...to avoiding harm or errors. Throughout the novel “The Great Gatsby” the reader is to see how the characters Tom and Daisy are careless. Both of the characters are careless in the same way in regard to their money, their marriage, and how they treat others. Both their carelessness leads to very important parts of this novel. Tom’s carelessness lead Daisy to fall back in love with Gatsby and leads to Gatsby’s death. Daisy carelessness also leads to the Death of Gatsby’s death. There are many instances that throughout this novel that proves Daisy was indeed careless. The first way I believe Daisy is careless is the way she spends her money. She does not have a worry in the world and will often spend money on expensive things no matter the coat she just want to impress people. The second reason I believe Daisy is careless is her marriage. She cheats on Tom with Gatsby but she does not feel sorry for her actions at all. The third reason Daisy is...
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...After reading The Great Gatsby, Jacqueline Lance, author of the article “Driving to Destruction with the Rich and Careless at the Wheel” in the journal Studies in Popular Culture, wrote about her observations of automobiles which represented the social status of the characters in the novel: Not only are characters defined by the kind and color of automobile they drive, but the way they behave behind the wheel strongly indicates their attitude towards life and relationships; those who are “careless” drivers approach life in the same manner with which they approach the open road. The characters in the novel who are the most careless drivers emerge as those who are the most careless in their personal relationships. Lance suggests that during the 1920s, the automobile represents the class structure and the type of automobile determines a person’s status. Color symbolically displays a person’s important characteristic. For example, Gatsby’s Roll Royce advertises his “new rich,” and its yellow color, which applies to gold,...
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...The Roaring Twenties is an era known for its creativity, chaos and carelessness. As all 3 thrive in American life, but carelessness seems to open itself up in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald uses the 1920’s element of carelessness to write a novel on how it represents a problem in the American Dream. Fitzgerald us Jordan Baker and Owl Eye’s carelessness to represent how America suffered from the carelessness that is brought up in the 1920s. Jordan Baker is a professional golfer, who has a tendency to lie and has a habit of being careless. Her carelessness is exemplified during Nick’s first Gatsby party. Nick comments, “She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage” (58). Fitzgerald uses his narrator to shed light on Jordan’s inability to be out of control in situations as a playing field in her carelessness. As long as...
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...A Analysis is the practice of looking closely at small parts to see how they affect the whole, but a Literary analysis focuses on how plot plus structure, character, setting, and many other techniques. That's what I intend to achieve in this essay about The Great Gatsby. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of wealth can breed carelessness in my own opinion. Using the literary techniques of point of view, juxtaposition, and foreshadowing to create meaning in his classic work. The word “careless” sums up Nick's friends as I think and also what the author says in the book himself. For example I feel like Gatsby’s whole life trying to contract his money and status so that he could reach a certain position in life. This is what motivated him to move to west egg to be right across the lake from Daisy, making as much money by doing anything possible. I felt in his position Daisy wanted and needed a man that was wealthy so he changed himself to win her back. At a point him and Daisy were perfect for eachother when he was unwealthy, but their affair foreshadowed that it was a doomed relationship showing that she only wanted him for his money now. As we can see now, the relationship was never doomed at the end for Daisy as she runs away, as her secondary lover dies. Another...
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...The Age of The Great Gatsby In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald tells a legendary love story from the perspective of the narrator named Nick. The reader sees and hears about all the crazy parties, love stories, breakups and much, much more that all seem to stem from a dynamic character named Jay Gatsby. The story takes place in a promiscuous and rebellious period called the roaring twenties, the time period right before the great depression, and to make it worst in the city that never sleeps. The roaring twenties period is the backbone of this story, characters in the novel directly correlate with the illegal, rebellious, and careless behaviors that are seen in the twenties. The prohibition caused lots of problems in this time period when it came to crime and binge drinking. First It is important to understand the social, political and economic effects of prohibition. In 1917 the Eighteenth Amendment was passed and stated that you couldn’t make, sell or transport any alcohol. The prohibitionist movement had a wide variety of supporters, including: Women, Church’s, employers and politicians. In the 1928 Presidential campaign Herbert Hoover won by calling prohibition “a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and farreaching in purpose; " this is interesting because it shows to the public that he is in favor of prohibition, but by calling it an experiment it shows that he may have some concerns about it .It definitely was an experiment...
