Examine the ways in which The Great Gatsby explores the corruptive effects of wealth.
Examine the ways in which The Great Gatsby explores the corruptive effects of wealth. The Great Gatsby was set in the 1920s and in this time wealth was spread all over America, particularly in New York, and in F. Scott Fitzgerald's fictional villages of the East and West Egg, where The Great Gatsby was set. In America many people had made their money by themselves without the help of an inheritance. Wealth was displayed in the type of car you drove, to the size and position of your house, and this idea that each person, no matter what their background, could succeed, was known as the 'American Dream'. This occurred because unlike England where there was a clearly defined class system, in which people remained within their class level, in America a poor person born into poverty could by whatever means, become a wealthy person, mixing in society with other wealthy people. This is no more evident than in F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby. However, such wealth often attracted jealousy, and in turn, corruptive behaviour. In the 1920s, America was a financial goldmine with many individuals making huge sums of money. Post-World War One, many women entered the workforce, and factory production methods improved, creating a significant boost to America's economy. More often than not, however, some of the money that people made was earned through corruptive methods. Two
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back, ceaselessly into the past". What significance do these closing lines have for our understanding of the novel as a whole?
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back, ceaselessly into the past". What significance do these closing lines have for our understanding of the novel as a whole? The main theme of this novel is "dreams", the achievement of dreams and what effect that has on the characters. All the characters in "The Great Gatsby" have a dream - some have achieved their dream and accepted this, some have achieved their dream and "like boats against the current" try to recapture their dream. However, this is unrealistic as explored throughout the novel is the fact that once dreams are achieved, they are corrupted and can never be achieved again. The first example of this we see is Tom who reached "acute excellence at twenty-one". Everything after is described as an "anti-climax" and that he would "drift on forever seeking...some irrecoverable football game". Tom has no dreams left and the image of Tom's character we get is due to this lost hope, his controlling nature and violence is because of this vanished aspiration. Tom and Daisy are linked with broken things and phrases such as "broken fragments" often appear about situations Daisy and Tom find themselves in. Speech from Tom and Daisy often breaks out from them; "civilisation is going to pieces" broke out Tom violently", and Tom's affair with Myrtle is breaking Tom and Daisy's marriage. This violent, broken, careless
Write about some of the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 1
Fitzgerald uses a first-person retrospective narrator in Nick to allow the employment of a partially-involved story combined with his reflective perceptions on situations. Fitzgerald builds Nick's perceptions as fickle, having him claim 'I'm inclined to reserve all judgements' yet quickly contradicts this trait as he tells 'the intimate revelations of young men' are 'marred by obvious suppressions'. By Fitzgerald doing this, the audience are given an immediate opinion on Nick, realising he is likely to be inconsistent and an unreliable narrator. Fitzgerald highlights this by his ambivalence towards Gatsby, having him claim 'there was something gorgeous about him' yet describing his 'unaffected scorn' towards him. Fitzgerald also makes it clear Nick is a self-conscious story teller, telling himself 'after boasting this way of my tolerance' to allow the basis of Nick's reliability to be questioned throughout the novel. Fitzgerald has Nick go over what he is written to make it seem obvious that he is selecting events and words, such as claiming Gatsby 'had vanished' to make the chapter seem more dramatic. As the reader currently knows little about Gatsby's character, Nick's unexpected description of his disappearance at the end makes Gatsby seem more gripping, building the reader's anticipation of his entrance. Therefore, any of the events throughout the chapter are to be
Comparison between Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Jack Clayton's cinematographic adaptation.
