In his documentary How to Grow a Band musical prodigy Chris Thile states, “What makes a great artist, is his or her ability to challenge their audience, because no matter what there will always be an underlying fear to underestimate them.” This is an area not overly discussed in literary analysis, however it’s a dominating factor that defines what we read. Somewhere between creating a passive audience and completely losing them, there is a delicate equilibrium. It’s this ability to challenge your audience that separates the entreating from the captivating. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows true mastery of this in The Great Gatsby, as the complexity of his characters strike deep conversation and internal debate. The subtleties of each character’s actions and reactions force the reader to actively search for insight throughout the novel. A prime example of this is Fitzgerald’s creation of Daisy. Analyzing Daisy as a character is a dynamic experience, and the reader is challenged to change his or her opinion as the novel progresses and with each subsequent reading. At multiple points in the book Fitzgerald puts Daisy in situations that reveal a lot into her underlying character, however he fails to explain these revelations. By doing so Fitzgerald forces the reader to search for explanations, and insights as to who Daisy Buchanan really is.
From the very beginning of the novel Fitzgerald sets the audience up to analyze Daisy as a character. By origination with easy inferences, Fitzgerald allows the audience to create a clear accessible firs impression of Daisy.
A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling and then rippled ove...
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...ignorance is truly bliss. Daisy is revealed as a coward when brought down to the real world with rules and consequences. Fitzgerald manages to tell this sub story of Daisy by guiding the reader though the plot, yet still letting them create there own opinion and explanation. This shows true skill of communication through writing. It seems like a majority of popular fiction can be compared to television. The audience can simply observe, as they are passively drug through an exciting plot. It becomes easier to underestimate your audience than fear loosing them. Fitzgerald represents a type of fiction that’s slowly disappearing, as the demand for TV like fiction continually grows.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.
How to grow a band. Dir . Mark Meatto . Perf . Chris Thile, 2011 . Film.
...ites about not only the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy but also about the affair between Tom and Myrtle. Tom and Myrtle's affair shows how the amount of money one has does not change the way they may act or feel for another person. Throughout the novel, the author also explains how the wealthy or rich people are able to get away with bad behavior or unethical practices because they have the power to do so. During the time after World War I, the people who had money were the people who had power. Fitzgerald offers his audience the proof through his story that there is only a slight possibility that a person can be both wealthy and ethical. He shows his audience how sometimes being poor is not always the worse thing and that it is easier to be poor and ethical rather than being rich and ethical.
Fitzgerald may have based some of Daisy’s characteristics on his own wife. Although she was truly in love with Scott, she refused to commit herself to him because his economic prospects were not promising. Not only this, but Zelda Fitzgerald became infatuated with a young French pilot, which angered Scott and influenced the theme of infidelity in the Great
Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities. Gatsby has many issues of repeating his past instead of living in the present.
When the readers first meet Daisy, she is living the party lifestyle. Daisy is a nice woman, but she is very superficial (Fitzgerald 8). This tells the readers that although Daisy is fake, but is kind. On the other hand, when Myrtle is talking to Tom and her sister Catherine, she becomes defensive and aggressive. “The answer to this was unexpected. It came from Myrtle, who had overheard the question, and it was violent and obscene” (Fitzgerald 33). These to statements show that although they are both clueless, they have personality traits that set them
Characters in books can reveal the author feeling toward the world. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald suggested the moral decline of the period in America history through the interpersonal relationships among his characters. The book indicates the worthlessness of materialism, the futile quest of Myrtle and Gatsby, and how America's moral values had diminished. Despite his newly acquired fortune, Gatsby's monitory means could not afford his only true wish, therefore he cannot buy everything which is important to Daisy. (Fitzgerald, -page 42) What you wish for is not always what you want or not all that glitters is gold.
In conclusion, as we saw through diction, symbolism, transitions, and colors symbolism, both Fitzgerald and Luhrmann both illustrate how in the beginning Daisy and Gatsby did find there original feelings for one another, but how later on those feeling began to disintegrate. However, who did it better? Fitzgerald or Luhrmann? But the answer to that is that, neither one nor the other did a better job than the other. Because, with cinema, we can always have the scene presented in front of us while in literature we are able to create an image that we believe can be true. Therefore, when coming to the overall theme of Daisy and Gatsby affection for one another, both Fitzgerald and Luhrmann created a marvelous job.
