The last chapter left off with what seems like Daisy and Tom planning to pin the blame of Myrtles death on Gatsby. Chapter 8 starts with Nick running to Gatsby’s house to find out what happened last night. After searching for some cigarettes Nick tells Gatsby to move away for a while. Nick is worried that the authorities will trace Gatsby’s car and he will get blamed for Myrtles death. Gatsby however doesn’t want to leave Daisy. Gatsby then tells Nick about his childhood. In his childhood, Gatsby fell in love with Daisy, and unexpectedly Daisy also fell in love with Gatsby. However, Gatsby had to go to war afterwards. While Gatsby was in the war, Daisy couldn’t wait for Gatsby’s return and started dating men. Daisy then decided that she wanted her life to be shaped, and didn’t want to wait for Gatsby, so she ended up marrying Tom Buchanan. Gatsby came back from the war when Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip. We come back to the present where Nick now has to go to work. Before he goes, Nick tells Gatsby that He is “worth the whole damn bunch put together.” Nick is so disturbed by what has happened, he does not even want Jordan Baker to visit him, nor does he want to see her. We now go to another scene where Wilson is talking to his friend, Michaelis. Wilson tells Michaelis about how he will find the killer of Myrtle, and that god’s eyes see everything (talking about the eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg). He is distraught over his wives death. He talks about how even though she didn’t care about him and had an affair, he still loved her. The same day, Gatsby goes swimming in the pool that he has not touched the whole summer. As Gatsby is swimming and floating on a mattress, Wilson comes and kills Gatsby. He also ends up killing himself, committing…
How does the novel show that behind the glamour of the world in which Gatsby moves lie forces that are shallow and destructive?…
In the words of Jan Gildewell, "You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest, that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present." Jay Gatsby in the book The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, didn't only cling to the past and forget about the future but also tried to recreate it. There are symbols from Gatsby's past that display his yearning for a different life all through this piece of literature. Gatsby's mind can only conceive one way to change his current and undesired path of existence, and that single idea is to recreate and modify his past. In the act of trying to bring back the past he ends up dead.…
"Filled with faces dead and gone. Filled with friends gone now forever. I can't forget so long as I live the night they shot Rosy Rosenthal there... they shot him three times in the belly and drove away."…
Before Gatsby was the extravagant man in the lavish Long Island mansion, he was James Gatz, a lower class, Midwestern farm boy. At the age of 17 Gatz decided he wanted to become rich, made a plan for himself, and fixated on making himself larger than life. He was insistent on becoming a perfect version of himself, or the “Platonic conception”(98), and was willing to do anything to achieve this. Gatsby’s obsession to become a rich and affluent man then transformed into an obsession with winning over Daisy, the beautiful young woman of Old Money. When Gatsby first meets Daisy, he is enchanted by her elegance and her beautiful house, and “It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes”(149). To Gatsby, Daisy is just another part of his fantasy that he is chasing. She is an “enchanted object”(93) that Gatsby gives value to like an expensive commodity everyone wants to get a piece of. Having her, would be the icing on the cake in his pursuit of becoming upper class. Her voice is “full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it.... High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl....”(120). The “king’s daughter”, the “golden girl”, both the most rare woman a man can win, and Gatsby is set on her. Daisy, becomes the embodiment of Gatsby’s platonic conception, as getting her would mean he successfully gained anything and everything there is to have. Ever since Gatsby was a boy he wanted to be a part of the fantastic Old Money society, and acquiring Daisy is his ultimate prize. So, Gatsby then did everything in his power in order to make this happen, figuring if he became mega rich he could essentially buy Daisy’s heart. He succeeds in acquiring this fortune,…
The central antagonist of Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic, Jay Gatsby, is revealed to the reader throughout the novel, creating a sense of mystery around his character, his past and his future. The quasi - fantastical pictorial of the same name, by Greenberg, also follows this reveal, portraying Gatsby's world and evoking a lingering curiosity. Initially, in both novel and graphic novel, the reader is set up to expect the worst. In the introduction of the novel by Fitzgerald, Nick states ‘ No- Gatsby turned out alright in the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interests in the abortive sorrows and short winded elations of men.’ This introduction creates a fascination in Gatsby’s character and an anticipation towards the events that are to occur, but also supports a foreboding feeling with the use of words such as ‘preyed, foul and sorrow’. Similarly, in the Graphic novel, the use of a scrap-book format and a sepia tone creates the sombre, melancholy atmosphere that promotes a sense of nostalgia and loss. The piecing together of Gatsby’s photograph creates a foreboding feeling, initiating the mystery that is to surround this central character throughout both interpretations of The Great Gatsby.…
