“The Great Gatsby” is a deeply tragic novel; “A Handful of Dust” is a light-hearted, farcical comedy.” To what extent do you agree with this evaluation of the genre and style of the two novels?

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“The Great Gatsby” is a deeply tragic novel; “A Handful of Dust” is a light-hearted,

farcical comedy.”  To what extent do you agree with this evaluation of the genre and

style of the two novels?

‘The Great Gatsby’, written by F Scott Fitzgerald, is undoubtedly a deeply tragic novel.  

There are many tragic elements about it, many of which I shall be looking at in greater detail.

The title character and protagonist in the novel is Jay Gatsby, a mysterious and fabulously

wealthy man living in a gothic mansion in West Egg.  Gatsby does not appear a speaking

role until chapter three of the novel.  Fitzgerald initially presents Gatsby as the aloof,

enigmatic host of the unbelievably wealthy parties thrown every week at his mansion.  He

appears surrounded by spectacular luxury, courted by powerful men and beautiful women.

Yet he is flawed.

Many aspects of Gatsby’s world are intriguing because they are slightly amiss - for instance,

he seems to throw parties at which he knows none of his guests.  His accent seems affected

and his habit of calling people “old sport” is hard to place.  One of his guests is surprised to

find that his books are real, and not just empty covers.  “It’s a bona-fide piece of printed

matter.  It fooled me.  This fella’s a regular Belasco.”   The tone of Nicks narration suggests

that many of the inhabitants of East Egg and West Egg use an outward show of ease to

cover up their inner corruption and moral decay, but Gatsby seems to use his ease to mask

something entirely different and perhaps more profound.

Gatsby is a dreamer.  However, his dream is flawed.  Gatsby’s dream of loving Daisy is

ruined by the differences in their reflective social statuses and his resorting to crime to make

enough money to impress her. Gatsby longs to re-create a vanished past - his time in

Louisville with Daisy - but is incapable of doing so.  When his dream crumbles, all that there

is left for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American

values have not decayed.

Chapter Five illustrates a matter of great personal meaning for Gatsby: the object of his

hope, the green light toward which he reaches.  “He stretched out his arms toward the dark

water in a curious way.”  Gatsby’s love for Daisy is the source of his romantic hopefulness

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and his meaning of his yearning for the green light in chapter one.  That light, so mysterious in

the first chapter, becomes the symbol of Gatsby’s dream, his love for Daisy and his attempt

to make that love real.  The Green light is one of the most important symbols in ‘The Great

Gatsby’.  Many critics have suggested that, in addition to representing Gatsby’s love for

Daisy, the green light represents the American dream itself, Gatsby’s irresistible longing to

achieve his dream, the connection of the dream to the pursuit of money and material

success, ...

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