Preview

Modernism In The Great Gatsby

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
765 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Modernism In The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel that is treasured as a renewable book in American literature collections. Read among a variety of age groups, it holds testament to its honorary title. The missive of the how the pursue of American dream can lead to consequences and decoration are not only evident in the star characters, but in the relevance of modernity, drama, and composition in F. Scott- Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby is not a story about Jay Gatsby. It is a story about the green light, the American dream. “It is the story that if you work hard enough, you can succeed” (Donahue, “Five reasons ‘Gatsby’ is the great American novel”). Jay Gatsby was once James Gatz, a poor boy of unsuccessful farmers. The United States was founded upon aspiring immigrants who wished to one day enjoy rich livelihoods. Even in
…show more content…
Scott-Fitzgerald’s composition sets for an enjoyable leisure. “The wildest parties and bad behavior among the rich and famous today have nothing… depicted in the Great Gatsby” (Donahue, “Five reasons ‘Gatsby’ is the great American novel”). Fitzgerald’s language is pristine. It could be argued he “makes phrases complicated.” Not only is it pleasurable to marvel at, but the the time and viewpoint at which this story is being narrated is to be accounted for. Nick Carraway is of high wealth and life, and it reflects in the language. The style only serves to further naturalize the setting and aid readers to cherish the novel. It is the 1920s, after all. “But his eyes [Dr. T.J. Eckleburg]... brood on over the solemn dumping ground” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 23). There is a reason why Fitzgerald emphasizes detail on seemingly small events and objects. As it is later revealed, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are the eyes of god. Prior to the reveal, the matter frequented and characters are intimidated by the billboard. The “eyes” were a factor in Gatsby’s death, as Mr. Wilson, in his crazed state, believed them to be the “eyes of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    It is every writer's aspiration to write a literary work as deep and profound as F. Scott Fitzgerald has in his masterpiece The Great Gatsby. The novel alludes to an innumerable variety of themes; encompassing all of the symbolism, metaphorical traits, and masterful writing that an English teacher's favorite should have. In a novel of this caliber it is expected that there are many deep and well-developed characters. This book has them in spades. From all of the wide variety of characters portrayed in this novel, Jay Gatsby is clearly the most vital and interesting; the course of events in The Great Gatsby are clearly centered around him.…

    • 1940 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a novel that depicts Jay Gatsby chasing his American Dream. Although Gatsby did it by illegal means, Fitzgerald honors Gatsby for the effort he put forth in trying to achieve his American Dream of winning Daisy back. With the use of symbolism, syntax to create a respectful tone towards Gatsby, and a mood of honor, Fitzgerald admires Gatsby for chasing an unattainable American Dream and almost succeeding.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a story about Jay Gatsby's quest for Daisy Buchanan. The story shows the way Gatsby views the 1920's American Dream. The story was written between WWI and the Great Depression. It showcases the stereotypical "Roaring Twenties" lifestyle of wild partying and bootleg liquor. The Great Gatsby focuses on the unattainable “American Dream” of wealth and happiness all in one. Materialism has such an effect on American society today. People value wealth more than happiness. People seem to always want to flaunt what they have and seem better than others. Those who have less look up to and admire those that do have wealth.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It has been said that F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is about the pursuit of the American dream. It has also been said that the novel is about love, ambition, and obsession. Perhaps both are true. Combined, these themes may be understood in their most basic forms among the relationships within the novel. After all, each character's reason for belonging to a relationship speaks very strongly of what really makes him tick; each character's manifestation of his own desires is found within his lover. Throughout the novel, what universally unites each character beyond anything else is the love of a dream or position and involvement in relationships for the success of that dream.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of unrequited love. The novel is based on the themes of love, revenge, desire for money and the suicide. But a careful analysis of the novel reveals that its major theme encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Through this novel, Fitzgerald has tried to portray a real picture of American society of 1920s. The story is set in the neighborhood of Long Island, New York. In this novel, we also find a reflection of disintegration of American dream which was about moral values and pursuit of success.…

    • 3218 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    What makes “The Great Gatsby” so “Great”? Is it the charm the protagonist displays in his efforts to impress his love? Is it the vivid descriptions of the ostentatious ways the wealthy live? Perhaps one of the biggest lures for this novel is the representation of Jazz era America it paints. F. Scott Fitzgerald paints a vivid and eloquent, if somewhat dark, picture of the Jazz Age and the American dream that resonates in one's soul.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald set during the 1920s about a man named Jay Gatsby through Nick Carraway’s eyes, and is considered one of the great pieces of American literature of all-time. The Great Gatsby shows a society that is in an immoral and crazed state. Jay Gatsby himself shows the corrupt American society and lifestyle. Affairs and cheating display the unethical aspects of the community. Materialism and the desire for possessions cause people to dispose themselves of values. The inaccuracy of the American Dream leaves the society confused and complicated.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gatsby's Holy Grail

