Illusions In The Great Gatsby Argumentative Essay Example

mid-westerner loose in the garish East.But Fitzgerald is more similar to Jay Gatsby because he was a young man who idolizes wealth and luxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed at a military camp. Fitzgerald fell into a reckless life-style of parties and corruption, while desperately trying to please Zelda which is similar to Gatsby when he throws expensive parties and collects a huge amount of wealth at a quite young age, and devotes himself to gaining possessions so that he wins over Daisy’s love. In many ways, The Great Gatsby represents Fitzgerald’s attempt to confront his conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age.

Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was driven by his love for a woman who symbolized everything he wanted, even as she led him toward everything he despised. The whole novel is based on the American Dream. For example, Daisy represents the American Dream because she is the person everyone is after. In Fitzgerald’s understanding, he thinks that it is not going to work out because of all the disasters he includes in the end of the novel like when Myrtle gets run over by Daisy, Gatsby is shot by George, and George kills himself afterward.

He's saying that the American Dream is something that everyone desires so much that we will do anything to get it. There is a lot of corruption in the novel. The Ashes in the Valley of Ashes represent the corruption, and the leftovers of human civilization. Most characters are even named after animals’ like- Wolfsheim, Owl Eyes; this indicates the animal-like behavior of people who are so desperate to get to the American Dream. The setting of the

book is very fascinating. When we look at the geographical setting, Fitzgerald describes every place very well in the novel.

East Egg represents the old aristocracy and is connected to the moral falloff and social mocking of New York, while West Egg is the newly rich and also it is connects to more traditional social values and ideals, the valley of ashes the moral and social decay of America, and New York City the uninhibited, dishonorable quest for money and pleasure. The weather plays a role in the emotional and descriptive tone of the novel. Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion begins with a pouring rain, proving awkward and sadness.When the sun is not shadowed by the clouds, they are both chatting and having a laugh.

Fitzgerald uses different types of symbols in the novel. “The Green Light”, situated at the end of Daisy’s house dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s lawn, represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. In Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. “The Valley of Ashes” was first introduced in Chapter 2, found between West Egg and New York City represent the moral and social ecay that results from the uninhibited chase of wealth, as the rich spoil themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the dilemma of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result. And the other symbol and probably the important one is “The eyes of Doctor T.

J. Eckleburg” which represent God staring down upon and judging American

society as a moral wasteland. The connection between the eyes of Doctor T. J.

Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson’s mind.The other thing Fitzgerald used to achieve his masterpiece was characterization. He used different characters to tell the reader about his life. The title character of The Great Gatsby is a young man, around thirty years old, who rose from a poor childhood to become fabulously wealthy.

However, he achieved this proud goal by participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen things. Though Gatsby has always wanted to be rich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his love for Daisy Buchanan.Fitzgerald initially presents Gatsby as the reserved, mysterious host of the unbelievably wealthy parties. Fitzgerald drives the novel forward through the early chapters by hiding Gatsby’s background so that the reader’s first impressions of Gatsby strike quite a differently from that of the lovesick, simple young man who appears later in the novel. Fitzgerald uses this technique of delayed character revelation to emphasize the theatrical quality of Gatsby’s approach to life, which is an important part of his personality.

Nick is a narrator in The Great Gatsby because of his personality.As he tells the reader in Chapter 1, he is lenient, open-minded, quiet, and a good listener, does not judge people and because of these qualities others tend to talk to him and tell him their secrets. Sometimes, he functions as Fitzgerald’s voice, as in his extended meditation on time and the American dream at the end of Chapter 9. This inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted

to her beauty and her complexity just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people.

Nick states that there is a “quality of distortion” to life in New York, and this lifestyle makes him lose his equilibrium, especially early in the novel, as when he gets drunk at Gatsby’s party in Chapter 2. Last but not least is Daisy Buchanan. Based on Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, Daisy is a beautiful young woman from Louisville, Kentucky. She is Nick’s cousin and the object of Gatsby’s love. Daisy promised to wait for Gatsby, but instead she chose to marry Tom Buchanan, a wealthy and athletic man.

Daisy is beautiful and charming, but also picky, shallow, bored, and sarcastic. Nick characterizes her as a careless person who smashes things up and then retreats behind her money. Daisy proves her real nature when she chooses Tom over Gatsby in Chapter 7, then allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she herself was driving the car. Finally, rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, Daisy and Tom move away. Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury.

She is capable of affection, but not of sustained loyalty or care.She is uncaring even to her own infant daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought when she is introduced in Chapter 7. In conclusion F. Scott Fitzgerald has achieved what he stated in the quote on top.

He wrote the book to tell the reader how life was in the 1920s and he hides himself behind these different characters to show his life. Fitzgerald used different techniques

like the setting, symbols and characterization to achieve this excellent masterpiece. He made sure that the reader will have a clear understanding of the novel and life in the roaring 1920s.