On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era…
The Great Gatsby captures the story of a man motivated by his passion to find love. The novel encapsulates the agony Jay Gatsby experiences throughout his journey to acquire the affection and devotion he so greatly desires from the woman of his dreams. The book portrays the corruption of the 1920s and the collateral damage it has upon society. As unfortunate as the occurrences within the plot seem, there is a shocking reality that lies beneath them. The story of The Great Gatsby strongly parallels to the life of the author, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, reflecting upon the tragedies that he encountered along his pursuit for love due to the lack of morality that existed in the 1920s.…
The Great Gatsby, which was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story that reflects the life of the 1920's in New York. The 1920's was a decade of prosperity and opportunity, but also of prohibition and organized crime. The life in the 1920's was filled with moral decay (immoral decisions) and corruptness. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows how the American Dream is dead through immoral decisions and corruptness in Gatsby's and Myrtle's life.…
The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920’s and follows the lives of Nick our narrator and the extravagant neighbor Gatsby. It addresses how the world was changing in the 20’s but the themes explored in this novel are still relevant today. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald utilises characters symbols and motifs to illustrate the themes of the social decline of america, the dangers of self creation, and the blindness created by love.…
F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel, The Great Gatsby. A theme Fitzgerald used was love and how it affects everybody around one another. This theme is expressed throughout the book by how the energy changes when one doesn’t like another person they are with. The motif of weather shows when a relationship is a little unclear it rains and when there is tension it becomes very hot. The first reference showing the connection between the weather and love was “Some weather!...Hot!...Hot!...Hot!...Is it hot enough for you?”(Fitzgerald 115). This presents that…
Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby it is evident to see that money cannot buy happiness and it will never allow those to achieve the American Dream. The superficiality of the 1920’s society is clearly evident through the characters including Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson. As the novel continues to develop it is seen that the excitement in this era overall leads to one's downfall and unhappiness.…
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.…
Why is it that when writing the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson stated that American’s had the right to the pursuit of happiness instead of automatic happiness? Did he believe happiness was unachievable? In the book , The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is in the pursuit of happiness trying by all means necessary to achieve this goal, the goal that all human kind shares, happiness. For his entire life, Jay Gatsby has been striving to find happiness. From when he was a young boy keeping a journal on how to better himself, until his adulthood where he worked as a bootlegger. All of these activities had one main goal in the end; to better himself and to acquire a higher social status.…
A brilliant American author named Garrison Kellior once said, “I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it”. Some individuals believe that in order to keep their happiness, they sometimes have to ignore everything that is obvious or real to the human eye. Sometimes having faith in things beyond the normal comprehension is greater than settling for what is known to be realistic. Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby is shown to be one of a few who possess this special quality by creating an entirely different image of himself and clinging to the hope of being reunited with the one he loves most despite what others believed. Through Gatsby’s optimism and hope, Fitzgerald illustrates his agreement that…
Money isn’t the source of making someone happy. Happiness is achieved by people accomplishing their goals in life and becoming successful. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the main character Jay was dedicated to being rich, but that wasn’t his goal. In order to reach his goal in life and be truly happy he needed to be with the one person he loved and that was Daisy. Similar to this idea in the book, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort the main character always wanted more and more as he could never settle for what he had. Because of this, he continued to get wealthy. Even with all the money he made, Jordan realized that to actually be happy he wanted to have power over everyone and be able to do what he wanted. Money can always buy materialistic…
In the roaring 1920’s, the American Dream shifted from worthwhile goals of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” as described by the forefathers of the United States to an uninhibited materialistic state of mind previously considered frivolous and even immoral. The historical prohibition of alcohol and the end of World War I and the sudden uprise in the general wealth of the country added to the breakdown of what was considered “right” and “decent” to society. No work so clearly paints the picture of this pivotal downturn as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. As the main characters in Fitzgerald’s definitive novel reveal themselves, the idea of the “American Dream” is demolished by the implication that the pursuit of wealth rather…
Symbolism is a figure of speech that is used when an author wants to create a certain emotion in his literal work. It usually is an object, person, and situation to refer a bigger picture and idea other than just an object.…
We go through life blinded by the green light of society, like primordial chaos embedded upon us. We lead superficial lives feigning ignorance, surrounding ourselves with the desires of social status. We exemplify the Max Weber philosophy of social stratification based on three dimensions of social interaction of wealth, prestige and power. F. Scott. Fitzgerald has demonstrated this in his timeless idealistic novel the Great Gatsby. Therefore what is it in the human physique that allows us to draw parallels between social status and happiness?…
One of the most common questions from psychologists and economists alike is whether or not money can buy happiness; there is evidence to prove either side, but it is shown prominently that wealth has no effect on a person’s level of happiness. The article “When the Rich-Poor Gap Widens, ‘Gatsby’ Becomes a Guidebook” says, “This theory holds that the more unpleasant and risky a job is, the more it pays” (Frank). This shows that, though someone could be very wealthy, they could be doing a job that they do not like, and may not be happy. This is shown, in The Great Gatsby, by Gatsby’s extreme wealth, countered by his obvious loneliness. The article also states, “Gatsby’s unhappiness may be explained in part by the finding that those who focus…
Human nature refers to the general psychological characteristics, feelings, and behavioral traits of humankind, regarded as shared by all humans. F. Scott Fitzgerald with the use of selection of detail, selective diction, and imagery, portrays both condescending and bona fide aspects of human nature.…
