Essays About The Great Gatsby
Dreams can have a convincing effect in peopleâs lives. They are what makes people want to work hard to accomplish their dreams. In our country people believe that if you keep on striving ahead and donât give up you can reach that dream. In the 1920s these dreams started to disintegrate and eventually they started fading away. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald used quite a bit of metaphors and background themes throughout this story to show unlikelihood of the âAmerican dreamâ that people once had.
In this story, Fitzgeraldâs metaphors help build an atmosphere that people so desired. Fitzgerald mainly uses colors to symbolize and communicate certain text to the readers. Yellow and green are entwined perfectly in this story that the reader doesnât even notice. However, they are playing a huge role in shaping the story. Fitzgerald utilizes the primary color yellow all through his description of the situation, to symbolize deceitful and cowardly acts of the upper class. Fitzgerald made the color yellow and green an important keys in this story, just like the flashing green light that was at Daisyâs pier, it held a single importance in the story. When Nick says, âGatsby believed in the green light âŠâ (Fitzgerald, 180), Nick was talking about Gatsbyâs âAmerican Dreamâ and how Gatsby really believed that one day heâll rejoin Daisy.
Assistant Professor Amy M. Green from UNLV provided her insight in âThe Critical Reception of The Great Gatsbyâ, she said âThe green light at the end of Daisyâs dock and the magic, how it shines over Gatsby as he tries to hinder the world into his own tale of the âAmerican Dreamâ remains as a recognizable symbol of both hope and failureâ (Green).
Green stands for Gatsbyâs hope and as well as for his failure only because Daisy doesnât want to be with him. Fitzgeraldâs diversity in his sets help categorize between various social classes which happened in the 1920s. He used different kinds of settings to explore other people who lived in New York. The utmost prominent were East and West Egg, and the valley of ashes. Nick Caraway narrates the Eggs when saying, âI lived at West Egg, the â well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them ⊠Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the waterâ (Fitzgerald, 5).
In this text, Nick is voicing the differences among the two Eggs and how they were both places to the rich. The West egg housed the upstart people, or new money, as well as for Caraway and Gatsby. The West egg residents stand for people who gained fortune as to those who live in the East egg, like Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who came from old money. The discrepancy among the eggs is helping to create the levels of the societal ladder, implying that East egg citizens feel though if they are directly above those who hadnât come from money therefore, they despised them. It also illustrates the negligence as well as vulgarity that goes with new money.
Tunc from University of New York wrote, âFitzgerald compares the valley of ashes with the âEggs,â the two headlands explained by Nick that protrude out of Long Island ‘s north shoreâ (Tunc). âThe valley of ashesâ gives you a bleak distinction amongst your very first two sets letting you know that this is the homes to the impoverished, lower class. The ash emphasizes hopelessness, also sadness that the folks were felling currently. The variety amongst the sets is helping to divide the prosperous from the impoverished. Fitzgeraldâs array of subjects helps him to bring greater implications throughout the text. The main subject of this story is hopelessness of the âAmerican Dreamâ, itsâ unavoidable disappointment. Fitzgerald reveals it in this story, âHe must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grassâ (Fitzgerald, 161).
Right here, Fitzgerald has Gatsby signifying sunlight and grass. Meaning he wants the sun to help the grass to grow in which in this scenario the grass is representing Daisy; nevertheless, the grass has refused to grow. At this point, Gatsby finally realizes deep inside that heâs never going to be able to achieve his dream. It didnât matter how hard he tried. He knew Daisy was out of his reach. Fitzgerald describes this in the introduction of the story, while Nick sees Gatsby leaning forward towards a green light across the Lake in which he is never going to be able to grasp despite his attempts. Fitzgerald illustrates just how societiesâ dreams remain constantly out of oneâs grasp.
This repetitive idea establishes a relationship between the story along with the characters with the external world. A few people these days, think Gatsby did fulfill âthe American Dream.â By not having little to no money, Gatsby had the opportunity to turn his own life around by establishing a great fortune. This was illustrated when Fitzgerald wrote, âThe vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a manâ (Fitzgerald, 101), Heâs implying that Gatsby did reach that goal in his life that he always dreamed of becoming, a wealthy man. Even though, Gatsby did turn his life around from impoverishment to prosperity along with fame, his goals irritated him. He was clever to attain prominence in some people, but as for the money Gatsby didnât seem to care if he lost it and he didnât consider himself to have accomplished his âAmerican Dreamâ because what Gatsby longed for the most more than anything in the world was his one and only true love, Daisy.
Nick Carraway talks about Gatsbyâs disappointment while writing, âI have an idea that Gatsby himself didnât believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true, he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dreamâ (Fitzgerald, 161). Nick describes how Gatsby finally realizes that he had squandered all his life on a woman who didnât seem to care about him and lost his chance to really find love. By the end of the story, Gatsby seems to be a victim of Daisyâs, a casualty of the ambiguous âAmerican Dream.â Though Gatsby attained some individuals’ desires, he was unsuccessful with his own.
Fitzgeraldâs selection of settings and dearth of ethical beliefs are shown all through this story and thatâs what makes it a masterpiece of Modernization. When World War I was over, folks started leaving normal and appropriate behavior then welcomed a fresh cheerful mindset. When this all happened, it changed the way of thinking and behaving, it created a fresh scholarly act recognized now as Modernism. Fitzgerald illustrates those modern societal norms when talking about the socialites at Gatsbyâs residence. He’s writing, â⊠They conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with an amusement parkâ (Fitzgerald, 41). At this point, he will be voicing the dearth of ethical conviction that several people displayed at that time. This one-time era occurs during the Jazz Age phase. Fitzgerald blends this music into the story with a band at Gatsbyâs party playing jazz. While Fitzgeraldâs usage of people doesnât have any moral principles the adding of jazz tunes becomes a piece of modernization in this story. In the opening of âThe Great Gatsby,â Nick recalls a memory that he once shared with his father, he said âWhenever you feel like criticizing any oneâŠjust remember that all the people in this world havenât had the advantages that youâve had.â (Fitzgerald, 1).
