...disastrous outcomes. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the idea of the consequences of unethical etiquette. While the people of the novel believe that they are not doing anything wrong the nefarious actions of the characters shows Fitzgerald’s true intent of informing the reader of the dangers that immoral behavior can have on not only the one causing the problem, but the ones involved with the individual too. Death is a recurring topic within the novel and it shows the intricacies and wrongness of the actions...
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...on their back, can become successful and wealthy through hard work and determination, over the course of time. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a classic example of a rags to riches man, but learns the hard way that money and materialistic things cannot fill one’s need for happiness. Not only that, but F. Scott Fitzgerald also portrays the corruption of an individual's American Dream through their foolish pursuit of wealth and physical...
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...The Great Gatsby Characterization In The Great Gatsby the characters show very diverse personalities and they all, for the most part evolve throughout the novel. Many of the first impressions we get from the first chapter prove to be very far from the truth. As we dig deeper into the stories and pasts of the characters we find that some of them have very troubled pasts which will later return to haunt them. As the novel progresses the characters of Daisy, Nick, and Gatsby transform and become almost complete opposites of the way we see them at the beginning. Nick is one of the few characters in this entire novel that doesn’t show any major changes throughout the novel. When we first meet him he is very innocent and honest. He sees the good...
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...The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that takes a different spin on the stereotypical American dream. To say “through the novel, Fitzgerald puts across the idea that the American dream has been corrupted by the desire for materialism” would be accurate. Because “we see that Gatsby had a pure dream, but became corrupt in his quest towards that dream,” this is how the American dream was viewed as corrupt. Throughout the novel Gatsby displays many examples of how his quest towards the dream that was once pure, slowly becomes more and more corrupt. The first showing of corruptness in Gatsby’s dream, which is to marry Daisy, is his unethical means of obtaining a fortune. The stereotypical American dream is working hard for honest money. However, this is not the case for Gatsby. Gatsby attains his fortune through the illegal means of bootlegging. In the novel, the narrator Nick describes Gatsby, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a Son of God—a phrase that, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (The Great Gatsby Chapter 6 pg). This quotation shows how Nick saw Gatsby as trying to transform himself into the ideal person. He even goes as far as to...
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...MaryAnn Patton 28 May 2013 The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby, otherwise known as James Gatz, finds himself in a struggle between a fantasy like dream and power comes to inevitably stand for America itself. Gatsby becomes a mythic figure whose career and fate stand for America, our idealism in the face of materialism has destroyed America's green freshness and left only a valley of ashes. Gatsby personifies the “extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness” says Nick. Both of these descriptions can be transferred to characterize America. These two things are what America was built on. America is the land of the hopeful. America in the 1920s was wanting to be successful in an American city with a beautiful wife and home. However, Gatsby believed that this all could be bought, including the American dream. His ostentatious parties exemplifies the decline of the American dream. On the last page of the novel, Nick Carraway says “And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away…the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams;…something commensurate to his capacity for wonder”. Carraway is creating a picture of the American Dream, saying that versions of it could never be realized through America’s corrupt materialism. The “inessential houses” spoken of, are an example of the corrupt materialism on the once “fresh, green breast of the new world”. The only people who could have their...
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...The primary theme of The Great Gatsby is how upper class people are truly empty on the inside. The wealth ends up getting to their heads resulting in the unhappy life they live. No amount of money can buy permanent happiness. Eventually the happiness fades away when you use money to get it. People keep buying and buying things they want, thinking it will make them happy, but it only leads to temporary happiness. Daisy is a great example of the hollowness of the upper class. She is selfish, shallow, self centered, and doesn’t seem to have a conscience. Daisy believes that she should stay with Tom, who is having an affair, because he has money and power. She would rather take advantage of the benefits she can get, if she stays with Tom, than find real love with someone else. Upper class people tend to care only about money and try to get as much as possible. In the novel, Daisy also rarely talks about her child and when she does it’s in a very selfish way. Although, Daisy says, “I woke up out of the ether with...
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...Hope is defined as, “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” In The Great Gatsby, that is something everyone has in some way. Hope is one of the underlying themes in novel written by Scott Fitzgerald. There are many objects and symbols that represent hope. For example, the green light, Rolls Royce, and dog leash are just a few. Throughout the whole story, it is hope that lets these characters hold on to what they dream and want for their lives. Hope can motivate people in ways nothing else can. Although, in some circumstances, what some people hope for doesn’t always turn out the way they plan. First, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is the biggest symbol of hope in this novel. The light represents Jay...
