the great gatsby summary on the american dream

A Summary and Analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The Great Gatsby is the quintessential Jazz Age novel, capturing a mood and a moment in American history in the 1920s, after the end of the First World War. Rather surprisingly, The Great Gatsby sold no more than 25,000 copies in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lifetime. It has now sold over 25 million copies.

If Fitzgerald had stuck with one of the numerous working titles he considered for the novel, it might have been published as Trimalchio in West Egg (a nod to a comic novel from ancient Rome about a wealthy man who throws lavish parties), Under the Red, White and Blue , or even The High-Bouncing Lover (yes, really).

How did this novel come to be so widely acclaimed and studied, and what does it all mean? Before we proceed to an analysis of Fitzgerald’s novel, here’s a quick summary of the plot.

The Great Gatsby : plot summary

Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, is a young man who has come to New York to work on the stock exchange. He lives on the island of West Egg, where his neighbour is the wealthy Jay Gatsby, who owns a mansion.

One evening, Nick is dining with his neighbours from East Egg, Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Tom is having an affair, and goes to answer the phone at one point; Daisy follows him out of the room, and their fellow guest, a woman named Jordan Baker, explains to Nick about Tom’s mistress.

A short while after this, Nick is with Tom when Tom sets up a meeting with his mistress, Myrtle, the wife of a garage mechanic named Wilson. Nick attends a party with Tom and Myrtle; Tom hits his mistress when she mentions Daisy’s name.

In the summer, Gatsby throws a number of lavish parties at his mansion. He meets Jordan Baker again and the two are drawn to each other. Nobody seems to know the real Gatsby, or to be able to offer much reliable information about his identity. Who is he?

Gatsby befriends Nick and drives him to New York. Gatsby explains that he wants Nick to do him a favour: Jordan Baker tells him that Daisy was Gatsby’s first love and he is still in love with her: it’s the whole reason Gatsby moved to West Egg, so he could be near Daisy, even though she’s married to Tom. Gatsby wants Nick to invite both him and Daisy round for tea.

When they have tea together, Gatsby feels hopeful that he can recover his past life with Daisy before she was married. However, he knows that Daisy is unlikely to leave Tom for him. When she expresses a dislike for his noisy parties, he scales down his serving staff at his house and tones down the partying.

When they are all at lunch together, Tom realises that Daisy still loves Gatsby. Tom goads Gatsby as he realises he’s losing his mistress and, now, his wife. While staying together in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, Daisy tells Tom that she loves both men.

On their way back home, Gatsby’s car accidentally hits and kills Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, who has rushed out into the road after her husband found out about her affair. Tom finds her body and is distraught. Nick learns that Daisy, not Gatsby, was driving the car when Myrtle was killed.

Gatsby also tells Nick that he had built himself up from nothing: he was a poor man named James Gatz who made himself rich through the help of a corrupt millionaire named Dan Cody.

The next day, Nick finds Gatsby dead in his own swimming pool: Wilson, after his wife was killed by Gatsby’s car, turned up at Gatsby’s mansion to exact his revenge. Wilson’s body is nearby in the grass. The novel ends with Nick winding up Gatsby’s affairs and estate, before learning that Tom told Wilson where he could find Gatsby so he could take revenge.

The Great Gatsby : analysis

The Great Gatsby is the best-known novel of the Jazz Age, that period in American history that had its heyday in the 1920s. Parties, bootleg cocktails (it’s worth remembering that alcohol was illegal in the US at this time, under Prohibition between 1920 and 1933), and jazz music (of course) all characterised a time when Americans were gradually recovering from the First World War and the Spanish flu pandemic (1918-20).

One reason The Great Gatsby continues to invite close analysis is the clever way Fitzgerald casts his novel as neither out-and-out criticism of Jazz Age ‘values’ nor as an unequivocal endorsement of them. Gatsby’s parties may be a mere front, a way of coping with Daisy’s previous rejection of him and of trying to win her back, but Fitzgerald – and his sympathetic narrator, Nick Carraway – do not ridicule Gatsby’s behaviour as wholly shallow or vacuous.

Fitzgerald’s choice to have a first-person narrator, rather than a more detached and impersonal ‘omniscient’ third-person narrator, is also significant. Nick Carraway is closer to Gatsby than an impersonal narrator would be, yet the fact that Nick narrates Gatsby’s story, rather than Gatsby telling his own story, nevertheless provides Nick with some detachment, as well as a degree of innocence and ignorance over Gatsby’s identity and past.

Nick Carraway is both part of Gatsby’s world and yet also, at the same time, an observer from the side-lines, someone who is not rich and extravagant as many in Gatsby’s circle are, yet someone who is ushered into that world by an enthusiastic Jay Gatsby, who sees in Carraway a man in whom he can confide.

