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Gatsby Background information: Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Text type: Novel Title: The Great Gatsby Time: 1920’s Intro: -

In his novel, titled ‘The Great Gatsby’ F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Nick’s narration as an expression of his critique of America within the 1920s. Fitzgerald depicts the society within The Great Gatsby, as a precise representation of life’s most trivial and empty moments. Fitzgerald explores the concept of illusions, and how it is created in order for one to be satisfied with their “reality”. The idea that insignificant possessions or personal gain are worth more value than genuine emotion or meaningful desires. The American dream lifestyle is unachievable, unattainable, and a detriment to society, containing no significance, portraying life as a meaningless chase for nothing.

Themes: American Dream: The belief that anyone can become successful, regardless of their class they were born in. Living lavishly, Settling down, Upper class. It is thought the American Dream can lead to happiness. It is what Gatsby pursues his entire life. Gatsby  represents the American dream of self-made wealth and happiness, the spirit of youth and resourcefulness, and the ability to make something of one’s self despite one’s origins. He felt he was pursuing a perfect dream, Daisy, who for him embodied the elements of success. Examples of the American Dream gone awry are plentiful in the story. The American dream was a desire which brought upon wealth and prosperity within the 1920s. The Great Gatsby depicts the American dream as an unattainable, corrupt, and hollow dream, which is a detriment to society. Illusion/reality/appearance: Since there is no real love between Gatsby and Daisy, there is no real truth to Gatsby’s vision. Behind the expansive parties, Gatsby is a lonely man. Though hundreds come to his mansion, hardly anyone comes to his funeral. Gatsby’s greatness lies in his capacity for illusion. Had he seen Daisy for what she was, he could not have loved her with such single-minded devotion. He tries to recapture Daisy, and for a time it looks as though he will succeed. But he must fail, because of his inability to separate the ideal from the real. Nearly every character is different from how he/she appears. Facade. Moral corruption: The wealthy class is morally corrupt. There is no place for Nick, who is honest. He is the kind of person who says he is one of the few honest people he’s ever met, and one who is let down by the world of excess and indulgence. His mark of sanity is to leave the wasteland environment and return home to the West. Society and Class: Building on the money and materialism theme, the novel draws clear distinctions between the kind of money you have: old money (inherited) or new money (earned). And there is also a clear difference between the lifestyles of the wealthy, who live on Long Island and commute freely to Manhattan, and the working class people stuck in between, mired in Queens. By the end of the novel, our main characters who are not old money (Gatsby, Myrtle, and George) are all dead, while the inherited-money club is still alive. love/marriage: The ideals of love and marriage are profoundly strained in The Great Gatsby, a book that centers on two loveless marriages: the union between Tom and Daisy Buchanan and between George and Myrtle Wilson. In both cases, the marriages seem to be unions of convenience or advantage rather than actual love. Myrtle explains that she married George because she thought he was “a gentleman,” suggesting she hoped he’d raise her class status. Daisy nearly backed out of her marriage to Tom the day before her wedding, and Tom had an affair within a year of the wedding, but the couple is well-suited because of their shared class and desire for fun and material possessions. Even Gatsby’s all-consuming passion for Daisy seems more of a desire to possess something unattainable than actual love. Nick, meanwhile, dates Jordan Baker throughout the book, and though their relationship has its moments of warmth and kindness, both parties generall seem lukewarm and emotionally distant. “I wasn’t actually in love,” Nick recalls, “but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.” Such “tender curiosity” may be the closest thing to love in the entire novel.

Quotes American Dream: [H]e stretched out his arms toward the dark water. . . . I . . . distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way. . . . When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished. . . . ‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all. . . .’ Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder. Why they came East I don’t know. . . . I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game. ‘But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon split away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, despairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.’ ‘And he had stood on those steps, concealing his incorruptible dream, as he waved them goodbye. ‘He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know it was already behind him, somewhere in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic crawled under the night. ‘

Illusion/False reality: “ His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people, his imagination had never accepted them as his parents at all “ - Nick Jordan: She was incurably dishonest. It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply.’ ‘’Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself’ ‘I hope I never will,’ she answered. ‘I hate careless people. That’s why I like you.’ I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. ‘

Moral corruption: "Her voice is full of money... That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money - that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbal's song of it… - Nick (talking about daisy being obsessed with money) “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart, she never loved anyone except for me.”. - Gatsby (talking about daisy being money dependent and only goe for wealthy men)

Society and Class -

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They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything . . . Sophisticated—God, I’m You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow, she went on . . . “Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know sophisticated! ‘You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy,’ I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret. ‘Can’t you talk about crops or something?’ ‘’ They’re a rotten crowd,’ I shouted across the lawn, ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.’ ‘There were the same people, or at least the same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many coloured, many keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn’t bee there before. Or perhaps I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no conscience of being so, and now I was looking at it again, through Daisy’s eyes. It was invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment.’

“ I hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” - Daisy is not a fool herself but is the product of a social environment that, to a great extent, does not value intelligence in women.

love/marriage: ‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.’ Neither of them can stand the person they’re married to…. What I say is, why go on living with them if they can’t stand them? If I was them I’d get a divorce and get married to each other right away. For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, and then in midsummer I found her again . . . . I wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity. ‘It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy - it increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the house, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions.’ ‘Her expression was curiously familiar - it was an expression I had often seen on women’s faces, but on Myrtle Wilson's face it seemed purposely and inexplicable until I realised that her eyes, wide with jealous terror were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife.’ ‘’Your wife doesn’t love you’, said Gatsby.’She’s never loved you. She loves me.’’

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The American dream was a desire which brought upon wealth and prosperity within the 1920s. The Great Gatsby depicts the American dream as an unattainable, corrupt, and hollow dream, which is a detriment to society. Fitzgerald represents the failure and inability to attain the American Dream through the character, Jay Gatsby Gatsby’s desire for wealth was driven by his dream for the love of Daisy Buchanan. In one particular scene, Nick Carraway describes Gatsby as stretching “his arms towards the dark water” and that he had distinguished “nothing except a single green light”. For Gatsby, the green light represents Daisy, his lost love and although Gatsby was able to acquire wealth, he never acquired Daisy’s love in the end. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream cannot be fully attained because those who believe in it are constantly striving for something better than themselves. Even after Daisy proclaims her love for Gatsby, he demands her to go even further to say that she never loved Tom. Gatsby tells Daisy to “just tell him the truth that she never loved him”. This demonstrates Gatsby’s continuous desire for something better. Once he achieved his dream of winning Daisy’s love, he already had a desire for something more. Gatsby represents the idea that if people become so involved in materialistic things, they are not guaranteed happiness. Gatsby’s desire to achieve more than what he has ultimately led to his downfall, demonstrating that infinite success is not attainable and is therefore meaningless to society....