...GREAT GATSBY CHAPTER ONE SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Nick Carraway, the novel's narrator and protagonist, begins The Great Gatsby by recounting a bit of advice his father taught him: don't criticize others, because most people have not enjoyed the "advantages" that he has. Nick says that as a result of following this advice, he's become a tolerant and forgiving person who resists making quick judgments of others. Nick's "advantages" come from "old money." Nick casts himself as someone who doesn't judge based on class, which indicates that other people do judge based on class. However, he is contradictory here as he does judge the other characters, apart from Gatsby who is instead romanticized. There is a sense of irony surrounding Nick. For instance, Nick says that though he scorns everything Gatsby stood for, he withholds judgment entirely regarding him. Nick says Gatsby was a man of "gorgeous" personality and boundless hope. Nick views Gatsby as a victim, a man who fell prey to the "foul dust" that corrupted his dreams. Nick introduces Gatsby and connects him to both new money and the American Dream, and indicates that Gatsby was done in by the "foul dust" of the Roaring Twenties. In the summer of 1922, Nick, a Yale graduate, moves from his hometown in Minnesota, where his family has lived for three generations, to live and work in New York. He has recently returned from military service in World War I, an experience that left him feeling restless in the dull Midwest. As...
Words: 1428 - Pages: 6
...In life, environments and social settings often influence a person’s actions and shape their character. Oftentimes, the people that someone spends a lot of time with is who they become which explains why friends mirror each other’s characteristics. For example, when someone surrounds themselves with a negative crowd, they are more likely to indulge in undesirable behavior. This is also how it works for environments as well. Fitzgerald uses setting in the “Great Gatsby” to create the character’s attitudes. Myrtle, Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby all serve as prime examples of people who have allowed their surroundings to affect the people they become. Fitzgerald uses “The valley of ashes” as a setting to define Myrtle and her attitudes throughout the story. The valley of ashes is an...
Words: 1143 - Pages: 5
...The Great Gatsby, a story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one based on the American Dream or should I say the “demise” of the American Dream. This so called dream in the 20’s was portrayed by wickedness and greed. Week three of our lecture we were asked to discuss what the American Dream meant to us and my response was one based off freedom, discovery, and hard work. Immigrants, salves, lower class citizens, etc. were accustomed to earning their money through manual labor, not through family inheritance as seen by most of the characters from The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses this story and the characteristics and actions of these characters to say that the “American Dream” was based on a lie in the 1920’s. The carefree satisfaction of the Jazz Age, also seen as the Materialistic Era, led to the extortion of the American Dream. The Declaration of Independence states that “all man are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” F. Scott Fitzgerald created this story to reveal that people in the 20’s were in a pursuit of selfish delight, and the equality of people was based on their financial assets. The line that states all mean are created equal is broken in the scene where Tom is bashing Gatsby for how he became wealthy. He calls Gatsby a crook, and in this in turn leads to retaliation from Gatsby and a fight almost breaking out. Two mean that hold such high class and dignity, yelling and...
Words: 1781 - Pages: 8
...The Great Gatsby is full of ideas and disappointment. It portrays the American life of those among different social classes. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald drives you through the ups and downs of... Daisy Buchanan is one of the main characters of The Great Gatsby. She has a lot of money. While the setting around her is corrupt, Daisy gives off the impression of being pure. Her dress, accessories, and car are all white. Fitzgerald presents her as a person of innocence. Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan used to have a relationship in the past. Gatsby now wants her to leave her husband, Tom Buchanan, so he tries to win her heart. In fact, Nick Carraway, the narrator, describes her as Gatsby’s green light. The green light is something that Gatsby tries to achieve throughout the story. He does this by throwing big parties in order to attract Daisy. The time period varies throughout the story. It starts with the end of World War I. Some characters, such as Gatsby and Carraway, participated in this Great War. The war caused many lives and homes. The Jazz Age, a post-war movement had begun. Many people celebrated by playing jazz music and dancing. Americans adopted a new lifestyle and embraced cultural and economic ideas. Sadly, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 soon ended this. Though the rich did not as much those in the...
