Pages
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald discusses many themes of the 1920s, with a specific focus on the rich and idle class, the “old money,” those whose wealth allows them to be careless and destructive without consequences. In the novel, this group of people is characterized by Tom and Daisy- a couple who moves leisurely through life, destroying relationships and lives without knowing or caring. Tom’s privileged upbringing has made the concepts of morality and responsibility completely foreign to him, and he is the driving force in this mutually corrupt relationship: his disregard for everything except his own personal pleasure shapes the interactions between him and Daisy. Daisy on the other hand is a blank slate, a mirror of her surroundings, an empty-headed, whimsical girl who just wants to have fun. The carelessness afforded to her by Tom’s money and influence, and, by extension, Tom’s own habits of carelessness, molds Daisy into a sad shell of a person. Daisy is not inherently corrupt and destructive, as Tom is, but it makes no difference as Tom has already passed the worst of his characteristics onto her. Indeed, it is Daisy, not Tom, who performs the ultimate sin at the end of the novel, and it is Daisy, not Tom, who shirks away from taking responsibility for this terrible deed and instead allows innocent lives to be destroyed for her actions. Daisy and Tom are the perfect couple. Neither cares the slightest bit about the other and so both live absurd, dreary lives, thinking they have found happiness, while instead both have become disinterested with the ease of living they enjoy. This disinterest makes Tom and Daisy the victims of the wealth and influence that are so commonly seen as desira...
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Examples Of Decay In The Great Gatsby
961 Words | 2 Pages
The great gatsby is a classic american novel that is not afraid to look at the negative sides of society. In fact, that is the main basis of the whole novel. People so disgusting, but yet still so very real. People are not always so relatable in their faults. In fact, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s world of dazzling colors and extravagant parties, it is probably the more untouched part of society that people try to shove in the back of their minds. Fitzgerald shows the less than beautiful nature of the glamorous people in his stories through character development, or lack of it. With this along with his overarching themes of decay, a reader can see the message the author is trying to convey.
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Examples Of Selfishness In The Great Gatsby
751 Words | 2 Pages
For centuries, societies have been broken down into classes and the society in the Great Gatsby is no different. The upper class shown in the novel are people of power, wealth, and extravagance living on Long Island in New York during the nineteen twenties. The twenties were a time of gayety and high-spirits and this is very present in Gatsby’s society. Jay Gatsby is described as having a mansion that was, “...a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (10). Gatsby is also famous for throwing excessive parties of drinking, small talk, and relations between men and women. The same ritzy lifestyle is shared by Tom and Daisy Buchanan who have old money and spend it on their palace-like home and the many vacations they take. The appearances of these people mean everything to them and displays the conceited and vain nature of the people who will do just about anything to maintain their wealth, looks, power, and status in the hierarchy of society. As a whole they are very accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. From the clothes they wear to the food they eat, everything about them captures the essence of the upper class in the nineteen
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Wealth In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
1283 Words | 3 Pages
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by author F. Scott Fitzgerald that provides insights of the social landscape during the Jazz Age. This era is well known for economic prosperity along with the creation of jazz music, bootlegging and other economic struggles that lead to an increase in materialism and capitalism. These philosophies were damaging as they changed the behaviour of people and increased their needs. Fitzgerald expresses the corrupt nature of wealth in the Roaring Twenties by creating materialistic mindsets in the characterization of Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, as they both live in different geographical and economic locations that define the money and the lifestyle one lives, and the actions both Gatsby and Tom take to impress
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East and West Egg in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
619 Words | 2 Pages
There are many themes that are implemented in the Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald uses as a technique to juxtapose two contrasting topics. During this time of the Roaring Twenties, business and economy was booming, however there’s still was a underlying hint of urban corruption and the gap between the rich and poor became greater. Through the technique of juxtaposition, Fitzgerald paints a detailed picture of society in the 1920’s and its cultural clashes. By comparing the characters living in the East and West Egg, Fitzgerald highlights the contrast between morality and corruption in society during the 1920’s. Additionally, his contrasting descriptions of Tom and Daisy’s house to the Valley of Ashes offers a juxtaposition of the rich and poor.
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Decaying Morals in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
813 Words | 2 Pages
The 1920’s were a time of social and technological change. After World War II, the Victorian values were disregarded, there was an increase in alcohol consumption, and the Modernist Era was brought about. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a perfect presentation of the decaying morals of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald uses the characters in the novel--specifically the Buchanans, Jordan Baker, and Gatsby’s partygoers--to represent the theme of the moral decay of society.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby