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
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
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
Write about some of the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 7
Fitzgerald uses a semantic field of references to heat to build the tension at the start of the chapter. Fitzgerald has Nick claim 'the next day was broiling' whilst saying it was 'the warmest' of the summer. Fitzgerald has Nick use the superlative to suggest that the events in the chapter will be significant as those around Nick 'perspired' and 'simmered', The build up of tension allows the chapter to contribute to the novel's form as an American Tragedy, with the build up of heat preparing the reader for Gatsby's seemingly inevitable downfall. This tension is displayed by Fitzgerald through the use of Nick's commentary on various pieces of speech, telling Tom's 'temper cracked a little' and telling how the butler 'roared'. Fitzgerald uses this technique to make it clear to the reader that the chapter is significant in creating Gatsby's tragedy, with the day being 'too hot' causing 'trembling' between the characters. Fitzgerald also chooses not to place any of Gatsby's history in the chapter, unlike previous chapters before it, to show the significance of the current events in shaping Gatsby's future due to the murder of Myrtle. Fitzgerald uses the voice of Michaelis to describe Myrtle's death, allowing a blunt description without emotion. Before Michaelis' account, Fitzgerald has Nick use a prolepsis claiming 'so we drove on toward death'. This makes it clear to the reader
Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby,
Simon Everett Task A -Examine the relationships between the narrator of each novel and the character who so fascinates them in each case. Over the last fifty years, since the release of On The Road in 1957, it has not been uncommon for critics to draw parallels between Kerouac's semi-autobiographical novel and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, released thirty-two years previously. It is for certain that both the novels share many similar traits, both examine concepts of American ideals and The American Dream, both are heavily influenced by the jazz age of the time, but nothing binds the novels closer to one another than the authors' use of the first person narrative and that narrators relationship with their leading character. It is perhaps the most common reading to see both Jay Gatsby and Dean Moriarty awarded iconic status by their corresponding narrators. The connotations concerning the epithet found in the very centre of Fitzgerald's title alone can bring an image to the reader's mind of one of history's great leaders, putting Gatsby in league with characters such as Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great and Frederick the Great. It would seem obvious from the title that Gatsby is one beheld with admiration and respect by the narrator. The relationship between Kerouac's Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty is often viewed in much the same light. The
Death of the American Dream
Death of the American Dream In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, all the characters are, in one way or another, attempting to achieve a state of happiness in their lives. The main characters are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class, which struggles to attain a higher position. Though the major players seek only to change their lives for the better, the idealism and spiritualism of the American Dream is eventually crushed beneath the harsh reality of life, leaving their lives without any meaning or purpose. Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich socialite couple, seem to have everything they could possibly desire; however, though their lives are full of material possessions, they are unsatisfied and seek to change their circumstances. Tom, the arrogant ex-football player, drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(Fitzgerald pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) in order to have something to talk about. Though he appears happily married to Daisy, Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and keeps an apartment with her in New York. Tom's basic nature of unrest prevents him from being satisfied with the life he
Discuss theme of the novel: The Great Gatsby.
Discuss theme of the novel: The Great Gatsby: To an average mind, the great Gatsby should look like the story of a man's passionate love for a woman. But the novel is not such a simple narrative. The novelist weaves into an otherwise one-man story, a complex pattern of symbolism. Gatsby, at the symbolic level stands for twentieth century America, and his dream a set of moral and spiritual values and ideas. The failure and frustration of Gatsby's dream is in fact the failure of the American dream. The idealism has degenerated into materialism, which the new generation considers to be their passport to happiness. The great historical promise has been tragically replaces by attractive but worthless and cheap goals, in the ash heaps where the modern man is wandering like Cain, with no spiritual light to guide him. Fitzgerald had probably read T.S Elliot's wasteland and seems to have been considerably influenced by the poem. The desolate valley of ashes is the modern wasteland. It is a place for the waste Landers and spiritually hollow men, such as those who have no sense of moral responsibility and no ideas or aspirations. It is a place for Tom Buchanan's, Wolfshiem's and other such men who swarm into Gatsby's parties. Gatsby's dream is paradox: his dream by itself is noble, but the means he adopts to fulfill it are ignoble. Such a process is doomed to failure. His underworld
Discuss the effectiveness of the opening chapter of Fitzgerald’s ‘the Great Gatsby’.
