Free Essays on Gatsby

Symbolizing the American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby examines the 1920s vision of the American dream. It shows how the American dream is corrupted by wealth and power. Gatsby is a firm believer in the American dream of self-made success. He has achieved this dream, but he also has a dream of being with Daisy. Gatsby is successful, but his success is through new money. There is a difference between old money and new money. The people with old money give no respect to the people with the new money. This is shown by Tom calling Gatsby’s car a â€Å"circus wagon† (128). The social flaw of being new money imprisoned Gatsby on an emotional island. The novel uses a major literary theme to show hidden meaning. The technique of symbolism is included into the novel. The author uses symbolism by showing how the American dream can be corrupted by wealthy people with little or no morals. Fitzgerald incorporates three symbols to prove this; they are the green light at the end of the Buchanan’s dock, the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, and the valley of ashes. At the end of the Buchanan’s dock was a â€Å"single green light† that Gatsby reached toward (26). Green is a color that represents promise, hope, and renewal. This green light symbolizes Gatsby’s hope that the present will change to that of a great future, one where dreams come true and the where American dream is realized. His most important dream is his longing for Daisy. As Sulton said, â€Å"At this point in the novel, Gatsby can only reach longingly, from a distance toward a light he associates with his former lover.† Gatsby’s also sees the green light as a symbol of immense possibilities. Gatsby uses Nick Carraway as a window to the desperately needed green light. Nick is used as a gateway to Gatsby’s goal, Daisy. Gatsby has spent his whole life longing for something better. The green light stands for all of Gatsby’s hopes... Free Essays on Gatsby Free Essays on Gatsby The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a specific portrait of American society during the Roaring Twenties. It tells the quintessential American story of a man rising from rags to riches only to find that his wealth cannot grant him the privileges of class and status. Although the central character of the novel is Jay Gatsby, a wealthy New Yorker known mostly for the lavish parties he throws every weekend at his mansion. The narrator, however, is Nick Carraway, a young mid-westerner from a prominent family who came to New York to enter the bond business. Even though Nick Carraway is involved in all of the events of the novel, he does not play a significant active role. Carraway’s characteristics of being responsible, honest, and fair makes him a reliable narrator. Nick's description of himself in the opening chapter holds true throughout the novel: he is â€Å"tolerant and slow to judge, someone with whom people feel comfortable sharing their secrets† (Fitzgerald 7). Carraway has this willingness to describe himself and the contours of his thoughts even when they are inconsistent or incomplete. Toward the end of the novel, his long musing makes him seem thoughtful and trustworthy. His discusses Gatsby’s dream of loving Daisy, but he tells it as Gatsby’s struggle to recreate the past in the future. He realizes failure, â€Å"the quality of distortion† that lures people to the East disgusts him (Fitzgerald 123). â€Å"Individuals must now struggle like rowboats against a current, as they move forward with their dreams into the future, but are borne back ceaselessly into a past they (like Gatsby) are doomed never to recreate† (Plotz 32). Nick Carraway’s position in relation to the other characters gives him a perfect vantage point from which to view the story. He is Daisy's cousin's old college friend, and Gatsby's neighbor. They all trust him and rely on him. Nick Car... Free Essays on Gatsby 1) The first party that takes place in East Egg at Daisy and Tom's mansion. Since Daisy is his cousin and Tom, a friend from Yale, Nick has the credentials to visit East Egg. Their house is "a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial Mansion" overlooking the bay. And the owner is obviously proud of his possessions. We meet Tom who is presented as a powerful man in riding clothes sort of as a knight. We then meet Daisy and Jordan who seem like two princesses in white sitting on the sofa. Fitzgerald controls the whole scene through his use of colors white and gold mainly that suggests a combination of beauty and wealth. Jordan Baker is bored and discontented. She yawns more than once in this very first scene. Tom talks about a book he has read, The Rise of the Colored Empires by Goddard. It is a piece of pure Social Darwinism, advocating that the white race preserve its own purity and beat down the colored races before they rise up and overcome the whites. Daisy pretends she does not know is going on by teasing him about his size and the big words in his book. Then the telephone rings and Jordan sort of fills Nick in on what's going on about Tom and his "other woman". The rest of the evening is awkward and painful and both Tom and Daisy try and pretend nothing happened. The second Party takes place in New York and consists of Nick, Tom, Myrtle, Myrtle's sister Catherine, and a couple named McKee who live downstairs. Nick is really more of an observer than a participant. He tells us that he has been drunk just twice in his life, and the second time was the at afternoon. In any case, all the guests at the party seem to have something unnatural or wrong with them. Catherine, the sister, has "a solid, sticky bob of red hair, and a complexion powdered milky white. Her eyebrows had been plucked and then drawn on again at a more rakish angle." Mr. McKee is a pale, feminine man who has just shaved and left a spot of lather on his cheek. His wife... Free Essays on Gatsby Symbolizing the American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby examines the 1920s vision of the American dream. It shows how the American dream is corrupted by wealth and power. Gatsby is a firm believer in the American dream of self-made success. He has achieved this dream, but he also has a dream of being with Daisy. Gatsby is successful, but his success is through new money. There is a difference between old money and new money. The people with old money give no respect to the people with the new money. This is shown by Tom calling Gatsby’s car a â€Å"circus wagon† (128). The social flaw of being new money imprisoned Gatsby on an emotional island. The novel uses a major literary theme to show hidden meaning. The technique of symbolism is included into the novel. The author uses symbolism by showing how the American dream can be corrupted by wealthy people with little or no morals. Fitzgerald incorporates three symbols to prove this; they are the green light at the end of the Buchanan’s dock, the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, and the valley of ashes. At the end of the Buchanan’s dock was a â€Å"single green light† that Gatsby reached toward (26). Green is a color that represents promise, hope, and renewal. This green light symbolizes Gatsby’s hope that the present will change to that of a great future, one where dreams come true and the where American dream is realized. His most important dream is his longing for Daisy. As Sulton said, â€Å"At this point in the novel, Gatsby can only reach longingly, from a distance toward a light he associates with his former lover.† Gatsby’s also sees the green light as a symbol of immense possibilities. Gatsby uses Nick Carraway as a window to the desperately needed green light. Nick is used as a gateway to Gatsby’s goal, Daisy. Gatsby has spent his whole life longing for something better. The green light stands for all of Gatsby’s hopes... Free Essays on Gatsby Gatsby’s Hopes and Dreams for his Future The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald is recognized in American Literature as one of his greatest achievements. Many of Fitzgerald’s works research the Jazz-Age for the single American dream of happiness and wealth (Poupard, Person 146). â€Å"Critics concur that The Great Gatsby rises above being a mere chronicle of a past American era, and most believe that the novel’s continued popularity demonstrates modern America’s fascination with the American dream† (Poupard, Person 147). In this book Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to compare the real American dreamer with what has become of the American society in the 1920’s. During the 1920’s America was unable to fulfill dreams and expose the blindness in Jazz-Age Americans. â€Å"The Great Gatsby is an exploration of the American dream as it exists in a corrupt period, and it is an attempt to determine the concealed boundary that divides the reality from t he illusions† (Bewley 38). Jay Gatsby is a builder as! well as a dreamer, and Gatsby puts his all into figuring out his â€Å"ethical dream† (Minter 82). The Great Gatsby was written in a poor society with no moral virtues. Dreamers in a healthy society are respected and encouraged. However, in the twenties these people weren’t treated with the respect they deserved. â€Å"Gatsby’s dream divides into three basic and related parts: the desire to repeat the past, the desire for money, and the desire for incarnation of ‘unutterable visions’ in the material earth† (Lockridge 11). In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby will do anything to fulfill his hopes and dreams. Gatsby does not fulfill his hopes and dreams in his lifetime. No one knows where Gatsby comes from, what he does, or how he has become so wealthy. But in the middle of the novel Nick Carraway, the narrator discovers that Gatsby was born Jay Gatz in North Dakota. Gatsby also tell Carraway about his schooling. Gatsby says, â€Å"I am the son ... Free Essays on Gatsby â€Å"The Great Gatsby† By: F. Scott Fitzgerald In the â€Å"The Great Gatsby† by F. Scott Fitzgerald, although the book is named for James Gatz, the main character is Nick Carraway, who also acts as the novel’s narrator. The narrators of many novels are not significant to the plot and just serve the purpose of telling the story. Nick, however, is quite the opposite. Though he may not seem to be the main character next to Gatsby, Nick is the one person in the book who is linked to every character and in turn connects them all to each other. Although he is more of an observer than anything in this novel, and is inclined to reserve his personal judgments, he also tries to remain uninvolved and is reluctant to act upon what he perceives to be faults of others. After his return from War, Nick decides to move to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island. One weekend Nick gets together with his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, a rich man who lives in West Egg who is having an affair with a woman named Myrtle, the wife of George Wilson, a Gas Station owner. On this night Nick is introduced to Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy’s and an acquaintance of Gatsby Nick's neighbor in West Egg, who lives in a gigantic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. Nick is invited to attend one of these parties and he and Jay soon become good friends. Both have things in common, one being they both know Daisy Buchanan. It is discovered through Daisy’s friend Jordan that Jay and Daisy were once lovers, and that Jay has plans to try to win her back. As quarrels and disagreements irrupt about the love Jay wants to show Daisy she is force d to choose between two men, one from her old life and one from the new life she is living. Nick continues to abide by his many morals, however, shuns them when in contact with Gatsby and the rest o...