The occasional insights into character stand out as very green oases in 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. The Great Gatsby is a parody of itself. While Fitzgerald tries hard not to make Gatsby and especially Daisy laughable personalities, this is where he ultimately fails. There's not enough ironic distance between his characters.
Fitzgerald comments on the changing role and attitudes of women of the 1920s in America. He shows this through the characters Daisy and Jordan. Daisy and Jordan both drink, smoke and drive, and associate freely with men. Daisy's flirtatiousness is an example of this, along with her drunken state in the first chapter when she says 'I'm p-paralysed with happiness'. Daisy also shows the attitude Fitzgerald felt was common in this society, when talking about her daughter.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s consideration of gender roles throughout The Great Gatsby reflect the sheer unbalance between the value of men and women in traditional households. Throughout the novel women are seen living a life controlled by men, and accepting their loss of independence for the materialistic values of life. Women follow the social code of the 1920’s to seem ladylike, leading them to succumb to uniform and object like personas. Scenes of blatant sexism are the strongest representation of the gender gap and the loss of morals throughout the 1920’s.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is his statement of lifestyle in America in the 20’s. The author develops unlikable characters like Tom Buchanan an Old Money racist and Daisy a vapid spoilt individual to show the greediness and wealth in the 20’s. Overall, the worst character in this novel is Daisy Buchanan because she is careless, insensitive, and disloyal.
with people whom Fitzgerald sees as the cause of the downfall of society. Daisy shows a
But Gatsby missed much of this, the character developments feel empty adding to the fact that the novel is being told from a boring point of view of the character Nick Carraway. As a result, the book becomes psychologically vacant. Schulz asserts, “The Great Gatsby is less involved with human emotion than any book of comparable fame I can think of. None of its characters are likeable. None of them are even dislikable, though nearly all of them are despicable” (Paragraph 11). It is sadly true, just look at the main character, Jay Gatsby. He seems like an interesting person who is lovable and charismatic, but it would be wrong and unlikely for the readers to feel connected with him because of his criminal past. Daisy Buchanan also display to the audience uncertain characteristics of likability and unlikability. If she is solely portrayed as a careless character who kills Myrtle Wilson and allows Gatsby to take the blame for her then she would truly be despised, but she is simultaneously depicted as an innocent and naive girl which pacify any intense feelings the readers have for her other than the feeling of disgust for nearly all of the characters. In addition, Gatsby fails to engross the readers to a degree of many books of comparable popularity. The book does not appeal to the interest of readers, in that, it does not strike
Fitzgerald suggests that fantasy never matches reality by looking at the consequences of Gatsby’s confusing dreams and reality. Gatsby creates a high illusionary Daisy, therefore, these expectations of Daisy cannot be met. This can also be seen by noticing how as Gatsby approaches the end of this journey of acquiring Daisy, the journey becomes pointless, and the outcomes in his fantasy differ from those in reality. Countless individuals today make this same mistake of confusing dreams and reality, and looking to Jay Gatsby as an example, this mistake may harm them in the future.
Luhrmann portrays the characters a bit differently than in Fitzgerald. For example, Tom Buchanan is seen as an unlikable character, but the movie portrays him as more of a villain. Tom blames Myrtle’s death on Gatsby and tells George to avenge the death of his wife, which never happened in the novel. Another character that appears differently is Daisy Buchanan. Daisy is seen as intelligent and her voice is said to be “full of money”, but in the movie she speaks sweetly and is seen as more of a victim. Daisy’s actions seem to be more careless, but in the movie they appear to be more thoughtless. These traits make up who the character is; by changing them the viewer may
In F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the main female character, Daisy Buchanan, is portrayed by, Nick, the narrator, only by her superficial qualities. “Guided only by Nick’s limited view of her, readers often judge Daisy solely on the basis of her superficial qualities” (Fryer 43). What the reader sees through the eyes of Nick only appears as a woman whose impatience and desire for wealth and luxury cost her the love of her life, Gatsby. Nick’s narrow perception does not allow one to see that “…[Daisy’s] silly manner conceals a woman of feeling or that her final ‘irresponsibility’ towards Gatsby stems from an acute sense of responsibility towards herself” and that Nick “…clearly does not understand what motivates her” (Fryer 43). One can easily view Daisy as a victim. Fitzgerald distinctly exposes Daisy’s need for stability, which, according to Fitzgerald or perhaps the mentality of the time period, can only be found in a man. “Her need for stability was immediate, and she attempted to satisfy that need through something tangible, something close at hand” (Fryer 51). This “need” that Fitzg...