Comparison between Fitzgerald´s The Great Gatsby and Jack Clayton´s cinematographic adaptation. A good story can be told in many different ways. That is what happens with our oral narrative. It goes from mouth to mouth and each narrator gives to it a teaspoon of personal taste. The same occurs when a novel is transformed into a script for a movie. Movies give us the chance to see with our physical eyes what we have pictured in our minds. Words take human form and carry us along the story. Yet, what we see is very limited, our approach to the characters and events is determined by the purpose of the director; what we see is what he wants us to see. In the case of The Great Gatsby, the story is followed very loyally, but emphasis is put on different aspects, for the movie differs in its objective, and appeals to a different audience. There is a clear difference between Fitzgerald's purpose and the one of Jack Clayton. For the former one, The Great Gatsby is an instrument to criticize the American dream and uncover the shallowness of society. While he introduces Gatsby as someone who respresented "everything for which I have an unaffected scorn", he still finds that "there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity for the promises of life"(p8). For the director of the movie, Gatsby is more literally a man with a "romantic readiness" that distinguishes
Daisy has been described as selfish and shallow. How far would you agree that this is how Fitzgerald portrays her?
Daisy has been described as ‘selfish and shallow’. How far would you agree that this is how Fitzgerald portrays her? Daisy Buchanan, in Fitzgerald’s 1920s American novel: ‘The Great Gatsby’, is the love of Jay Gatsby and the person he has devoted the last five years of his life to. Initially, Fitzgerald portrays her as pure, attractive and innocent, but gradually reveals her selfish and shallow personality. Ultimately, the reader feels that she is not a worthy objective of Gatsby’s dedication. At first, Daisy is displayed as a strikingly extraordinary person, with pure morals. When Nick first meets her, he describes her voice as “an arrangement of notes that will be never played again”. Fitzgerald uses a technique called synecdoche to use her voice to represent her personality, so this shows that she is special and unique. She is also many times in the novel associated with white; she and Jordon were “both in white” when Nick meets them. White has connotations of purity and innocence, showing that Daisy appears to be on the surface, an incorruptible and perfect person. Her innocence is further emphasised with her simple, naïve questions, like “What do people plan?” and “Who is ‘Tom’?” She is also shown to be of high status when Nick describes her as “the king’s daughter, the golden girl”, displaying how she is a divine figure who needs
The Great Gatsby - In your opinion how effective is Fitzgerald in evoking the 'ironies and disorders' and the 'wonderful glow' of the Twenties?
Deniz Besim 13 SNC 'The Great Gatsby offers the most profound and critical summing up we have of the ironies and disorders behind the wonderful glow of the Twenties' (Malcolm Bradbury). In your opinion how effective is Fitzgerald in evoking the 'ironies and disorders' and the 'wonderful glow' of the Twenties? Fitzgerald establishes from the first chapter that having returned from 'the East,' Nick Carraway wants 'the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever' (pg 8). This is ironic for it is essentially this 'uniform[ity]' and 'moral attention' that the characters of the novel and which the society they represent lack. Fitzgerald presents how it is primarily these deficiencies, which create the ironies and disorders behind the beautiful yet superficial glow of America in the Twenties which he depicts both through his characters and through what they narrate to us. In fact by focusing on characters that belong to the high class dominating society of America in the Twenties, Fitzgerald targets the heart of both what represents Americas 'wonderful glow' and the dysfunctions operating behind it, which Fitzgerald effectively sums up through Nick's accounts. It is significant in fact that Nick's accounts are dedicated to Gatsby who Lionel Trilling has concluded 'comes inevitably to stand for America itself' for not only is it through him and his parties
Chapter 7: " I glanced at Daisy, who was staring…So we drove to the death through the cooling twilight" Explore how the language used in this passage describes Gatsby's defeat and its symbolic significance.
