Title: The Great Gatsby Publication Date: 1925
Author: F. Scott Fitzergerald Nationality: American
Author's Birth/Death Date: September 24, 1896, December 21, 1940
Distinguishing Traits of Author:
F. Scott Fitzergerald was an American author who wrote novels and short stories whose writings were the epitome of the Jazz Age, a term he invented. His life is parallel to that of Jay Gatsby in the way that both met someone who encouraged them to strive for personal achievement and success. This someone for Fitzgerald was Father Sigourney Fay who he met while attending the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in New Jersey. All of Fitzgerald's novels are set in places where he lived for a while. He rented a house in Great Neck, Long Island with his wife and baby daughter. This would soon be the place where Gatsby would host his famous parties.As a writer during the Flapper Age when the economy was growing, social manners were changing, and confidence was booming, Fitzgerald managed to depict all this in his novels, especially in The Great Gatsby. He is now known as one of the most famous American novelists of the 20th century.
Setting:
In the beginning of the novel, The Great Gatsby, the story takes place in the early 19th century in West Egg, a part of Long Island, where those who have recently made their fortunes live. Neighboring West Egg is East Egg, where the more conservative upper-class live. Nick Carraway had just arrived to live there from Minnesota and has found his neighboring house to be a extravagant Gothic mansion making his modest house look small comparison. It is at Gatsby's house where weekly parties are held every Saturday night that Carraway realizes the lifestyle of the East Coast can be both fast-paced while being damaging. Unlike his West Egg neighbors, Carraway has social connections to East Egg.From time to time, he visits his second cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom who live in East Egg. "A cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay" with a lawn that "started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile" (6), the Buchanan's house is grandiose in comparison to Carraway's own small humble house.
Brief Plot Synopsis:
The story begins with Nick Carraway, the narrator, telling the reader how he is tolerant, open-minded, a good listener, and non-judgmental. He is a young man from Minnesota who after going to Yale and fighting in World War I, moves to New York to learn about the bond business. He rents a modest house in West Egg of Long Island, the "less fashionable of the two" (5). West Egg is filled with those who have made their wealth recently while East Egg is filled wight hose who have their fortunes for a while now and have many social connections. When Nick first arrives as West Egg, he notices a humongous Gothic mansion which belongs to Jay Gatsby. Nick is different from the rest of West Egg because he has social connections in East Egg; his cousin Daisy lives there with her husband Tom Buchanan, who was a classmate of Nick's at Yale. One night Nick drives out to their house where he is introduced to Jordan Baker, a competitive golfer. During dinner, Nick finds out that Tom has a lover in New York. One day, Nick and Tom ride the train into the city and get out at a random stop. Tom takes Nick to George Wilson's garage whose wife, Myrtle, is Tom's lover. They all go to New York together to Myrtle's sister's apartment where Myrtle begins to taunt Tom by repeating Daisy's name. Angered and annoyed, Tom breaks her nose. Every Saturday night, Gatsby has a party complete with an orchestra and a bar. One day, Nick receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's famous parties where he runs into Jordan Baker. Throughout this party, Nick hears numerous rumors about Gatsby including one that says Gatsby was a graduate of Oxford and that he once killed a man. On
THE GREAT GATSBY.. In the Great Gatsby the story is narrated in the past tense and seen through the eyes of Mr Nick Carraway.He is a young man from Minnestota, who after serving in World War 1, went on to New York to learn the bond business. He moves to the West Egg and soon becomes friends with his neighbour, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald, the author uses the the settings of the East and West Egg to present the differences in the classes and the demise of the American dream in the…
11 (3) 22 April 2013 Lies and Deceit Frederick Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby portrays a rich man who obsesses over the love of his past and as a result ends his life. Lies and deceit take a major role during the novel, the biggest lie of them all being Mr. Jay Gatsby himself. All humans are innately dishonest and superficial which reveals the characters true disposition and as a result leads to discontent and in Gatsbys case, death. Frederick uses Symbolism, Characterization, and Diction to…
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald In F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' he proves the American dream to be nothing people pretending to be something they're not in hopes of a better life. So is the American dream still a living dream today? Well you would think it would be because you still hear some people still talk about it here and there, so that's what I hoped to find out. Here are some things I discovered in the process. It seems the American dream is very popular in American…
The Great Gatsby Sandra Barco [School] American Lit 6/15/2013 Mr. Peskin During the roaring twenties social class was an important aspect of society. Scott Fitzgerald writes the Great Gatsby. He symbolizes “The American Dream” by the elaborate life of the rich and famous. He introduces Gatsby the millionaire that was once in love with Daisy who is related to the narrator of the story a second cousin once removed. Gatsby is drafted to the war and loses contact with his first love Daisy…
vs. Gatsby In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, in chapter two Tom Buchanan throws a Manhattan party that is later juxtaposes the Gatsby party in West Egg. Fitzgerald uses this comparison to depict the 1920’s as a period, after the war, corrupted with social and moral values. Although both parties of Tom and Gatsby’s are filled with booze and drugs, the purpose behind the parties are very diverse. Gatsby has parties simply to attract the attention of Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby himself…
On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main concept behind the novel encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Although the actions takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920’s America as a whole, in particular, the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess.…
However, by the 1920s, this dream has become into only a desire for wealth, even if the actions necessary are illegal. As a matter of fact, F. Scott Fitzgerald did not us the words “American Dream” throughout his world-acclaimed the novel, The Great Gatsby, but it is apparent that he shows the impossibility of achieving happiness in the American Dream. Through symbols, Fitzgerald proves how the original idea of American Dream is slowly decaying. The novel shows that the American Dream is fading away…
| |Jay Gatsby | His idealistic and unrealistic way in which he saw Daisy. He molded her into a view he | His obsession for her love and wanting her to love him and get married drove | | |liked, a view of perfection. |him to great ends. His sacrifice…
Augustine, Nick Bell AP Literature 12 August 2014 There are the good, the bad, and then, the neutral. Some characters are neither good nor bad, such as Jay Gatsby in the The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is a memoir to Jay, written by his best friend Nick. It focusses on Jays obsession with a Daisy, a girl from his past who he chases after, until he give his life for her. Jay got money illegally to become rich, but what he does for others makes us see him as not…
likely I shall ever find again. No Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on “Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and shortwinded elations of men.” (6) formal diction and tone use of time: in the end use of imagery (adjectives): foul dust shortwinded elations abortive sorrows use of metaphor: the wake of his dreams The narrator is describing the character Gatsby showing that in the narrator’s…