Here’s the little fatherly advice, which hints to us that Nick will try to tell the story without criticizing the characters. Although following Gatsby’s fatality, Nick determines that the Buchananâs are self-centered people. If their treachery is as deep as to have stunned Nick’s belief in his father’s advice, they must be truly unpleasant individuals indeed. But even that may well be going too far. Tom and Daisy hardly seem to be deliberately immoral. Both their actions are spiteful, but aside from Tom telling Wilson about Gatsby and thereby lead to Gatsby’s death – it’s hard to disagree that Tom and Daisy stand indifferent. Although Fitzgerald tries to make Daisyâs character commendable of Gatsby’s affection, at the end her true colors come out for who she really is. Regardless of her looks and charm, Daisy was merely selfish, as well as a hurtful woman.
Daisyâs character realizes that she has no ability to be independent, as she is a woman, and makes this obvious when talking about her daughter saying, âAll right⊠Iâm glad itâs a girl. And I hope sheâll be a foolâthatâs the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.â (Fitzgerald, 17). She is clearly upset, and she is voicing her frustration when she expresses this emotion. Daisy’s remark reflects what she thinks a woman should be like since she realizes that she had been made a fool of. Tom has had frequent affairs and has not given her the care and love she believes she deserves. It would have been better if she were foolish enough not to care about what her husband did. As far as being beautiful, Daisy is indicating that a woman who is beautiful would be able to catch any man, as she obviously did when she got Tom’s interest and married him. Daisy later told Nick about her suffering when she said:
âWell, Iâve had a very bad time, Nick, and Iâm pretty cynical about everything.â (Fitzgerald, 16). F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts Daisy as a weak-willed mother character.
George Wilson. Fitzgerald has Wilson representing the underclass. Wilson is also the only moral character in the story and one of the only characters with an upright job, also one of the poorest. He was an exhausted owner of an auto garage where he and his wife Myrtle lived above it by the end of the valley of ashes, he was led into madness when he thought that Jay Gatsby murdered his unfaithful wife, when in fact she had been killed by Gatsby’s lover, Daisy. âThe Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburgâ represented Godâs eyes by George Wilson and before Myrtleâs death, he confronted her affair and told her ‘God knows what you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you canât fool God!’ (Fitzgerald, 159). He determines that the eyes meant a moral standard and that God wants vengeance for the sin that Myrtle had done, being unfaithful. George is so adamant on finding out who killed Myrtle. His fixation with finding out his wife’s killer shows how loving and devoted husband he was to Myrtle and how he is starting to go crazy. George Wilson kills Gatsby out of vengeance for murdering his wife. He thinks the person to blame for hitting her with the car was her lover and Tom Buchanan tells him that itâs Gatsby who was driving the car. George then heads out to Gatsby’s house, then fatally shoots him. Following the shooting of Gatsby, George Wilson turns the gun on himself.
As for Nick Carraway he is a newly graduate from Yale. He travels to Long Island where he secures a job selling bonds. Nick is innocent and well behaved, particularly while as to the self-indulgent aristocracy where he lives. As time goes on, however, Nick develops quicker, also watchful, along with disappointed, but certainly not heartless nor greedy. The narrator in this story is Nick Carraway, he has several characteristics by being outgoing and good guy, as Nick being the innocent figure who goes through the most significant change in this story. Nick establishes a close and decent relationship with some of the characters, mainly with Gatsby and with Daisy. Nick happens to be Daisyâs second cousin, an old schoolmate of Tom’s, plus Gatsby’s current next-door neighbor and close friend. Nick becomes fascinated by Gatsbyâs lavish gatherings then receives an invite inside the inner wealth circle. Nick becomes the middleman who helps get Gatsby and Daisyâs together which enables their ongoing affair. Shortly after, Nick is an onlooker towards the wistful cobweb of other characters in the story, then eventually is the only person in the world who sincerely loved Gatsby.
Soon after Gatsby’s death, Nick will be attending his memorial service, assuming that heâll be seeing all the people who attended Gatsby’s extravagant gatherings to appear. But he and Gatsby’s father await anyoneâs presence, and yet nobody comes… âI began to look involuntarily out the windows for other cars. So did Gatsby’s father. And as the time passed and the servants came in and stood waiting in the hall, his eyes began to blink anxiously, and he spoke of the rain in a certain way. The minister glanced several times at his watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came.â (Fitzgerald, 174).
Eventually, the only individuals that show up to the funeral were Nick, Gatsby’s father, and Owl Eyes, who talks about all the hypocrisy about other people. Owl Eyes is a chap that noticed all of Gatsbyâs books in his library were genuine books that had all the completed sheets; specifically, they possessed physical value, because they had never been read. Nick recognizes that the people would merely be concerned just about have being noticed by the most modern in-fashion trends, rather than being a considerate friend to Gatsby; Nick sees and comprehends how Gatsby squandered so many years trying to learn just how to live for himself in addition how to be acceptable as a rich man, altogether in the quest to win back Daisyâs love. In the end, even Daisy will ignore Gatsbyâs funeral with no hesitation. Instead she goes away with her husband Tom, and at the end, Nick finds his opinion of her to be egotistical and insensitive and the East Egg soiled by these horrible memories. Nick will always remember Gatsby as being, âextraordinary gift for hope and the romantic readinessâ which makes him different from everyone else.â (Fitzgerald, 2).
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