The Great Gatsby Sarah Khalil Word Count: 788 Chapter 7: " I glanced at Daisy, who was staring...So we drove to the death through the cooling twilight" Explore how the language used in this passage describes Gatsby's defeat and its symbolic significance. In this passage, Daisy is astonished as her husband reveals to the group Gatsby's past and ways of gaining money. Daisy becomes "terrified" as Tom starts to scandal Gatsby's way of gaining his money as Daisy stares at Nick and Jordan for reassurance and comforting, however gains none as the two characters seemed both as shocked as she was. As Gatsby turned to Daisy, trying to deny what Tom has said about him, we realise that he has totally lost control. His dream of marrying Daisy has collapsed, as he is left struggling to defend his name from the accusations made of him. We realise that Tom has won as Daisy starts pleading him " Please Tom! I can't stand this anymore." As though pleading him to rescue her from a mistake she was about to make that would ruin her family life. Fitzgerald writes: " Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone." This is the final indication that Gatsby has been defeated, as now even Daisy has lost the courage to run away with him. We realise that after Tom becomes self-assured that he will not be losing his wife, he gains
To understand Gatsby one has to look at not only his true life, but the life that he tried to create
Gatsby To understand Gatsby one has to look at not only his true life, but the life that he tried to create for himself. The truth is that he came from poor beginnings and created a fantasy world where he was rich and powerful. Even in his youth Gatsby was not content with what he had. He wanted money, so he managed to get it. He wanted Daisy, and she slipped through his fingers. So even when his wealth and stature are at their greatest, he will not be content. He must have Daisy. Yes, there is love. But more than that there is a drive to posses her because that is what he wanted for all of those years. She was part of his image for the future and he had to have her. And although Gatsby seems very kind, he is not afraid to be unscrupulous to get what he wants. When he wanted money, he was more than willing to become a bootlegger. His drive is what makes him who he is, good and bad. And it is this drive that ends up ruining his life. Nick Nick is the hardest character to understand in the book because he is the narrator and will therefore only give us an impression of himself that he would like to give. He tells the reader that "I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known", but we see him lie on several occasions. So it is all but impossible to get an accurate picture of Nick. By the end of the book he is very jaded, though. When he and Jordan break up he says
The Great
Andrew Thompson Mrs. Dodson Honors English 11 May 12, 2005 The Corruptness of the American Dream The nineteen twenties was a decade of renaissance characterized by the American Dream- the widespread aspiration of Americans to live better than their parents. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, contains themes that continue to be relevant today. In his novel, Fitzgerald reprehends the American dream by describing its characteristics: the pseudo-relationship between money and happiness, the superficiality of the rich, and the class strife between the rich and the poor. "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" (Mailer 97). This optimistic view of the American Dream is inaccurate. One just needs to look to Jay Gatsby, the protagonist in The Great Gatsby, in order to understand what the American Dream really is. Gatsby appears to be popular, wealthy, and happy. However, one would be oafish to believe his false appearance. People who knew who Gatsby was were flabbergasted when they had the opportunity to see him. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby notes, "In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars" (Fitzgerald 43). Everyone wanted to talk to
Jay Gatsby's character encompasses a lot of characteristics at once
Nahedeh IB1 English HL 2005-10-04 Jay Gatsby's character encompasses a lot of characteristics at once, making him one of the most diverse characters in the book. As we move deeper and deeper into the novel, we discover that we can narrow down Gatsby's characteristics down to a few adjectives. One of the main adjectives that can be written onto Jay Gatsby is ambitious. We can say to a very large extent that Gatsby's character is very ambitious. There are several different occasions that can support things argument. For instance, why does Gatsby throw all his lavish parties? He throws them in order to seduce and get Daisy's attention. This is directly related to his ambition for getting Daisy, since he never gives up his naïve view on his love for Daisy. He has thrown so many parties that it is now a custom for everyone to book "Gatsby's mansion" on their Saturday's in their calendars. He never surrenders and feels hopeless over Daisy, yet instead he strives harder and harder as the days go by to seduce her. This is a solid proof of his ambition for love. He has such a strong willed heart that he will never let go of it until the day he dies; which is what happens. In addition he never realized that maybe he can't ever have Daisy, but of course his ambition has worked too hard to give up when he's tried for so long. Another great example of his ambition is his business and