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...to transform a person via wealth. As a result, the American Dream is recreated and seen to be the ideal lifestyle desired by the residents of the nation. Although a paradox, this golden dream of commodities, individualism and hard work to gain abundant money becomes a nightmare of materialism and carelessness. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic arbitration of the disintegration and underside of the American dream and portrays the consequences of those in pursuit it. Although ironic, Fitzgerald uses cars as a motif to represent the wealthy class living the corrupted American dream, whose careless actions drive the destruction of the 1920’s decade. He demonstrates this by using the car accident after one of Gatsby’s parties to foreshadow disastrous events, by emphasising Jordan Baker’s carelessness towards cars and her driving skills as a further insight to the recklessness of the wealthy, and by referring to Gatsby’s car as the “death car” after the incident of Myrtle’s death, applying a deeper meaning to the title. Fitzgerald applies the car crash that takes place in the third chapter to foreshadow the danger of the upper class’s carelessness. Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker...
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...Throughout Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the central character – Jay Gatsby experiences the adverse elements of wealth. Fitzgerald illustrates money as the creator of dubious assurance though Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship. Additionally, he construes money as a temporary title by examining individuals’ actions before and after Gatsby’s death. Furthermore, he also portrays money as disingenuous matter that disrupts personal principles. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald demonstrates the negative aspect of money such as creating a false sense of security, causing of momentary admiration and disrupting one's morals. Money often creates an erroneous impression of security for many. Money gives Gatsby a deceitful confidence. During...
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...“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. However, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald decries the apparent “equality” in American society by portraying men as completely dominant over women and the rich as completely excused from the consequences of their actions. Though the main character, Nick, recognizes the injustices in this inequality, he is ultimately powerless when it comes to changing them, and must accept society to be innately corrupted. From the moment that Nick meets Tom and Daisy Buchannan in New York, it is obvious to him that Tom has the dominant personality...
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...In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s in America as an era of “decayed social and moral values,” evidenced in its greed and pursuit of pleasure. The reckless elation and enthusiasm that led to wild parties and jazz (like the extravagant, over-the-top parties Gatsby throws in the novel) resulted in the corruption of the American dream. The American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness, and the desire for money and status have corrupted this dream, as it has Gatsby’s. The Great Gatsby is a symbolic contemplation of America in the 1920s regarding the collapse of the American dream in an era of prosperity and wealth. The ending of World War I in 1918 soon led to Prohibition and the Jazz Age, which was a period of fun and carelessness for young Americans. Like Gatsby, even a person from the lower class could potentially make a fortune, but the American aristocracy (old wealth) looked down upon the “newly rich.” In the novel, the East Egg and West Egg were the homes to the two separate classes of wealth, the East populating the old wealth (such as the Buchanans) and the West populating the newly rich (Gatsby). In this society, simply being wealthy wasn’t always good enough; people made distinct separation even in the upper class. Gatsby had always admired the luxury and sophistication that wealth could bring. He preferred to be around those with wealth and class, like when he joined Dan Cody on his yacht and when...
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...When viewing The Great Gatsby through the social power lens you see that the things that got you social power in 1920’s New York City were money, family name and race. All the characters tried to achieve these things and a lot of them did hoping it would make them happy but in the end it never did and more than once ended in tragedy. Arguably the biggest way you could get a lot of social power is money and wealth. Gatsby is the biggest example of this. Starting off as James Gatz a “shiftless and unsuccessful farm [person]” (Miller 98) and eventually made it to a successful and wealthy star with connections to important people, making his fortune through bootlegging. An important connection that Gatsby had was with the police chief after he...