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages

    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.…

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story of misguided love between a man and a woman. Fitzgerald takes his reader through the turbulence and trials of Jay Gatsby’s life and of his pining for the girl he met five years prior. The main theme of the novel, however, is not solely about the love shared between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. The main purpose is to show the decline and decay of the American Dream in the 1920’s. The American Dream is the goal or idea which suggests that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all have the potential to live happy, successful lives. While on the surface, Gatsby looks like he lives a happy, successful life, he truly doesn’t. He spends his life working hard to make money to impress the beautiful and practically unattainable, Daisy Buchanan, the love of his life. He spends his money to throw ostentatious parties in his lavish house and to buy unnecessary materialistic goods. The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s way of criticizing the decade and its lack of depth.…

    • 1649 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel 《The Great Gatsby》written by Scott Fitzgerald is often classified as a masterpiece about American dream,and it is believed to be written in 1925. It is a time that the entire America was under the strong influence of the Roaring twenties,and as we know, Scott Fitzgerald is a distinguished representative of the Lost generation in America. As a result, this novel is influenced by the thoughts of the lost generation.The essential thought of the lost generation is loneliness and disillusion in spirt, is to emphasize its own set of values rather than their elders. It strongly stresses the importance of personal characteristic and freedom or personal liberation, or in other words, hedonism and self-indulgent spree. In the novel,Scott Fitzgerald…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Disillusion of Great Gatsby

    • 2876 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The disillusionment of the American Dream is a frequent but important written theme in the American literature. Fitzgerald’s famous book The Great Gatsby is one of the most important representative works that reflects this theme. F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for his novels and short stories which chronicle the excesses of America's Jazz Age during the 1920s. His classic twentieth-century story of Jay Gatsby examines and critiques Gatsby's particular vision of the 1920's American Dream. The Great Gatsby can be seen as a far-reaching book that has revealed many serious and hidden social problems at that time. As one of the most popular and financially successful American novelists at that time, Fitzgerald gains his fame of the ‘simultaneous lyricist and demystifier of the American dream’. Gatsby, the tragic hero of this great book, uses all his lifetime to pursue wealth, wishing to use money to buy his “love dream” back. However, in the end, his “love dream” has been merciless crashed by that cruel society and the selfish and malicious people. Through this book, Fitzgerald uses his own language to reveal the darkness and vanity of American society, to illustrate the cruel and selfish nature of the American people, and to show the disillusionment of American Dream at that time. This paper is designed to analyze and reveal the true nature and Gatsby’s disillusionment of the American Dream, through the thorough and careful analysis of the novel The Great Gatsby.…

    • 2876 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the reader sees a common theme of corruption of the American Dream. In the 1920’s, the times are changing in America and morals are becoming looser and the lifestyle of the wealthy is more careless. New fashion, attitude, and music is what nicknamed this era the “Jazz Age,” greatly influencing Fitzgerald’s writing. He created similarities between many things in pop culture and the journey his characters Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Myrtle are taking to achieve the American dream. Through the use of the lively, yet scandalous, jazz music from the 1920’s, Fitzgerald reflects the attitudes of the characters in The Great Gatsby at the end of innocence and prevalence of carelessness within the elite of New York’s society.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As stated in the Declaration of Independence, American’s are guaranteed certain unalienable rights, among them are “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Since the beginning of our wonderful country, it has been the American dream to pursue happiness, in whichever form appeals to the person searching for it. Jay Gatsby is the quintessential model of a wealthy man during this age, undergoing his own pursuit of happiness. Fitzgerald chooses not to simply write about this character Jay Gatsby, but instead narrate his legacy through the eyes of Nick Carraway. Nick Carraway lives in the house next to Jay Gatsby’s, as he recently escaped from his Midwest lifestyle to the town of West Egg, New York. By using Nick as the narrator for this story, Fitzgerald is able to display exactly what the lives’ of Jay Gatsby and many other whimsical citizens were like from an outside point of view. In this work of art, Fitzgerald uses prominent symbols such as, the green light, the Valley of Ashes, and the eyes of Dr T.J. Eckleburg. These symbols allow the audience to truly participate in the literature, and decide for…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Great Gatsby

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The main character of the book is also the inspiration of the title, Jay Gatsby (SparkNotes…). He is a complicated character and we get to know him at many different stages of his life. We meet him as extravagantly rich and successful Gatsby, (Ross). He has the means to have extravagant parties every Saturdays, but he seems to be desperately searching for something. We learn about the history of Gatsby When learn that at one point he was called James Gatz (The Great Gatsby). He was poor and dreamed of the day he would have all the money he wanted. He fell in love with Daisy before leaving to fight in the war, but the pressure of parents and society were so great to marry someone in her ‘class’, she broke and married Tom. When Gatsby returned and realized Daisy had married, he was heartbroken. He worked for Dan Cody; a bootlegger involved with illegal things. Gatsby gets…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Great Gatsby Thesis

    • 1844 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Thesis: The pursuit of the American Dream is a dominant theme throughout The Great Gatsby, which is carried out in various ways by F. Scott Fitzgerald, how the author represents this theme through his characters and their actions is one small aspect of it.…

    • 1844 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays