...What Makes “The Great Gatsby” Great “Art is subjective” A Roman saying, “De gustibus non est disputandum” in translation means- it’s all a matter of taste. This indeed stands a proof that there is no constant in art. It all comes down to personal preferences. What one might find a masterpiece of a work might be absolute trash to some other. Art can never be confined within rigid boundaries of vision. Art lies above and beyond such fixities of an individual’s likes and dislikes. No piece of art can be called great. Likewise, no piece of art can be called worthless. If a work of art manages to play with the strings of just one heart, it has done its job already. After all, that’s what art is supposed to do, right? Transcend the inky sheets to...
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...The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story surrounding the decay of the American Dream in the 1920’s; a time when virtually anyone could achieve the dream. Jay Gatsby, the main character, encompasses every fault in the warped idea of the American Dream in the booming 20’s making The Great Gatsby, the perfect title for the story. The American dream is commonly defined as “The ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American. (Dictionary) Almost any American would describe the American Dream as a stable income, a sustainable job and the chance to provide the opportunity for the following generation to do even better. In the booming 20’s, that dream was available to almost every...
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...The Great Gatsby “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents his audience with a novel with intricate symbolism. Nick Carroway, the protagonist, has recently moved from the Midwest to get his career started in New York. He lives on the island of West Egg the poorer side of town, across from East Egg the wealthier side of town. In East Egg are where his pompous and snobbish friends Tom and Daisy live. They gossip and party a lot, all while Tom is cheating on Daisy with a lady named Myrtle Wilson. Everyone knows except for Daisy and Mr. Wilson. Meanwhile, Nick lives next door to a mysterious man named Gatsby, who throws extravagant parties, but yet no one knows anything about him. Throughout the book Nick learns about the mysterious Gatsby and what it is like to live around people who believe in a conceited world of indecency. Fitzgerald involves symbolism into the heart of the novel so strongly that it is necessary to read passages of the book more than once to full understand. The creative yet simplistic styling of this book is a major reason why The Great Gatsby is one of the classics of the 20th century. Throughout the book, three themes dominate the text of The Great Gatsby. These themes include the loss of time, appearance and characterization, and perspective. The word time appears many times in the novel either by itself or in a...
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...<How Faithful Is The Great Gatsby?> By David Haglund Ever since Baz Luhrmann announced that he was adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby—and especially after he revealed that he’d be doing it in 3-D—much digital ink has been spilled about the hideous sacrilege that was sure to follow. Nevermind that Luhrmann’s previous adaptation, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, was quite true to both the language and the spirit of that legendary play; Gatsby, as David Denby puts it in The New Yorker this week, is “too intricate, too subtle, too tender for the movies,” and especially for such an unsubtle filmmaker as Luhrmann. So the argument goes, anyway. In fact, Fitzgerald’s novel, while great, is not, for the most part, terribly subtle. And though it has moments of real tenderness, it also has melodrama, murder, adultery, and, of course, wild parties. In any case, we can put aside, for the moment, the larger question of whether Luhrmann captured the spirit of Gatsby, which is very much open for debate. There’s a simpler question to address first: How faithful was the filmmaker to the letter of Fitzgerald’s book? Below is a breakdown of the ways in which the new film departs from the classic novel. The Frame Story Luhrmann’s chief departure from the novel arrives right at the beginning, with a frame story in which the narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), some time after that summer spent with Gatsby & co., has checked into a sanitarium, diagnosed...
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...Synopsis of Review The Great Gatsby is such a well shaped book, every point is balanced perfectly to have a highly unified ending. It doesn’t get old, always grabbing your attention. If fits every generation, making it a classic. The theme has had no real answer, having the possibility to be anything that you make it. It also ties up the American dream: being wealthy, having perfect love, and fulfillment in life. Some see the book as a spiritual failure. The background to Gatsby’s life isn’t certain even though there are many theories. The book’s narrator is compared to Joseph Conrad Marlow’s narrator in Heart of Darkness, they both dominate the novel. Marlow isn’t as involved in the storyline as much as Carraway is, but they are both used as “devices [to distance] the novelist from his fictive narrator.” Carraway differs from the other characters, one of his “ultimate strengths,” drawing us to Gatsby emphasizing the hero of the American experience. We picture Gatsby as rich, having the opportunity to experience so much more and be able to fall in love easier. Gatsby has a “Platonic conception of himself,” causing him to think he can go back to the past and get Daisy back. Gatsby works hard to fulfill his dream; he doesn’t want to face reality. “Edith Wharton told Fitzgerald that ‘to make Gatsby really great, you ought to have given us his early career.’” But having little background gives Gatsby that mysterious feel. Fitzgerald wrote a short story...
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...Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The assumption that wealth makes happiness leads to many characters making drastic measures to find "happiness.” Many characters only care about money throughout the book, Daisy is one of them. She thought that lots of money would make her happy but in reality, it was really Gatsby that made her happy. Daisy loved Gatsby so much but he never had enough money, so once he left for the war she looked for someone who had money. She found Tom, and even though she never really loved Tom she still decided to marry him. Daisy wanted a good, expensive life, someone who could provide for her and give her all she needs and wants, Tom was the person who could do that. "Daisy marries and stays with Tom because of the...
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...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...
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...In the 1920s, partying and jazz were a strong front, but when the charade of happiness is removed, you reveal the bootleggers and mob bosses that truly controlled it all. F. Scott Fitzgerald personified the era with his book, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s book gave examples, such as the main character Gatsby, of people who started off as dirt poor street hoodlums to tycoons in substantial mansions. Now that’s the real American Dream. Known as the “Jazz Age” or “The Roaring Twenties”, the 1920s were truly an extremely intriguing time in American history. America recently had assisted in winning the largest military conflict of that current time, Jazz was on the rise, and lavish parties were everywhere. It was a fantastic time, but there was...
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...explains the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald flawlessly. The Great Gatsby is a complex story that can be read in various ways to reach a deeper meaning of understanding. The book has an abundance of descriptive colors that expand on and support the story. These colors can be interpreted differently from person to person based on experiences and situations. In the novel, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses them well to capture the characteristics of the story. However, this begs the question of how a factor as minor as color can affect so many aspects of...
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...The Great Gatsby: Summary: Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg, Long Island, a wealthy area populated by the new rich, people who made their fortunes due to the economic upswing of the Roaring Twenties. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a huge mansion and throws extravagant parties on the weekends. Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island and the home of the upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a former classmate of Nick during his time at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a random, vulgar party in the apartment that Tom bought because of his affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually gets an invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters...
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...publication, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby continues to be critically acclaimed as the Great American Novel, with millions of copies being sold annually. Fitzgerald’s slim novel perfectly encapsulates the highly sought-after American Dream in a way that hadn’t been written before in the era of its publication. The story of greed, envy, jealousy, and wealth implores readers to re-read and decipher its deeper-meanings, and serves as a worthy contender for the title of the Great American Novel. Fitzgerald began his novel in his late twenties, pouring his heart and soul into the soon-to-be masterpiece. Finally, after numerous revisions and edits, Fitzgerald’s third novel was...
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...The Truly Great Gatsby Is his novel the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates Gatsby as a character who becomes great. He begins life as just an ordinary, lower-class, citizen. But Gatsby has a dream of becoming wealthy. After meeting Daisy, he has a reason to strive to become prominent. Throughout his life, Gatsby gains the title of truly being great. Even before Gatsby is introduced, he is hinted at being out of the ordinary. The first evidence of this is when Nick says, "Gatsby turned out all right at the end." (2) Nothing was known about Gatsby at the time and Nick is already saying Gatsby was okay. There's a air of mysteriousness surrounding Gatsby. Everyone knows of him, but no one knows who he really is or where he comes from. Even at our first glance of Gatsby, he's reaching out for something only he can see. There were many stories flying about Gatsby but no one knew what to really believe. In on instance Jordan made the comment, "I think he killed a man." (49) