The Great Gatsby Essay

Submitted By BryanHuang2014
Words: 503
Pages: 3

The Great Gatsby

Modernism 1914-1946

The modernist literary genre consisted of: Highly experimental writing Allusions in writing referring to classical greek and roman texts Usage of fragments, juxtaposition, interior monologue, and stream of consciousness Writers were seeking to create a unique style

Modernist content: Dominant mood=alienation and disconnection People unable to communicate effectively Fear of eroding traditions Grief over loss of the past

Content can’t

The individual belongs to a “lost generation” The individual suffers from a “dissociation of sensibility” The individual has a “Dream Deferred”

The result/effect=
Common readers are alienated by this type of literature.

Modern Themes

The impact of the 1918 bolshevik revolution in Russia The jazz age The passage of the 19th amendment Prohibition of the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages, 1920-1933 Impact of the stock market crash and Great Depression of the 1930’s

Important Facts

Genre modernist novel, jazz age novel, novel of manners Time and place written 1923 1924, America and france Narrator Nick Carrway, he not only narrates but implies that he is the book’s author.
Point of view Nick carrawy narrates the book both in first and third person He presents only what he himself observes Nick alternates sections where he presents events objectively, as they appeared to him at the time, with sections where he gives his own interpretations of the story’s meaning

Tone Nick’s attitude toward Gatsby and Gatsby’s story are ambivalent and contradictory At time he seems to disapprove of Gatsby’s excesses and breaches of manners and ethics He also romanticizes and admire Gatsby, describing the events of the novel in a nostalgic and elegiac tone.

Characters
Nick Carraway
After being educated at yale (New Haven) and fighting in WWI, Nick goes to New York to learn the bond business

After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of long island that is home to newly