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...In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the major themes was money and social class, and how it affected each of the characters. Jay Gatsby believes in the need for wealth and materialism in order to obtain love from Daisy, but is crushed by a world of unattainable dreams. With the use of money-related diction to illustrate that wealth is pursued for the sole purpose to impress others and to bring happiness, Fitzgerald demonstrates that during the 1920’s, money was most important to people in order to gain social class, but resulted in the complete opposite. Daisy is a good example of how money has influenced her and even changed her throughout the novel. She met Gatsby and fell in love with him despite how he had no money or social class. Once he went off to war, she promised to wait for him, but once she met Tom, she couldn’t resist his wealth, and...
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...Material possessions don’t determine the sense of self one has for themselves; sense of self determines one’s possessions. however , some may say the problem arises beginning with the ownership of physical property. Becoming attached to tangible, earthly objects and wealth can lead to a person caring too much and focusing too much on those, in the end, useless achievements, instead of the ore important qualities, humbleness and empathy for example. With the same line of thinking, this can be seen in a similar situation with the opposite effect. If someone who works hard, and earns physical payment, they will become grateful and appreciate their physical gainings more than that of a selfish man. This...
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...Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained...
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...Main Thesis Gatsby and Tom represent the corrupt American Dream of the 1920’s through their selfishness, and narrow minded attitudes of getting what they want without considering the consequences. Body paragraphs Gatsby goes to great lengths to win Daisy’s love, which consumes his life. Little does he realize, that that dream has ended many years ago, and that he needs to wake up and see it for himself. After Gatsby’s death Nick sits on Gatsby’s lawn and reflects in everything that happened that summer. “ He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. Little did he know, that dream was already behind him… back where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under...
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...materialistic vision of a big house, nice car, and living the easy life. As represented in the novel The Great Gatsby and Baz Luhrmann’s, The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was more focused on instant gratification of material things and needing material things as an indication of success. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby and Baz Luhrmann’s, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a renaissance man; a man who has it all but started out with nothing. His plan was to achieve his dream. He was so blinded by his possessions, in front of him, that he could not see that money could not buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrated how a dream can be corrupted by one’s focus on accruing wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream was “ambiguous, contradictory, romantic in nature, and undeniably beautiful while at the same time grotesquely flawed” (Hearne 189). His American Dream had become tarnished and corrupted by the culture of money and opulence that surrounded him. Gatsby was ‘new money’, and his romantic view of the wealthy did not prepare him for the self- absorbed, snobbish, group of people he was about to associate himself with. He threw lavish parties every night, yet he had no real friends to surround himself with. Gatsby bought expensive things and entertained a lot of people, but he was hoping for something more. Nick Caraway realized that Gatsby was involved in a few...
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...The Great Gatsby: The Corruption of the American Dream through Materialism The American dream is an ideal that has been present since American literature’s onset. Typically, the dreamer aspires to rise from rags to riches, while accumulating such things as love, high status, wealth, and power on his way to the top. The dream has had variations throughout different time periods, although it is generally based on ideas of freedom, self-reliance, and a desire for something greater. The early settlers’ dream of traveling out West to find land and start a family has gradually transformed into a materialistic vision of having a big house, a nice car, and a life of ease. In the past century, the American dream has increasingly focused on material items as an indication of attaining success. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who started out with no money—only a plan for achieving his dream. He is so blinded by his luxurious possessions that he does not see that money cannot buy love or happiness. Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream “is a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70). His American dream has become corrupted by the culture of wealth and opulence that surrounds him. Gatsby is a “nouveau riche,” and his romantic view of wealth has not prepared him for the self-interested...
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...Abby Delamotte Mrs. Di Somma American Cultures P.1 24 April 2011 To create something brilliant, there must be truth and reason. Artists hiding behind paper and art only kept the truth hidden. In the 1920’s Art and Literature revolutionized American Society by turning away from the traditional ways and exposing the reality of American life. Art that was being published in the twenties was a representation of a new and wide variety of the movements, forms and points of view. This decade was one that “produced many great works of art, music [and] literature” (Mintz). In the early twenties American culture stood in Europe’s shadow and towards the end Americans were leading the struggle to liberate the arts. Artists were ready to develop new structures, tastes and styles. Poets like E.E Cummings, Langston Hughes, and Wallace Stevens were experimenting with new writing styles and format. Artists were doing the same, Charles Demuth, Georgia O’Keefe, and Joseph Stella, by challenging the dominant and realist traditions in American art. Not only did the techniques change but as did the genres. The 1920’s era was also an era of the Harlem Renaissance “a golden age in American Literature and significant developments” in other arts such as painting and music (Burg). Creativity exploded in Harlem and jazz came into being. Photographers captured the essence of Charles Demuth’s art work by pioneering expressionist art forms. Even as college enrollment doubled during this time period...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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