Words: 491 - Pages: 2
...Conley Howard The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis Notebook Mrs. Marlar/English III Period 6 Howard 1 Literary Element- Symbolism Chapter 1, page 21 Original Quote: “But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unique darkness.”(Fitzgerald 21) Paraphrase with Analysis: Gatsby is being spotted by Nick, the narrator, while he is reaching out across his dock to the green light. (Fitzgerald 21) The green light symbolizes Daisy. Green is also an archetype and the negative associations are death and decay. Green can also foreshadow Gatsby death in the end since he never achieved the “green light” being Daisy who she chose Tom Buchanan in the end. Embedded Quotes in Paraphrase with Analysis: David F. Trask in his book, A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, states that “Gatsby believed in the green light, the future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further ... And one fine morning Alas, all of us! The novel ends on a desperately somber note: So we beat on, boats...
Words: 1349 - Pages: 6
...writers of the 20th century and the time called the „Jazz Age”. His most famous works are „The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and „The Great Gatsby” which have been adapted into films. The Great Gatsby has been the basis for many movie adaptations of the same name in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000, and the latest in 2013. 2. Baz Luhrmann Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann (1962 - ) is an Australian film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for directing Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Australia and the newest version of The Great Gatsby released in 2013. 3. „The Great Gatsby” – the plot of the novel The Great Gatsby is an American novel written in 1925 that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young, handsome and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his unrealistic illusion and passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Major characters Nick Carraway – a Yale graduate originating from the Midwest, a World War I veteran, and, at the start of the plot, a newly arrived resident of West Egg, who is about 30 years old. He serves as the first-person narrator of the novel. He is Gatsby's next-door neighbour and a bond salesman. He is an easy-going, occasionally sarcastic, and quite optimistic person. Jay Gatsby (originally James "Jimmy" Gatz) – a young, handsome and mysterious millionaire with shady business connections, originally from North...
Words: 2708 - Pages: 11
...Not all love is running into your true love's arms on a beach while the sun is setting. There are many different kinds of love; the love of friendship, admiration, unrequited love, or young love. Love is real, raw and when it’s not cared for the right way, it can turn toxic. The Great Gatsby not only includes all of those kinds of love, but many more. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald not only writes those loves, but shows how easily they can crumble down. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby have one of the most confusing relationships in The Great Gatsby. They meet at one of Jay Gatsby's extravagant parties and Nick seems to admire him. ‘"They're a rotten crowd,’ I shouted across the lawn. ‘You're worth the whole damn bunch put together”(45). Nick held Gatsby on a higher pedestal that all the attendants at Gatsby's rager, which starts a his admiration for Gatsby. When Gatsby realizes that Nick has relations with Daisy, Nick's cousin, he seems to really want a friendship from Nick, yet Nick is still wary of Gatsby, not even friends with him until Gatsby proves that he is the man he says he is. Their friendship was rocky for the most part, Nick didn't actually trust Gatsby the whole book. Even less so when it is revealed that Gatsby was not who he said he was. When Gatsby dies, Nick states that he never really thought of him as a friend in the first place, even though he was one of the few who attended his funeral. Their friendship was tainted by lies and trickery, yet it wasn't all much...
Words: 1195 - Pages: 5
...Chapter Four of The Great Gatsby? Chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby is one in which Nick continues to gradually piece together information about Gatsby, hearing about his romance with Daisy through the voice of Jordan Baker. Several settings are presented, conveying significant messages about the characters and the ‘roaring twenties’. Chapter Four is one where Nick travels with Gatsby to New York and spends time with him in several different places. New York is presented as being both magical and somewhat repulsive, similar to how Nick feels ‘within and without’ the strange world of the ultra-rich. Viewing the city from the bridge, Nick describes it as promising ‘all the mystery and beauty of the world’, however, immediately after, ‘a dead man’ is described. This could be implying that the ‘jazz age’ is not all that it seems to be, with Fitzgerald revealing that the ‘mystery and beauty’ is only a façade hiding a much darker truth. In addition, the way that the ‘valley of ashes’ is described as opening ‘out on both sides’ could convey the poignant message that death is inescapable in this seemingly wondrous environment. Alternatively, Fitzgerald could be comparing the setting of New York with Gatsby. Before we are introduced to Gatsby, he is presented as almost mythical, magical, but mysterious, just as the city appears from a distance. However, meeting Gatsby could be seen as disappointing, as he is simply an ordinary, wealthy man with a vague, dark past. Gatsby could also be seen...
