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the great gatsby point of view essay
great gatsby and social class
great gatsby and social class
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The American classic, The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald, utilises point of view to manipulate and shape the readers response to ideas embodied by the characters and events. The novels events are recalled and filtered through the consciousness of its peripheral narrator, Nick Carraway, a young Yale graduate. The Great Gatsby is about Jay Gatsby, a poor man who is unable to move past Daisy’s rejection and how he devotes his life to changing the past, by acquiring wealth and status. The point of view of the novel is a critical narrative technique; this is told through Carraway’s first person retrospective narration. The reader can accept the narrator’s authenticity and reliability as he is constructed as being a moralistic and wholly sympathetic character from the beginning of the novel. However there is no necessity for Carraway to be subjective to be reliable. Through the narrator, Fitzgerald invites the reader to condemn the demise of American society’s moralities during the ‘roaring twenties.’ Ideas represented by the novel include the differences between social classes, the failure of the American dream and the spirit of the 1920s. The point of view from which this story is told is critical to the way the reader responds to the ideas represented by characters and events.
Class dichotomy is a major issue of the novel and is shaped by Nick Carraway’s descriptive narration and is manipulated too, by his own characterisation and participation within the plot. Carraway’s portrayal and subjective opinion of class is effected by the fact that he is from wealthy backgrounds. This is established early in the novel when he talks about his family being, “prominent well-to-do people” and has also recognised himself as being “...
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...od of the 1920s was doomed to failure in the manner it cultivated relationships between people. This is perhaps the author foreseeing the crash of the economy. This is shown as Nick is reflecting on people’s general selfishness and greed. The reader can also agree that this is true for the most part today, the the endless parties and debauchery has a destructive nature.
Americans achieved in their corrupted materialism.
The Great Gatsbyis told entirely through Nick Carraway’s eyes; his thoughts and perception shape and colour the story.
Nick a fairly reliable but most definitely insightful narrator.
Readers are inclined to believe Nick’s recollection of events due to the promise of credibility he makes at the beginning of the novel, a contributing factor to the way readers respond as they are more likely to respond to the ideas in the way Fitzgerald intended.
As the narrator, readers expect certain qualities in the character to provide an unbiased, non-judgmental, straightforward, and confident point of view of the story. The issues noted above can take away from the story and his narrative abilities. By following the self-improvement plan and advices, Nick Carraway can present himself as an upstanding character as all readers wish to see him to
The novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first person and uses the vantage point of Nick Caraway. The story is told through the eyes of Nick and all character development is through Nick’s mind. Nick’s values, attitudes, and judgments are the way they are because of Nick’s past. The way Nick was raised reflects his values judgments and Nick is the narrator behind the story, vocalizing how he perceives things that take place in the story. Nick’s judgments of main characters Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby are shaped because of his judgments and values.
Among the first indicators of Nick’s unreliability as a narrator is shown through his extreme misunderstanding of his father’s advice. When Nick’s father told him that “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (1) he most likely meant not all people have the same opportunities in life. However, Nick perverted his father’s meaning and understood it as “a sense of the fundamental decencies us parceled out unequally at birth” (2). Nick’s interpretation of his father’s advice provides insight into his conceited, somewhat supercilious attitude, as he believes that not all people are born with the same sense of manners and morality.
The line of attack we use in order to identify individuals around us is an intriguing thing. Our perception is forever shifting, forever building, and affected not only by the person’s actions, but by the actions of those around them. In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby Nick Caraway’s perception of Jay Gatsby is always changing. All the way through the novel, Nick’s perception of Gatsby changes from him perceived as a rich chap, to a man that lives in the past, to a man trying to achieve his aspirations but has failed.
The maturation of Nick begins with his description of his time leading to his arrival in West Egg, “I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War” (Fitzgerald, 3). The protagonist comes into the story having not lived much of his life in the normal world that he desires to successfully conquer. He goes directly from schooling into the war, where he found heroic satisfaction. Yet, somehow, Nick is able to keep part of himself innocent and pure despite being in the horrors of war. It is not long after attending his first party at Gatsby’s that Nick confesses that “Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known’ (Fitzgerald, 59). The level of Nick’s idealism and virtuousness begins at such an innocent pl...