Nevertheless, Fitzgerald deftly sets the world of West Egg, with Gatsby’s mock-chateau and swimming pool, against the rather grittier and grimier reality for most Americans at the time. If Gatsby himself symbolises the American dream – he has made himself a success, absurdly wealthy with a huge house and a whole retinue of servants, having started out in poverty – then there are plenty of reminders in The Great Gatsby that ‘the American dream’ remains just that, a dream, for the majority of Americans:

About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.

This is the grey, bleak, industrial reality for millions of Americans: not for them is the world of parties, quasi-enchanted gardens full of cocktails and exotic foods, hydroplanes, and expensive motorcars.

Yet the two worlds are destined to meet on a personal level: the Valley of Ashes (believed to be modelled on Corona dump in Queens, New York, and inspired by T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land ) is where Wilson’s garage is located. The dual tragedy of Gatsby’s and Wilson’s deaths at the end of the novel symbolises the meeting of these two worlds.

The fact that Gatsby is innocent of the two crimes or sins which motivate Wilson – his wife’s adultery with Tom and Daisy’s killing of Myrtle with Gatsby’s car – hardly matters: it shows the subtle interconnectedness of these people’s lives, despite their socioeconomic differences.

What’s more, as Ian Ousby notes in his Introduction to Fifty American Novels (Reader’s Guides) , there is more than a touch of vulgarity about Gatsby’s lifestyle: his house is a poor imitation of a genuine French chateau, but he is no aristocrat; his car is ‘ridiculous’; and his very nickname, ‘the Great Gatsby’, makes him sound like a circus entertainer (perhaps a magician above all else, which is apt given the magical and enchanted way Carraway describes the atmosphere and detail at Gatsby’s parties).

And ultimately, Gatsby’s lavish lifestyle fails to deliver happiness to him, too: he doesn’t manage to win Daisy back to him, so at the same time Fitzgerald is not holding up Gatsby’s ‘success’ uncritically to us.

Is Gatsby black? Although he is known for having been played in film adaptations by Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio, and the novel does not state that Gatsby is an African American, the scholar Carlyle V. Thompson has suggested that certain clues or codes in the novel strongly hint at Gatsby being a black American who has had to make his own way in the world, rising from a poor socio-economic background, and not fully accepted by other people in his social circle because of racial discrimination.

Whether we accept or reject this theory, it is an intriguing idea that, although Fitzgerald does not support this theory in the novel, that may have been deliberate: to conceal Gatsby’s blackness but, as it were, hide it in plain sight.

In the last analysis, The Great Gatsby sums up the Jazz Age, but through offering a tragedy, Fitzgerald shows that the American dream is founded on ashes – both the industrial dirt and toil of millions of Americans for whom the dream will never materialise, and the ashes of dead love affairs which Gatsby, for all of his quasi-magical properties, will never bring fully back to life.

10 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby”

I regret the several hours wasted in slogging through this low-prole distraction.

You might want to start with something like Dick and Jane.

One of my favorite novels. I have always loved this book. No matter how may times I read it, more is revealed.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite novels. Thank you for the detailed analysis! I can also add that Fitzgerald includes lots of symbols in the novel. To my mind, one of the most vivid symbols is a giant billboard with the face of Doctor TJ Eckleburg which is towering over the Valley of Ashes. These eyes are watching the dismal grey scene of poverty and decay. I guess the billboard symbolizes the eyes of God staring at the Americans and judging them. In case seomeone is interested in symbols in The Great Gatsby, there is a nice article about it. Here: https://custom-writing.org/blog/symbols-in-the-great-gatsby

While I could imagine and accept a modern film version of Gatsby as black, I really can’t espouse the notion that Fitzgerald had that in mind. If you know anything about American society in the 1920s, you’d know that you didn’t have to be black or of some other minority to be outside the winner’s circle. US society may still have tons of problems accepting that all people are created equal, but back then, they weren’t even thinking about blacks et al very much. They were quite happy to ostracize Italians, Irish, Catholics, etc, without batting an eye.

This is such a widely misunderstood book, by scholars as well as regulars.

Daisy was the victim of love. She would’ve married Jay while he was in the army. Also, Jay’s so-called symbolic “reaching” is nothing more than him trying to understand self love, to attain it, to unravel the “mystery! ” of it. But he never realizes he’s totally in love with himself, which is his biggest issue other than preying on Daisy’s real love.

And Nick ” Carraway” …. Care-a-way, care-a-way… What self-appointed moral man witnesses nakedly two married plotters sceam against a neighbor they like, or any person in serious need of legal, emotion aid, AND DOES NOTHING. Yeah, care a way, Nick, just not your way! And Come On!! who the hell doesn’t judge others….that’s the ENTIRE POINT OF EVERY BOOK AND LIFE.

