The evolving character of an interactive narrator can help discern key themes in a novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald's social examination of life in America's Jazz Age relies heavily on Nick Carraway, the narrator, acting as a 'Trojan horse' for Fitzgerald to smuggle his own ideologies into The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald endorses realist class relations as power relations over the romantic and archaic 'Jeffersonian dream of simple agrarian value'. He also favours the view that the American upper class's 'carpe diem' approach to life placed capitalist society in a moral downwards spiral, instead of conforming to mainstream ideas of the Age such as 'money can buy happiness'. Nick?s statement that people are only ?pursued? (generally the upper classes, being chased due to their lifestyle) or ?pursuing? (chasing the lifestyle of the pursued). These mutually exclusive states mean that Nick believes all the characters with which he interacts can be stratified into one of these two groups, seemingly based on class. The narrator also claims that people can also be ?busy and?tired?. Again, these two vaguer classes cannot exist together. At first examination it may seem that this ?black and white? observation of the members of Gatsby?s America is shortsighted. However at that stage on the novel Nick is entitled to make such a judgement. Immediately after Nick?s thought entered his ?heady? mind, he had just learnt the purpose of ?purposeless splendour? from Jordan: that Gatsby had moved to West Egg to be close to Daisy. This ?pursuing? of Daisy, the ?five years? of busy waiting, is certainly a revelation to the reader, and to Nick. Nick also says that he had forgotten about ?Daisy and Gatsby?, though it still must have played on his subcons... ... middle of paper ... ...towards her old family (?Do they miss me??), these all serve to promote Fitzgerald?s endorsed theme of the corruption of the traditional values of the West, and how the ?Money can buy happiness? myth sends society into a downwards spiral. The way that Nick Carraway, as an interactive narrator, relates to different characters (and what they stand for) in the novel conveys the extent to which Fitzgerald endorses or challenges that character?s ideologies. Nick tarnishes all characters with a cynical, stratifying brush in order to smuggle in the main ideologies of the text by creating a pastiche of these themes. Nick?s black-and-white thought of the ?pursuing, the pursued, the busy and the tired? serves to reinforce the contrast of what is endorsed and challenged through the book, via the medium of the narrator?s interaction with different creations of the author.
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses The Great Gatsby in order to display the wretchedness of upper-class society in the United States. The time period, the 1920s, was an age of new opulence and wealth for many Americans. As there is an abundance of wealth today, there are many parallels between the behavior of the wealthy in the novel and the behavior of today’s rich. Fitzgerald displays the moral emptiness and lack of personal ethics and responsibility that is evident today throughout the book. He also examines the interactions between social classes and the supposed noblesse oblige of the upper class. The idea of the American dream and the prevalence of materialism are also scrutinized. All of these social issues spoken about in The Great Gatsby are relevant in modern society. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses this novel as an indictment of a corrupt American culture that is still present today.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives the reader a glimpse into the life of the high class during the 1920’s through the eyes of a man named Nick Carraway. Through the narrator's dealings with high society, Fitzgerald demonstrates how modern values have transformed the American dream's ideas into a scheme for materialistic power and he reveals how the world of high society lacks any sense of morals or consequence. In order to support his message, Fitzgerald presents the original aspects of the American dream along with its modern face to show that the wanted dream is now lost forever to the American people. Jay Gatsby had a dream and did everything he could to achieve it however in the end he failed to. This reveals that the American dream is not always a reality that can be obtained. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power through imagery, symbolism, and characterization.
There is only one thing which every philosopher who speculates about the human condition can agree on, and that is the idea that humans are complex, imperfect beings who may not always understand themselves. F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novel The Great Gatsby, attempts to reveal this idea about human character by fashioning the narrator, Nick Carraway, into a complex character. He does this by highlighting Nick’s contrasting opinions of and interactions with life amongst the rich, and showing that Nick’s character is not as infallible as he himself would like to believe. Through his contrasting judgements and actions,
Through the use of symbolism and critique, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to elucidate the lifestyles and dreams of variously natured people of the 1920s in his novel, The Great Gatsby. He uses specific characters to signify diverse groups of people, each with their own version of the “American Dream.” Mostly all of the poor dream of transforming from “rags to riches”, while some members of the upper class use other people as their motivators. In any case, no matter how obsessed someone may be about their “American Dream”, Fitzgerald reasons that they are all implausible to attain.
Indeed one of the unique features of this novel is the mystery surrounding it’s main character ‘Gatsby-the man who gives his name to this book’ This sense of inscrutability which is omnipresent with Gatsby is cleverly achieved through the narrative techniques which Fitzgerald employs. The most obvious, and also most effective of which is the narration from Nick’s perspective. Throughout this novel it is Nick’s views of Gatsby which we read, not Fitzgerald’s and not anyone else’s. Only Nick’s. And even Nick seems to be some what in the dark as to Gatsby’s character, he often switches tact throughout the novel on his impression of Gatsby. This seems to insinuate that he has been ponderous over Gatsby for some time. The reader gains the impression that Nick has made calculating decisions throughout the novel, in terms of what he allows us to know about Gatsby. He is after all writing in retrospect. The very fact that Nick still has an ambiguous attitude towards Gatsby even after his death, endorses the readers opinion of Gatsby as a character who can not be categorised. He is uniqu...
Fitzgerald's book at first overwhelms the reader with poetic descriptions of human feelings, of landscapes, buildings and colors. Everything seems to have a symbolic meaning, but it seems to be so strong that no one really tries to look what's happening behind those beautiful words. If you dig deeper you will discover that hidden beneath those near-lyrics are blatancies, at best.
At the end of the book, it is revealed that all of Tom, Daisy, and Nick are extremely careless. Nick’s carelessness detriments his reliability as a narrator. Because of Nick’s deep and familiar connection with Gatsby, Gatsby is “the exception” and Nick cannot be a reliable narrator towards him. Nick really admires and appreciates Gatsby as a friend, although it seems that Gatsby may not feel nth same way ads Nick. Gatsby may have befriended Nick solely because of his connection with Daisy. Nicks obsession with Gatsby and Gatsby’s obsession with
At the beginning of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a mysterious shady man. In the beginning of the chapter Nick somewhat resents Gatsby. In Nick’s opinion Gatsby was the representation of “…everything for which I have unaffected scorn.” (Fitzgerald 2). Nick sees Gatsby as what he hates the most in life, rich folk. Since the start of the novel it was obvious that had “Disapproved of him from beginning to end.” (Fitzgerald 154). As time passes, Nick realizes his neighbor has quite a mysterious past. Some think he’s a bootlegger, and a different person wa...
Cruelty plays a major part in developing an author’s portrayal of different characters, as well as the connection between these characters and what they represent. As a young writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald grew up in Minnesota, and in many ways his life is paralleled by the background of Nick Carraway, the narrator and a character in his book The Great Gatsby. In this novel, Fitzgerald uses many strategies to develop each character - among these is the cruelty of one character towards another. The most significant act of cruelty in the book is Daisy Buchanan’s role in Myrtle’s death, and her actions following this death. By connecting her to the high class, the author articulates his outlook and attitude towards the ideologies and values of the
In addition, his sympathy towards the individuals in the city who cannot even fantasize, due to their necessity of work, shows his pensiveness, somewhat contradicting many characters in the novel. The world he has had a taste of, Gatsby’s world, is out of contact with the world which Nick is interacting with now. Gatsby’s experience is residing in West Egg, while the people surrounding Nick right now may never even see West Egg. Herein lies Nick’s thoughtfulness and observational
“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 moved to West Egg where he met his new mysterious neighbour Jay Gatsby, whom he believes is the opposite of what he represents. Nick Carraway on the outside can be seen as a moral and steadfast person, but he too is not without his own faults and moral corruptions. A major example is how Nick uses Jordan Baker whom he never thought of her and himself being serious relationship. Jordan Baker is used by Nick for both her fame and wealth, acting as Nick’s own temporary love affair to fulfil his own needs. Moreover, Nick Carraway always seems to be always caught up or involved either directly or indirectly on all the corruption that occurs. Nick as the narrator is aware of the lying, corruption and deceit that takes place, and seems unfazed by it. Nick also defends Gatsby even though he very well knows of all Gatsby 's criminal activity and liquor smuggling. Finally, Nick is the character who sets up two of the main characters, Daisy Buchanan, his cousin and Jay Gatsby, to have an affair. It never crosses Nick 's thoughts, that setting up and condoning an affair is a moral corruption of traditionalist and religious values. Nick does this through the exchange of Gatsby and Daisy’s secret meeting, which Nick says, "I 'm going to call up Daisy tomorrow and invite her over here to tea... What day would suit you?" Nick even went through the trouble to set
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.
Hugh Hefner once said, “I looked back on the roaring Twenties, with its jazz, 'Great Gatsby' and the pre-Code films as a party I had somehow managed to miss.” The parties of the Roaring Twenties were used to symbolize wealth and power in a society that was focused more on materialism and gossip than the important things in life, like family, security, and friends. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan as the epitome of the era. The reader sees these characters acting selfishly and trying to meddle with others’ lives. On the other hand, Nick Carraway, the narrator, acts more to help others and act honestly. Initially the reader sees Carraway’s views towards Jay Gatsby as negative as Gatsby’s actions are perceived as being like the Buchanan’s. As the novel moves forward, the reader notices a change in Carraway’s attitude towards Gatsby. Carraway sees Gatsby for whom he truly is, and that is a loving person who only became rich to win Daisy’s heart. But in this the reader also sees how corrupt and hurtful Gatsby’s actions were to the love of his life. Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy reveals that just as Gatsby’s dream of wooing Daisy is corrupted by illegalities and dishonesty, the “American Dream” of friendship and individualism has disintegrated into the simple pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure.
In The Great Gatsby, Nick goes to some length to establish his credibility, indeed his moral integrity, in telling this story about this "great" man called Gatsby. He begins with a reflection on his own upbringing, quoting his father's words about Nick's "advantages", which we could assume were material but, he soon makes clear, were spiritual or moral advantages. Nick wants his reader to know that his upbringing gave him the moral fiber with which to withstand and pass judgment on an amoral world, such as the one he had observed the previous summer. He says, rather pompously, that as a consequence of such an upbringing, he is "inclined to reserve all judgments" about other people, but then goes on to say that such "tolerance . . . has a limit".