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...The Great Gatsby’s main theme is definitely the American dream. American Dream is loosely based on the concept of a home, family, and a car. Success, and wealth combine to create an alter ego for the wealthy, and the less fortunate are just neglected. Fitzgerald clearly uses satire to critique chasing the American Dream, because in the end it’s just a dream. This “dream” is the motives behind what Gatsby does, and the same motives that ended him. Gatsby can often be signified for his “colossal dream” that Nick mentions halfway through the book. Gatsby creates an illusion that correlates with his dream, abandoning his old self, his wealth makes a new persona of himself. Almost to the point as if Gatsby is just a detriment, that will end up...
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... “The Great Gatsby,” a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, depicts life in the 1920’s. “The Roaring Twenties,” a nickname given to the decade which was loaded with money and industry. It was a time where the rich people in society only had so much to do, and so much money to spend in many ways. Jay Gatsby, one of the “newly” rich people, chooses to spend his money recklessly; throwing large, extravagant parties every weekend of the summer. Fitzgerald paints a picture of modern society by writing about these crazy parties that Gatsby hosts; and using wealth to impress, lack of morals in modern society and The American Dream. All factors of how Gatsby uses parties for support and how the American Dream can be portrayed in the “Roaring Twenties.” Gatsby’s parties were huge, they brought great numbers of people from all over New York, the people who came were all unknown to each other, not many people were actually invited, and they just came, not knowing Gatsby, they did not care about him. When Nick Carraway describes what he has seen before Gatsby’s party, “At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down....On the buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d’ oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs...In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail....By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived” (44), he tells of the luxuries provided by Gatsby in order to accommodate and impress his...
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...relationships in their life. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby this idea is explored in the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy in which Gatsby uses his wealth in attempts to gain back to her love. Through symbolism, irony and imagery it becomes evident in Fitzgerald's writing that wealth and material objects cannot replace relationships or personal happiness. Through the usage of symbolism it is obvious Gatsby’s wealth is a proponent in the failure of his and Daisy’s relationship. Gatsby obtained his money and all of his extravagances in hopes of earning back the love he and Daisy once shared. However in one moment it is obvious that it is not possible, “He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them...While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher…, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily” (92). The shirts are representative of Gatsby's riches, which is he throwing in Daisy’s face in hopes of impressing her. Meanwhile, Daisy is realizing the life she left...
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...the layman. While The Great Gatsby may not directly talk about progressive ideals and corporations, Fitzgerald shows himself to have beliefs related to that cause. All throughout the novel, Fitzgerald argues that the wealthy only care about themselves and their own wants, and will leave others in their dust to deal with the mess. From affairs to love to death to illicit activities, the wealthy, most notably Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom, among others, consistently disregard the consequences of their actions. Exemplary of this is Meyer Wolfsheim’s rigging of the 1919 World Series, an event that...
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...Tyler Landry Mrs. Potter American Studies, English July 22, 2015 The Great Gatsby Essay Just after the World War 1, in the US there had been huge changes that involved all aspects of American life, including a tendency towards materialism, changes in clothing, women getting the right to vote gangster life emerging, parties and dances, and most importantly the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s novel define that American dream changed by time; the first time for European living in America was American dream, and originally any discovery which gave them happiness was American dream, but in the ear of 20s mean for American dream has become perverted into desire for wealth by whatever means; thinking that money will bring happiness. The Great Gatsby, was published in this era; therefore; it gives us a vivid portrayal of that time by demonstrating symbols and character behavior the impossibility of American dream. The characters that Fitzgerald describes in his novel all tie in with many aspect of the 1920s lifestyle. The Jazz Age was a tendency toward materialism, and characters are described in the way that shows materialistic tendency. Callahan says “Critics from several different generations have noted how Fitzgerald used his conflicts to explore the origins and fate of the American dream and the related idea of the nation.” (Callahan). Fitzgerald describes Gatsby, the main character in the novel, as a dream achiever, who is looking for wealth and property even...
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