Rana Yehia
Mrs. Koszoru
AP Language and Composition
January 10, 2000
The Great Gatsby: A Classic
Rana Yehia
Mrs. Koszoru
AP Language and Composition
January 10, 2000
The Great Gatsby: A Classic
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes many universal and timeless themes to make the novel a classic. He emphasizes that most people lack insight and can not see the truth. To the majority of the society, the reality is an illusion that they create in their minds. The characters, events, setting, symbols and imagery contribute to establishing this theme.
Myrtle Wilson, a woman of ludicrous ostentation, yearns to escape her class to enter the higher ranks. She believes a marriage to Tom Buchanan will relieve her of this lower status. Myrtle is obsessed by appearances and unaware of realities, as is shown in her excessive concern of clothing. She attempts to impress the upper society while looking down upon the members of her class. "Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the stiflessness of the lower orders. 'These people! You have to keep after them." (Fitzgerald 36) Unfortunately, Myrtle does not realize that she will never transcend her class barrier or marry Tom. Her husband Wilson, a poor spiritless garage owner, discovers the affair but continues to do nothing about it. He is a tragically broken man living in a blighted world with his own dreams of success for his business and marriage. Wilson lives in the Valley of Ashes, a desolate place in New York, where gray heaps of ashes envelop him and his garage. The symbolic ashes of spiritual desolation create the "smoky air" (Fitzgerald 35) at the party in the New York apartment, where Myrtle struggles to raise her status.
Tom Buchanan represents the brutality and moral carelessness of the established rich. He believes he is an intellectual with logical philosophies about the society. "Have you read 'The Rise of the Coloured Empires' by this man... [continues]
Mrs. Koszoru
AP Language and Composition
January 10, 2000
The Great Gatsby: A Classic
Rana Yehia
Mrs. Koszoru
AP Language and Composition
January 10, 2000
The Great Gatsby: A Classic
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes many universal and timeless themes to make the novel a classic. He emphasizes that most people lack insight and can not see the truth. To the majority of the society, the reality is an illusion that they create in their minds. The characters, events, setting, symbols and imagery contribute to establishing this theme.
Myrtle Wilson, a woman of ludicrous ostentation, yearns to escape her class to enter the higher ranks. She believes a marriage to Tom Buchanan will relieve her of this lower status. Myrtle is obsessed by appearances and unaware of realities, as is shown in her excessive concern of clothing. She attempts to impress the upper society while looking down upon the members of her class. "Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the stiflessness of the lower orders. 'These people! You have to keep after them." (Fitzgerald 36) Unfortunately, Myrtle does not realize that she will never transcend her class barrier or marry Tom. Her husband Wilson, a poor spiritless garage owner, discovers the affair but continues to do nothing about it. He is a tragically broken man living in a blighted world with his own dreams of success for his business and marriage. Wilson lives in the Valley of Ashes, a desolate place in New York, where gray heaps of ashes envelop him and his garage. The symbolic ashes of spiritual desolation create the "smoky air" (Fitzgerald 35) at the party in the New York apartment, where Myrtle struggles to raise her status.
Tom Buchanan represents the brutality and moral carelessness of the established rich. He believes he is an intellectual with logical philosophies about the society. "Have you read 'The Rise of the Coloured Empires' by this man... [continues]
Cite This Essay
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(1999, 10). English. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 10, 1999, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/English-17650.html
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"English" StudyMode.com. 10 1999. 10 1999 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/English-17650.html>.
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"English." StudyMode.com. 10, 1999. Accessed 10, 1999. http://www.studymode.com/essays/English-17650.html.