Words: 579 - Pages: 3
...In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald places the setting of the novel in a time of high, pretentious aura and his characters in multiple scenarios that reveal their true character. The characters in the novel symbolize America as a whole and the environment significantly depicts the vast difference between the high class and the low class. Moreover, Fitzgerald applies the difference in the geography to outshine the main personality difference of the characters that live in that area. Nevertheless, he contrasts two specific different types of upper class: the “old money and “new money.” Fitzgerald geographically sets these two upper classes into West and East Egg to establish how the area can affect a character. The main character, Jay...
Words: 581 - Pages: 3
...The Great Gatsby Critical Lens L.M. Montgomery once said, “We pay a price for all we get or receive in this world." In other words, there are consequences that we receive for all we receive in this society. This quote is true because for, example, something such as winning the lottery is something we get but, we pay a price for this with people feeling entitled to a piece of the winnings, as well as false sense of friendship never knowing if there using you for the materialist purpose. This quote is especially true and best formatted for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The use of literary elements such as setting and symbolism further illustrate the validity of the quote. The author shows this with the use of setting. Fitzgerald’s description of setting incorporates and reflects the crime and corruption of the time, the loose morality of the roaring twenties, and the ever growing social divisions between the haves and the have-nots. This is an illustration of setting because it shows the divide between four major settings in the novel East Egg, West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and New York City. (Including, fully developing the characters Fitzgerald spent many a pages concerned with detail). These descriptions developed the mood and pace, the tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses of the characters are directly linked to their location. The author shows this when he says the main characters is represented in this city as described in this quote. “The City seen from the...
Words: 744 - Pages: 3
...plays, despite its appalling ending. Authors have made it a point to sell tragedy in order to make money. However, my perspective on that opinion has been changed. I read The Great Gatsby during my sophomore year in high school as a part of an American literature class. By the end of the book, I realized that no matter what happens in life, it will still keep going and I should only have to look at the optimistic part of it. For some reason, I felt sympathy for Gatsby,...
Words: 2292 - Pages: 10
...The American Library Association is known for its’ banned book list, a set of books characterized by parents, teachers, and professors as being anything from, Anne Frank’s The Diary of Anne Frank being “too depressing”, to Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends for “promoting cannibalism”. In 1982, the United States Supreme Court case Board of Education, Island Trees School District v. Pico found that schools cannot remove library material based on their own disagreement, the Supreme Court ruled that unless a book was “pervasively vulgar”, it was protected as the students right to express and receive information. F. Scott Fitzgerald's’ The Great Gatsby, was challenged at the Baptist College in Charleston, SC (1987) because of the books’...
Words: 273 - Pages: 2
...In the story the great gatsby the novel and the movie share many similarities and many differences. The characters in the great gatsby also share similarities and differences between the movie and the book. A very important aspect to the story is the parties and their are differences and similarities also in the book and movie. Finally the book and the movie share a strong similarity with the setting. In the story the characters share a similar and different style in the movie and the book. One example is gatsby, in the book he is portrayed as very mysterious, “where i looked once more for gatsby he had vanished”.(gatsby page 20-21). Where in the movie he is portrayed the same mysterious but a little more outgoing, hopeful, and very neighborly to nick. A character that shares a strong similarity between the book and the movie is tom. He is cold hearted, stubborn, un loyal, and a very bad alcoholic who cheats on his own wife. he is portrayed in the movie the same...
Words: 562 - Pages: 3
...One amongst many other sayings, "It doesn’t matter what you what you look like on the outside; it’s what's on the inside that count.” (Unknown) This is true when it comes to finding a significant other, but also when pertaining to literature. How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas Foster, is a guide purposefully identifying literary conventions to enable a reader to develop analytical skills. Each chapter highlights essential elements seen in texts within the literature society including references to the Bible, purposeful environment settings, and the symbolic attachment of supernatural creatures. The Bible is a powerful piece of literature connecting to the vast majority of society's morals and beliefs. Foster states how "often those values will not be religious in nature but may show themselves in connection with the individual's role within society."(Fitzgerald 88)Religious references in literary text do not always refer to God but biblical references in a text can strengthen the plot through...
Words: 651 - Pages: 3
...homelessness is often seen as “invisible” is a problem that is moreorless overlooked. Factors such as residential segregation and political disenfranchisement play a part in the numbers of homeless people that live, and why they seemingly appear to not be in our sights. One correlation that could be made between the film and this topic is that the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, could have easily been thrown into this category if he didn’t strive to reach the goals he had. Another...
Words: 542 - Pages: 3