As Gatsby, at least in the eyes of many critics, should represent the idea of the American Dream, the presentation of his character puts the whole concept in question again, without being intended as criticism. This is mainly the fault of another weak character in the novel, Nick Carraway. At first, the only function of Nick in the novel seems to be to act as a reporter, telling us the truth by telling us his shrewd, objective perceptions. Then, as the novel progresses, it turns out that the opposite is the case, and he is siding with Gatsby to make this character stand above all others and shine. Nick Carraway is one of the finest examples of reader manipulation in literature.
The 1920’s was a time of great change to both the country lived in as well as the goals and ambitions that were sought after by the average person. During this time, priorities shifted from family and religion to success and spontaneous living. The American dream, itself, changed into a self centered and ongoing personal goal that was the leading priority in most people’s lives. This new age of carelessness and naivety encompasses much of what this earlier period is remembered for. In addition, this revolution transformed many of the great writers and authors of the time as well as their various works. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emergent trends of the 1920’s. More importantly the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dream and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive for acquiring the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the authors view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.
Fitzgerald uses Nick Carraway as the narrator throughout the book. Nick is the connection between the book and the people reading. He connects the side events with Gatsby's story, and connects Gatsby's story to the reader (Doreski). Nick interrupts the story and adds his own perception to the story that he is a part of. Usually this would make the story less smooth but he connects the different stories in to one complete story (Roulstson and Roulston). Nick uses an unofficial tone to share Fitzgerald's formal book to the readers. He recalls the story of Gatsby as a character and a narrator (Roulstson and Roulston).
for “the world to be in uniform and at moral attention forever”. This military perspective clearly shows Nick has something of an. authoritarian character with a developed instinct for discipline and... ... middle of paper ... ... Fitzgerald reveals a very potent man.
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.
“The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a world filled with rich societal happenings, love affairs, and corruption. Nick Carraway is the engaged narrator of the book, a curious choice considering that he is in a different class and almost in a different world than Gatsby and the other characters. Nick relates the plot of the story to the reader as a member of Gatsby’s circle. He has ambivalent feelings towards Gatsby, despising his personality and corrupted dream but feeling drawn to Gatsby’s magnificent capacity to hope. Using Nick as a moral guide, Fitzgerald attempts to guide readers on a journey through the novel to illustrate the corruption and failure of the American Dream. To achieve this, Nick’s credentials as a reliable narrator are carefully established and reinforced throughout the story.
Nick compares himself to a “casual watcher in the darkening streets” (Fitzgerald 35), reminding the reader that he is impersonal, and, “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (Fitzgerald 59). Although Nick persistently defends his character as a spectator, it’s clear Nick is desperate to demonstrate the outlook of events based on his point-of-view.
Although after reading “The great Gatsby” one may get a feeling of hopelessness, it one of those novels that leaves you inspired even long after reading it. It’s a masterpiece not only because of the thrillingly brilliant plot or memorable characters but also because of the life lessons that it teacher to the reader. It is not just a typical ...
Nick Carraway, the narrator for The Great Gatsby, is the perspective from which the novel is told from. However, Nick’s narration is reflective of how he has become trapped by his responsibility for Gatsby in his perusal for Daisy. For Nick feels there is no need for him to express his own opinions and interfere with Gatsby’s, since Nick believes that he must support Gatsby. Thus Nick continues an internal narration for the novel, where the novel is structured from though processes, using the first person, like a diary. Nick expresses his narration as evaluations of others and the events he lives through, he acts as a witness, “I 'm inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores”. Such narration is reflected through the overall structure of the novel, as it is paced out in a fashion of recollections, and unannounced snippets of information about characters and the events in the novel. Withal, Tom in the Glass Menagerie exhibits similar ideas, as Tom provides narrations through his perspective of the play. Although Tom’s narration is shown infrequently in the play, Tom, like Nick, is reserved in his opinions which he shares in his internalised narration, due to his entrapment under his mother. For Tom would feel guilty
Before considering the "gap" between author and narrator, we should remember how, as readers, we respond to the narrator's perspective, especially when that voice belongs to a character who, like Nick, is an active participant in the story. When we read any work of fiction, no matter how realistic or fabulous, as readers, we undergo a "suspension of disbelief". The fictional world creates a new set of boundaries, making possible or credible events and reactions that might not commonly occur in the "real world", but which have a logic or a plausibility to them in that fictional world. In order for this to be convincing, we trust the narrator. We take his perspective, if not totally, then substantially.