DISCUSS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE OPENING CHAPTEROF FITZGERALD'S 'THE GREAT GATSBY' In order to discuss the effectiveness of an opening chapter it is first necessary to outline what defines an effective first chapter. Undoubtedly it is essential that we be given a 'feel' for the book, a clear sense of the writers' style. Moreover it is within this section we would expect to be introduced to the main characters of the novel and hints as to what may happen next. Finally it is equally important the author describes the setting; both of the physical surroundings and references that allow us to place the text in terms of time and place. In the first chapter Fitzgerald sets up a first person narrator, Nick Carraway, who is omniscient due to his seemingly non-judgmental nature. Within the opening paragraph Carraway informs us he is "inclined to reserve all judgments" and as a result is "privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men". Consequently we are able to witness interesting revelations as Nick "opens up many curious natures" which enhances the effectiveness of the opening chapter. Some admissions add to our enjoyment of the book for example Daisy tells a humorous, anecdotal "family secret...about the butler's nose". Other disclosures expose more of the characters. This is evident when Miss Baker "hesitantly" tells Carraway of Tom's affair. However some may
The Character of Daisy Buchanan in the novel "The Great Gatsby" by F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Character of Daisy Buchanan in the novel "The Great Gatsby" by F.Scott Fitzgerald Daisy is The Great Gatsby's most enigmatic, and perhaps most disappointing, character. Although Fitzgerald does much to make her a character worthy of Gatsby's unlimited devotion, in the end she reveals herself for what she really is. Despite her beauty and charm, Daisy is merely a selfish, shallow, and in fact, hurtful, woman. Gatsby loves her (or at least the idea of her) with such vitality and determination that readers would like, in many senses, to see her be worthy of his devotion. Although Fitzgerald carefully builds Daisy's character with associations of light, purity, and innocence, when all is said and done, she is the opposite from what she presents herself to be. From Nick's first visit, Daisy is associated with otherworldliness. Nick calls on her at her house and initially finds her (and Jordan Baker, who is in many ways an unmarried version of Daisy) dressed all in white, sitting on an "enormous couch . . . buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon . . . [her dress] rippling and fluttering as it [she] had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house." From this moment, Daisy becomes like an angel on earth. She is routinely linked with the color white (a white dress, white flowers, white car, and so on) always at the height of fashion and addressing people
Fitzgerald uses Chapter 6 to show how the love story of Gatsby and Daisy begins to crumble.
Fitzgerald slowly reveals Gatsby's history to build up the mystery to who he really is. Fitzgerald has Nick use a semantic field of fabrication as he tells of Gatsby's 'imagination' and 'Platonic conception of himself' as a teenager to highlight the facade that revolves around Gatsby. The references to 'conception' and 'inventions' emphasise Nick's, and possibly Fitzgerald's view that Gatsby himself and the world around him are constructions and is epitomised by his materialistic ways to please Daisy. Fitzgerald ensures this history is not directly from Gatsby's voice, giving possibility that Nick has constructed the description to allow the mysteriousness of Gatsby to build. Fitzgerald also has Nick claim he breaks the chronology 'to clear this set of misconceptions away' as he tells the story of 'James Gatz', yet it seems ironically placed in Chapter 6 due to Gatsby's naive claim later that he can 'repeat the past'. Gatsby's history is placed in Chapter 6 to allow the reader to piece together Gatsby's past, giving insight to why he feels it necessary to 'fix everything just the way it was'. By Fitzgerald revealing more details of Gatsby's history the reader can realise how shallow he is, heightening the genre of the novel as an American Tragedy as it begins to become clear that Gatsby's facade is due to the American Dream. Fitzgerald uses Chapter 6 to show how the love
