Gatsby's Holy Grail
28 July 2012
Gatsby’s Holy Grail Long hailed as one of the great American novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald embodies the image of the Roaring Twenties to some readers; a time of new wealth, extravagant lifestyles, Prohibition, jazz, and flappers. The novel tackles the idea of the American Dream, as well as issues such as wealth versus class, infidelity and materialism. Both the character of Jay Gatsby and the narrator, Nick Carraway, are said to mirror Fitzgerald’s life – the Ivy League educated middle-class young man brought up in the Midwest who sees through the materialism of the time (Nick) and the World War I soldier who comes back from battle (like Gatsby) only to fall in love with a wealthy southern belle. The Great Gatsby is considered by some a tragic love story, but running through this novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals themes of deception, obsession and Gatsby’s quest to obtain his “holy grail”, a quest that means so much to a man that he tries fruitlessly to become something he never truly was. Set in the 1920s, the story of The Great Gatsby is told to us by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner back from the War, looking to learn the bond business on the East coast. He settles in West Egg on Long Island Sound, next to the mansion of one Jay Gatsby. His second cousin once removed, Daisy Buchanan, lives in East Egg with her husband Tom, and their daughter. East Egg was known as the more fashionable part of Long Island, the wealthy inhabitants coming from “old” money as they did. As we soon discover, Tom, Daisy’s husband, has a mistress in New York and the fact seems to be known to all, even his wife. This mistress is shortly introduced to us as Myrtle, the wife of George Wilson, an automobile mechanic who lives and works on the
road to New York near the valley of ashes, a desolate area where trash was hauled in from the “city” and burned. A grey, forlorn place where the great blue eyes of Doctor Eckleburg persistently stare at
Gatsby’s Holy Grail Long hailed as one of the great American novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald embodies the image of the Roaring Twenties to some readers; a time of new wealth, extravagant lifestyles, Prohibition, jazz, and flappers. The novel tackles the idea of the American Dream, as well as issues such as wealth versus class, infidelity and materialism. Both the character of Jay Gatsby and the narrator, Nick Carraway, are said to mirror Fitzgerald’s life – the Ivy League educated middle-class young man brought up in the Midwest who sees through the materialism of the time (Nick) and the World War I soldier who comes back from battle (like Gatsby) only to fall in love with a wealthy southern belle. The Great Gatsby is considered by some a tragic love story, but running through this novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals themes of deception, obsession and Gatsby’s quest to obtain his “holy grail”, a quest that means so much to a man that he tries fruitlessly to become something he never truly was. Set in the 1920s, the story of The Great Gatsby is told to us by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner back from the War, looking to learn the bond business on the East coast. He settles in West Egg on Long Island Sound, next to the mansion of one Jay Gatsby. His second cousin once removed, Daisy Buchanan, lives in East Egg with her husband Tom, and their daughter. East Egg was known as the more fashionable part of Long Island, the wealthy inhabitants coming from “old” money as they did. As we soon discover, Tom, Daisy’s husband, has a mistress in New York and the fact seems to be known to all, even his wife. This mistress is shortly introduced to us as Myrtle, the wife of George Wilson, an automobile mechanic who lives and works on the
road to New York near the valley of ashes, a desolate area where trash was hauled in from the “city” and burned. A grey, forlorn place where the great blue eyes of Doctor Eckleburg persistently stare at