WHAT preyed on Gatsby preys upon every person everywhere. Influences of life and choices we make because if them. Gatsby’s such an interesting, centralized , beloved character because he represents everyone’s apparent embracement of the childhood notion, ” we can have it all and make our own consequences, and if not, let’s see if I can manipulate time successfully. Gatsby’s us the full human demonstration of self love at all costs and quite deliberately finding a way disguise and masquerade and mutate and thus deny this very fact while simultaneously trying to make it MAGICAL AND MYSTICAL.

ARTISTS, from geniuses to so-called laypeople, are all simple people with very basic emotions. That’s where ALL starts. They are not Gods, nor do they desire misunderstanding. Frankly, they just wanna see if you have any common sense. Once you get passed that, all literature resembles EVERY aspect of life.

A terrific novel and not bad adaptation as a movie by DiCaprio, I thought! While some of the comments on here are a little excessive, there is much to be said for the symbolism in the book. I rather like the fact that ‘West Egg’ and ‘East Egg’ surely hints at questioning who is the ‘good egg’ and who is ‘the bad egg’. The place names are so unusual that this must be deliberate (‘bad egg’ has been around since at least 1855) and we’re left to wonder just what is good and bad here. No character comes out smelling of roses in this story, which – for me – makes the novel utterly compelling.

Well said, Ken. It’s the subtlety of the characterisation which makes it for me – I know a lot of critics and readers praise the prose style, but I think it’s the way Fitzgerald uses Carraway’s narration to reveal the multifaceted (and complex) nature of Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and even himself that is so masterly. I’ve just finished analysing the opening paragraphs of the novel and will post that up soon!

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The Great Gatsby and the American dream

I n the New York Times earlier this year, Paul Krugman wrote of an economic effect called " The Great Gatsby curve ," a graph that measures fiscal inequality against social mobility and shows that America's marked economic inequality means it has correlatively low social mobility. In one sense this hardly seems newsworthy, but it is telling that even economists think that F Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece offers the most resonant (and economical) shorthand for the problems of social mobility, economic inequality and class antagonism that we face today. Nietzsche – whose Genealogy of Morals Fitzgerald greatly admired – called the transformation of class resentment into a moral system "ressentiment"; in America, it is increasingly called the failure of the American dream, a failure now mapped by the " Gatsby curve".

Fitzgerald had much to say about the failure of this dream, and the fraudulences that sustain it – but his insights are not all contained within the economical pages of his greatest novel. Indeed, when Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby in April 1925, the phrase "American dream" as we know it did not exist. Many now assume the phrase stretches back to the nation's founding, but "the American dream" was never used to describe a shared national value system until a popular 1917 novel called Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise , which remarked that "the fashion and home magazines … have prepared thousands of Americans … for the possible rise of fortune that is the universal American dream and hope." The OED lists this as the first recorded instance of the American dream, although it's not yet the catchphrase as we know it. That meaning is clearly emerging – but only as "possible" rise of fortune; a dream, not a promise. And as of 1917, at least some Americans were evidently beginning to recognise that consumerism and mass marketing were teaching them what to want, and that rises of fortune would be measured by the acquisition of status symbols. The phrase next appeared in print in a 1923 Vanity Fair article by Walter Lippmann , "Education and the White-Collar Class" (which Fitzgerald probably read); it warned that widening access to education was creating untenable economic pressure, as young people graduated with degrees only to find that insufficient white-collar jobs awaited. Instead of limiting access to education in order to keep such jobs the exclusive domain of the upper classes (a practice America had recently begun to justify by means of a controversial new idea called "intelligence tests"), Lippmann argued that Americans must decide that skilled labour was a proper vocation for educated people. There simply weren't enough white-collar jobs to go around, but "if education could be regarded not as a step ladder to a few special vocations, but as the key to the treasure house of life, we should not even have to consider the fatal proposal that higher education be confined to a small and selected class," a decision that would mark the "failure of the American dream" of universal education.

These two incipient instances of the phrase are both, in their different ways, uncannily prophetic; but as a catchphrase, the American dream did not explode into popular culture until the 1931 publication of a book called The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams, which spoke of "the American dream of a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank, which is the greatest contribution we have made to the thought and welfare of the world. That dream or hope has been present from the start. Ever since we became an independent nation, each generation has seen an uprising of ordinary Americans to save that dream from the forces that appear to be overwhelming it."