This quarter I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is a fiction novel published in 1925. It takes place in New York, 1922 and follows the story of a great man named Gatsby. Although Gatsby is the main character, the book is in perspective and supposedly written by Nick Carraway, a friend of Gatsby. This novel has a very developing story line that hits all kinds of moods, happy, sad, and mysterious.…
It is believed by some that potential and greatness is innate for every individual born, yet it takes time for it to be discovered. For certain individuals, this greatness is interchangeable with heroism, which is the basis of every great story. In the novel The Great Gatsby written by Scott Fitzgerald, a man by the name of Jay Gatsby was no less than the greatness which accompanied his name. He was a noble man with an outstanding persona that left a deep mark after his passing. An exceptional being with infinite potential, who dreamt of nothing but personal success and whose very own ambitious trait worked to his disadvantage. Gatsby destroyed himself with the strength of his own hands and his existence touched the lives of others with much significance. Without a doubt, Gatsby successfully possessed all the qualities of a tragic hero and as with every tragic hero, Gatsby had no choice but to come across an inevitable end; death.…
Many people try to achieve the American Dream by simply trying to make a lot of money. Money isn't all what the American Dream is about. Other people know the power of money yet they still think they can buy happiness, like Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, displays that money does not necessarily bring happiness.…
The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a society of high social standings, immense wealth, and love. This can be classified as the American Dream. If an individual is determined, that individual has a reasonable chance and holds the hope for acquiring wealth, and the happiness and freedoms that go with it. In essence, the American Dream gives the chance to gain personal fulfillment, materially and spiritually. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the American Dream as an unachievable illusion, one which is ultimately detrimental to the novel’s central character, Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby tries to attain happiness, Daisy’s love, which is all he wants, but ends up failing. Evidently, Gatsby may have achieved the definition of the American Dream, but at a personal standpoint, he failed to accomplish what he was truly aiming for.…
In Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, there is a distinct gap between the old money crowd and the new money crowd. Gatsby’s version of the American dream was never fulfilled despite having a seemingly unlimited supply of money. It was Daisy that Gatsby desired. Daisy on the other hand,…
Nick Carraway is the narrator of the novel called the “The Great Gatsby”. He is a young man that came from Minnesota and was educated at Yale and fought in World War I. He moves to New York to work and learn the bond business. His father taught him to be an honest, and trustworthy person growing him up. He was also told by his father to reserve judgment of people. After moving to West Egg, Nick finds himself meeting people and finding himself a best friend and next-door neighbor Jay Gatsby. West Egg is a very wealthy neighborhood with many mansions. Jay Gatsby lives in a large mansion, and is a young rich man. Jay Gatsby fell in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchanan.…
Fitzgerald’s novel is a feeling story of love and passion, of Gatsby’s idealistic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The initial meeting of the two lovers takes place two years before the novel is written. Daisy was then a fabulous youthful Louisville beauty while Gatsby was a penniless officer. The two fell in deep love, but when Gatsby has to leave to serve overseas; his lover Daisy marries the mistreatment, ruthless but tremendously rich Tom Buchanan. When the war is over, Gatsby dedicates himself to find wealth by any possible means that may come his way. It is not only wealth that Gatsby dedicates himself in finding, but he uses the same energy in pursuit of his long lost lover Daisy. In one of the novel’s famous descriptions; Gatsby say “Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald & Stuart, 2005). Well, Gatsby prospers in his quest for…
There is much controversy on why F. Scott Fitzgerald chose his masterpiece to be title The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald chose The Great Gatsby as the title to show the duality of how the central character of Jay Gatsby is great in trying determinedly to achieve his goal of Daisy, but how his “greatness” brings about his own downfall.…
Discovering the truth and judging the character of people often epitomize maturing and development. For instance, during William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, Ralph judges the character of others on the island. He also struggles to uncover the truth and matures to take on a leader position. Therefore, the reader considers Ralph a completely developed character. Similarly, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, while the remainder of characters remain flat, Nick Carraway evolves into a round character through his developing moral judgments about Jordan Baker, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby.…