In the early years of the great depression Adams's book sparked a great national debate about the promise of America as a place that fosters "the genuine worth of each man or woman", whose efforts should be restricted by "no barriers beyond their own natures". Two years later, a New York Times article noted: "Get-rich-quick and gambling was the bane of our life before the smash"; they were also what caused the "smash" itself in 1929. By 1933, Adams was writing in the New York Times of the way the American dream had been hijacked: "Throughout our history, the pure gold of this vision has been heavily alloyed with the dross of materialistic aims. Not only did the wage scales and our standard of living seem to promise riches to the poor immigrant, but the extent and natural wealth of the continent awaiting exploitation offered to Americans of the older stocks such opportunities for rapid fortunes that the making of money and the enjoying of what money could buy too often became our ideal of a full and satisfying life. The struggle of each against all for the dazzling prizes destroyed in some measure both our private ideals and our sense of social obligation." As the Depression deepened, books such as Who Owns America? A New Declaration of Independence were arguing that "monopoly capitalism is morally ugly as well as economically unsound," that in America "the large majority should be able – in accordance with the tenets of the 'American dream' … to count on living in an atmosphere of equality, in a world which puts relatively few barriers between man and man." Part of the problem, however, was that the dream itself was being destroyed by "the friends of big business, who dishonour the dream by saying that it has been realised" already.

The phrase the American dream was first invented, in other words, to describe a failure, not a promise: or rather, a broken promise, a dream that was continually faltering beneath the rampant monopoly capitalism that set each struggling against all; and it is no coincidence that it was first popularised during the early years of the great depression. The impending failure had been clear to Fitzgerald by the time he finished Gatsby – and the fact that in 1925 most Americans were still recklessly chasing the dream had a great deal to do with the initial commercial and critical failure of The Great Gatsby , which would not be hailed as a masterpiece until the 50s, once hindsight had revealed its prophetic truth.

On 19 October 1929, just five days before the first stock market crash and 10 days before Black Tuesday, Scott Fitzgerald published a now-forgotten story called "The Swimmers," about an American working for the ironically named Promissory Trust Bank, and his realisation that American ideals have been corrupted by money. This corruption is emblematised by sexual infidelity: as in Gatsby , Fitzgerald again used adultery to suggest a larger world of broken promises and betrayals of faith. There's a remarkable moment early in "The Swimmers" – which Fitzgerald called "the hardest story I ever wrote, too big for its space" – when an unfaithful wife, who is French, complains about the American women she sees on the Riviera:

"How would you place them?" she exclaimed. "Great ladies, bourgeoises, adventuresses - they are all the same. Look! …"

Suddenly she pointed to an American girl going into the water:

"That young lady may be a stenographer and yet be compelled to warp herself, dressing and acting as if she had all the money in the world."

"Perhaps she will have, some day."

"That's the story they are told; it happens to one, not to the ninety-nine. That's why all their faces over thirty are discontented and unhappy."

The American dream comes true for just 1%: for the other 99%, only discontent and bitterness await, ressentiment on a mass scale. More than 15 years later, the Marxist critics Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer used a similar image of the typist who believed she would be a movie star to reveal the American dream as a rigged lottery that no one wins but everyone plays. Today, almost 100 years after "The Swimmers" appeared, the Occupy movement has clenched its fist around the same angry realisation that we are all the 99%, not the 1%. More remarkable than the fact that Fitzgerald beat Adorno and Horkheimer and the Occupy movement to the punch, however, is that he saw all this before Wall Street came smashing down.

The villain of "The Swimmers" is a rich, vulgar banker who preaches an updated version of the gilded age's "gospel of wealth": "Money is power … Money made this country, built its great and glorious cities, created its industries, covered it with an iron network of railroads." The banker is wrong, the story makes clear, but his vision of America is winning. Feeling increasingly alienated, the protagonist, Marston, finds himself musing on the meanings of America, and especially its eagerness to forget history: "Americans, he liked to say, should be born with fins, and perhaps they were – perhaps money was a form of fin. In England property begot a strong place sense, but Americans, restless and with shallow roots, needed fins and wings. There was even a recurrent idea in America about an education that would leave out history and the past, that should be a sort of equipment for aerial adventure, weighed down by none of the stowaways of inheritance or tradition." The buoyancy of modern America depended on its being unanchored by history or tradition, and this is the America we have inherited. Historical amnesia is certainly liberating – so liberating that America is once again diving into free fall, unmoored by any critical or intellectual insight into its own myths, or even into the histories of the debates that we think define our moment.

Marston eventually decides that there is no place for him in the crass society symbolised by his rival, but he will not relinquish his faith in the ideals that America can represent. As Marston sails for Europe, watching America recede into his past, Fitzgerald offers a closing meditation nearly as incantatory as the famous conclusion of Gatsby: "Watching the fading city, the fading shore, from the deck of the Majestic, he had a sense of overwhelming gratitude and of gladness that America was there, that under the ugly débris of industry the rich land still pushed up, incorrigibly lavish and fertile, and that in the heart of the leaderless people the old generosities and devotions fought on, breaking out sometimes in fanaticism and excess, but indomitable and undefeated. There was a lost generation in the saddle at the moment, but it seemed to him that the men coming on, the men of the war, were better; and all his old feeling that America was a bizarre accident, a sort of historical sport, had gone forever. The best of America was the best of the world … France was a land, England was a people, but America, having about it still that quality of the idea, was harder to utter – it was the graves at Shiloh and the tired, drawn, nervous faces of its great men, and the country boys dying in the Argonne for a phrase that was empty before their bodies withered. It was a willingness of the heart."

Wall Street crashed 10 days later.

Two years after The Great Gatsby appeared, a reporter was sent to interview the famous author. Meeting "the voice and embodiment of the jazz age, its product and its beneficiary, a popular novelist, a movie scenarist, a dweller in the gilded palaces", the reporter found instead, to his distinct hilarity, that Fitzgerald was "forecasting doom, death and damnation to his generation". "He sounded", said the reporter, like "an intellectual Sampson" predicting that the Plaza Hotel's marble columns would crumble. Fitzgerald's absurd prophecy was that America would face a great "national testing" in the very near future:

"The idea that we're the greatest people in the world because we have the most money in the world is ridiculous. Wait until this wave of prosperity is over! Wait ten or fifteen years! Wait until the next war on the Pacific, or against some European combination! … The next fifteen years will show how much resistance there is in the American race."

"There has never been an American tragedy," Fitzgerald ended. "There have only been great failures."

It was 1927. The reporter was vastly amused.

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Critically comment on the concept of the ‘‘American Dream’’ in The Great Gatsby

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The novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald critically analyzes the idea of the “American Dream.” In addition to depicting the lives of its protagonists, this classic piece of American literature offers commentary on the excess and disillusionment that characterized the Roaring Twenties—a time when many people were chasing the American Dream.

The American Dream in the Roaring Twenties:

The Roaring Twenties, a period of economic prosperity and cultural transformation in the United States, is the backdrop against which “The Great Gatsby” unfolds. This era is often associated with the American Dream, a concept that embodies the idea of upward mobility, success, and the pursuit of happiness through hard work and determination. It is a dream deeply rooted in the nation’s history and ideals, promising a better life and limitless opportunities to those willing to strive for them. In the 1920s, the American Dream took on new dimensions as material wealth and excess came to the forefront.

Characters and Their Pursuit of the American Dream:

Throughout the novel, we see various characters striving for their version of the American Dream, and Fitzgerald uses their experiences to shed light on the complexities and pitfalls of this pursuit.

• Jay Gatsby : The titular character, Jay Gatsby, epitomizes the American Dream’s pursuit of success and wealth. Born into modest circumstances, he reinvents himself as a wealthy and mysterious figure, hosting extravagant parties and accumulating wealth in the hope of winning back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby’s life and fortune symbolize the possibility of self-transformation and success. However, his single-minded obsession with the past and his unrealistic pursuit of an idealized vision of love ultimately lead to his tragic downfall.
• Daisy Buchanan : Daisy is emblematic of those who achieve the material trappings of the American Dream. She is married to Tom Buchanan, a wealthy and influential man, and lives in luxury. Yet, she is also unhappy and trapped in a loveless marriage. Daisy represents the emptiness that can be found at the heart of a life driven solely by the pursuit of material success.
• Tom Buchanan : Tom, Daisy’s husband, is a symbol of the established American elite. He enjoys the privileges of inherited wealth and social status. However, he is arrogant, racist, and unfaithful. Tom’s character illustrates that the American Dream, when achieved at the expense of others, can lead to moral decay and a lack of empathy.
• Myrtle Wilson : Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, represents the lower social strata’s aspirations for the American Dream. She is married to George Wilson, a mechanic, but aspires to a life of wealth and luxury. Myrtle’s pursuit of the Dream leads her into an affair with Tom and, ultimately, to a tragic end.
• George Wilson : George, Myrtle’s husband, works tirelessly to achieve his version of the American Dream: financial success and a better life for himself and his wife. However, his pursuit is futile, and he remains trapped in the Valley of Ashes, highlighting the disparity between the Dream’s promise and the reality of economic inequality.

The Illusory Nature of the American Dream:

Fitzgerald’s portrayal of these characters and their experiences serves to critique the American Dream’s illusory nature. The novel suggests that the Dream, as pursued in the 1920s, often leads to disillusionment and moral decay rather than genuine happiness and success. The lavish parties, extravagant displays of wealth, and material excess that pervade the story are, in many ways, a facade that conceals the emptiness and corruption beneath.

• Gatsby’s Pursuit of the Past : Gatsby’s obsession with an idealized past and his relentless pursuit of Daisy, who represents that past, demonstrate the inherent flaw in his version of the American Dream. He believes that material wealth and social status alone will secure his happiness, yet he is unable to let go of his romanticized vision of the past, leading to his eventual downfall.
• The Moral Decay of the Wealthy Elite : Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who seemingly have everything the American Dream promises, are morally bankrupt. They are careless and selfish, causing harm to others without consequence. Their wealth does not lead to happiness but rather exacerbates their moral decay.
• The Hollow Pursuit of Myrtle : Myrtle’s affair with Tom and her desire for a more luxurious life ultimately lead to her tragic death. Her pursuit of the Dream is hollow, and she becomes a victim of the very desire she chases.
• The Inequality and Hopelessness of George Wilson : George Wilson’s futile pursuit of the American Dream highlights the stark economic inequality in society and the hopelessness that can result from chasing an unattainable goal.

The Green Light and the Unattainable Dream:

A recurring symbol in the novel is the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, which Gatsby gazes at longingly. The green light represents the unattainable Dream, forever just out of reach. It symbolizes the belief that success and happiness can be achieved through the pursuit of an idealized past or a materialistic future, even though they remain elusive.

Discuss the theme of disillusionment in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Analyze the use of symbolism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

How does F. Scott Fitzgerald use the concept of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s use of the green light underscores the theme that the American Dream, as it is often conceived, is an unattainable ideal. The Dream can never be fully realized because it is based on illusions, unrealistic expectations, and the pursuit of fleeting pleasures.

The Influence of Society and Culture:

Fitzgerald also critiques the society and culture of the 1920s, which encouraged the pursuit of material success and the idea that one could achieve their dreams through external markers of wealth and social status. The characters in the novel are products of this culture, where excess and ostentation were valued. This societal influence contributes to the characters’ flawed pursuit of the Dream.

The Tragic Outcome:

“The Great Gatsby” ultimately ends in tragedy. Gatsby’s death and the other characters’ unhappy fates serve as a cautionary tale about the perils of a Dream pursued with misguided values and an obsession with the past. The novel conveys the idea that the Dream, when it becomes an all-consuming force, can lead to personal and societal destruction.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is a gripping examination of the American Dream set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties. The book offers a critical analysis of the Dream’s many dimensions and deceptive nature. The book emphasizes the catastrophic outcomes, moral deterioration, and disillusionment that can result from chasing the American Dream through the characters of Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Myrtle, and George Wilson. The green light at Daisy’s dock’s end is a moving representation of the Dream’s impossibility, highlighting the contrast between the hope of achievement and the practicality of pursuing it.

Fitzgerald’s work challenges readers to reflect on the values and societal influences that shape the American Dream. It ultimately cautions against the single-minded obsession with materialism and the past, offering a somber critique of a society driven by excess and superficiality. “The Great Gatsby” remains a timeless and thought-provoking commentary on the American Dream and its often elusive and misleading promises.

What is the American Dream in “The Great Gatsby”?

The American Dream in the novel represents the pursuit of success, happiness, and upward mobility through hard work, determination, and self-improvement. In the context of the Roaring Twenties, it often involves the pursuit of material wealth and social status.

How does “The Great Gatsby” critique the American Dream?

The novel critiques the American Dream by portraying characters who, despite achieving elements of the Dream, experience disillusionment, moral decay, and tragic consequences. It highlights the illusory nature of the Dream and the dangers of obsession with materialism and the past.

What is the significance of the green light in the novel?

The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock symbolizes the unattainable nature of the American Dream. It represents the idea that success and happiness are just out of reach, emphasizing the gap between the Dream’s promise and its reality.

How does the societal and cultural context of the 1920s influence the characters’ pursuit of the American Dream?

The societal and cultural context of the 1920s, characterized by excess and materialism, influences the characters’ values and aspirations. The culture of the time encourages the pursuit of wealth and social status, which is reflected in the characters’ behavior and choices.

What is the ultimate message of “The Great Gatsby” regarding the American Dream?

The novel’s message is that an obsessive pursuit of the American Dream, particularly when driven by materialism and the idealization of the past, can lead to disillusionment, moral decay, and personal tragedy. It challenges readers to reevaluate the values and goals that underpin the Dream.

Why is “The Great Gatsby” considered a classic American novel?

“The Great Gatsby” is considered a classic American novel because it captures the spirit of the Roaring Twenties and provides a powerful critique of the American Dream and the societal values of the time. Its themes, characters, and symbolism continue to resonate with readers and offer profound insights into American society and culture.

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The Great Gatsby: Fitzgerald’s American Dream and the Roaring Twenties

“The Great Gatsby,” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925, is a quintessential novel of the Jazz Age, capturing the spirit and excesses of the Roaring Twenties. The novel is celebrated for its exploration of the American Dream, its depiction of the era’s lavish lifestyles, and its poignant critique of the American upper class.

Plot Overview:

The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and World War I veteran who moves to Long Island’s North Shore and becomes a bond salesman in New York City. He rents a small house in West Egg, adjacent to the opulent mansion of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a millionaire known for hosting extravagant parties. The novel unfolds as Nick becomes entangled in the complex relationships and social dynamics of his affluent neighbors, including his cousin Daisy Buchanan, her husband Tom, and, eventually, Gatsby himself.

• The American Dream: “The Great Gatsby” is often seen as a critique of the American Dream, which is portrayed as corrupt and unattainable. Gatsby’s pursuit of wealth and status, especially his obsession with Daisy, symbolizes the broader societal pursuit of material success and the hollowness that often accompanies it.
• Decadence and Idealism: The novel contrasts the decadence and moral decay of the 1920s with the idealism and romantic aspirations of its characters, particularly Gatsby.
• Class and Social Stratification: Fitzgerald explores the distinctions between different social classes, notably between the newly rich (like Gatsby) and the established aristocracy (represented by Daisy and Tom Buchanan).
• Love and Disillusionment: The novel delves into the complexities of love and desire, ultimately leading to disillusionment. Gatsby’s idealized love for Daisy is central to this theme.

Character Analysis:

• Jay Gatsby: A complex and enigmatic figure, Gatsby is both a romantic idealist and a representation of 1920s materialism and excess. His mysterious past and his obsessive pursuit of Daisy contribute to his tragic downfall.
• Daisy Buchanan: Daisy embodies the allure and superficiality of the upper class. Her indecisiveness and materialism reflect the moral ambiguity of the era.
• Tom Buchanan: Tom represents the arrogance and brutishness of the old money elite. His affair with Myrtle Wilson and his disdain for Gatsby highlight the class prejudices of the time.
• Nick Carraway: As the narrator, Nick serves as both a participant in and observer of the story. His reflections on the events and characters provide a moral framework for the novel.

Style and Narrative Technique:

Fitzgerald’s writing is noted for its poetic and vivid prose, symbolic imagery, and the effective use of Nick’s narrative perspective. The novel’s restrained yet powerful storytelling captures the mood and tone of the Jazz Age.

Depiction of the Roaring Twenties:

“The Great Gatsby” vividly portrays the opulence, hedonism, and cultural dynamism of the 1920s, a time of dramatic social and economic change. The lavish parties, jazz music, and bootlegged liquor epitomize the excesses of the era.

Impact and Legacy:

“The Great Gatsby” is widely regarded as a masterpiece of American literature and a critical examination of the American Dream. Its themes, characters, and depiction of the Roaring Twenties have made it a timeless work, resonating with readers across generations.

Symbolism and Imagery:

Fitzgerald uses potent symbols to deepen the novel’s thematic impact. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock represents Gatsby’s unattainable dreams and the elusive nature of the American Dream. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg on the billboard in the Valley of Ashes symbolize the moral decay beneath the surface of society and the loss of spiritual values in pursuit of material wealth.

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Narrative Irony and Moral Judgment:

“The Great Gatsby” is rich in narrative irony, particularly in how it presents the American Dream. Gatsby’s tragic story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of idealizing material success and romantic aspirations. Nick Carraway’s moral judgments and disillusionment provide a critical lens through which the events and characters of the novel are assessed.

The Role of Wealth and Materialism:

Wealth and materialism are central themes, with the novel scrutinizing how they impact individual values and relationships. The characters’ lavish lifestyles are juxtaposed with their emotional emptiness and moral bankruptcy, highlighting the corrupting influence of wealth.

Social Critique:

The novel offers a sharp critique of 1920s American society, particularly the recklessness and moral ambiguity of the upper class. Fitzgerald paints a bleak picture of the era’s social elite, characterized by superficiality, cynicism, and a lack of empathy.

The Jazz Age and Cultural Change:

As a definitive novel of the Jazz Age, “The Great Gatsby” captures the cultural transformations of the 1920s, including the changing social mores, the rise of jazz music, and the increasing prominence of the automobile. These elements are woven into the fabric of the narrative, reflecting the dynamism and the moral complexities of the time.

Fitzgerald’s Personal Experiences:

The novel is often considered semi-autobiographical, reflecting Fitzgerald’s own experiences and observations of society during the 1920s. His portrayal of the era’s extravagance and the disillusionment that followed is informed by his personal familiarity with the highs and lows of the period.

Influence on Literature and Culture:

“The Great Gatsby” has had a profound influence on American literature and culture. Its themes and imagery have permeated popular culture, and it has inspired numerous adaptations in film, theater, and other media.

Relevance Today:

The novel’s exploration of themes such as the pursuit of happiness, the corruption of the American Dream, and the impact of societal expectations remains relevant in contemporary society. “The Great Gatsby” continues to be a powerful commentary on the human condition, exploring the universal quest for meaning and fulfillment in a world often dominated by superficial values.

Conclusion:

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” stands as a timeless literary masterpiece, offering a penetrating critique of the American Dream and the moral landscape of the Roaring Twenties. Its exploration of themes such as ambition, love, and disillusionment, combined with its striking symbolism and elegant prose, make it an enduring work of American literature. The novel’s depiction of the complexities and contradictions of human nature continues to resonate, making it an essential work for understanding the cultural and societal dynamics of its time.

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10 Life Lessons From The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest stories from the Roaring Twenties. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby’s story of societal acceptance and romance is a classic for a reason: the great writing combined with a group of characters that stay with the reader or viewer a long time after the story ends. This explains the effect it has on people even almost 100 years after the novel was released.

There have been four adaptations of this story , and two of them became incredibly well-known. The 1974 version of the story starring Robert Redford as Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy. And a more modern version, directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.

Regardless of which adaptation is playing, the story has some core life lessons that surpass the passage of time. Here are ten life lessons from The Great Gatsby .

Don’t Fall For Your Vices

Drinking and using drugs are a central part of the parties that the characters attend multiple times in the story. There’s an underlying message about falling for your vices, which can include feeling seen and belonging. Nick falls into a slumber when he begins to party non-stop until the character comes back to himself and stops. Most of the other characters are so engrossed in feeling like they belong that their appearance and status become a vice.

Search For True Connections

Even though Gatsby’s parties were the most popular, and everyone wanted to be invited, he died alone, apart from his only friend, Nick. There’s no point in living a life fueled with people who, when it really matters don’t care about you.

A majority of his guests didn’t even know who the mysterious Gatsby was — and they didn’t care, as long as the champagne kept flowing and the dance floor kept open. There's a clear message about seeking the company of those who truly care about you, and even if it didn't last long, Gatsby was able to find one true friend.

Your Past Doesn’t Define You

Gatsby decided that he wouldn’t allow his past to get in the way of his future. While he did get lost on the journey, he is an example of a character that took his life into his own hands. He taught Nick Carraway a lot about this by sharing his story of how he became the man that he is. One of the big lessons on the story is that you have agency over where you want to go and who you want to become.

Passion Can Be a Dangerous Thing

While Daisy and Gatsby's love story has moved generations , it was also the reason for the character's demise. Gatbsy revolved his whole life around a moment in time and the feeling of being in love until it consumed him completely.

It's a cautionary tale about passion and how easily it can turn into an unhealthy obsession. Jay is obsessed with the past, and even utters one of his most famous lines, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"

Live Life For Yourself

One of Gatsby’s biggest flaws is that he lived his whole life thinking about how others perceive him. He did have goals, but they were intrinsically correlated with how he was going to be accepted by others or loved by Daisy. If he had lived a life for himself, he would have been a much happier man and most likely wouldn’t have the lonely ending he did.

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This also applies to Daisy: if she had taken her life into her own hands and done what made her happy, regardless of others, she probably wouldn’t be in an unhappy marriage.

Don’t Take Assumptions As Facts

There’s a huge portion of this story is about what people assume about others around them. This leads to many complications, stranded relationships, and even death. The characters keep making assumptions about each other, creating conflict and illusions about reality. There’s a deeper lesson in this: to not allow what you think could happen to cloud your judgment to be able to see what truly happened and who people really are.

Be Enough on Your Own

A great message for all the characters in this story is to be enough without anyone or anything around them. The constant need for others or material things is not healthy and continues to be a current message even after almost 100 years since the story was written. If Gatsby had felt like he was enough, he wouldn’t have searched his whole life for the approval of others.

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Don’t Judge The People Around You

There’s a lot of judgment in this story: about family wealth and social status , relationships, etc. From the very opening line, Nick says what his father always told him, “'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'”

Daisy appears to be shallow and unaware of her surroundings, only for her to utter the line about her child, “I hope she'll be a fool. That's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” It’s a reminder that judging others by their appearance or social status only leads to deception and does not, in any way, reflect who they really are.

Money Can’t Buy Everything

Jay Gatsby spent years having expensive and luxurious parties to entertain his guests and, most importantly, get Daisy’s attention. However, even if he was the richest of all because he was what they considered "new money," it wasn’t enough to gain their respect or friendship.

There’s a moral in Jay’s story specifically: money can’t buy true connections or happiness, which was almost a direct contradiction to the idea of the American dream.

The American Dream Is Not Real

The biggest take from the novel is that the idea of the American dream is nothing but a façade and doesn’t apply to everyone. The story was written at a time when this was a great source of motivation for many, but while a few did succeed, many didn’t.

The American dream was incredibly popular at the time and continued for a few decades. Fitzgerald shows how frail this ideal is and how unfair the world really is, and that, unfortunately, sometimes, good people don't get their happily ever after.

The Great Gatsby

F. scott fitzgerald, everything you need for every book you read..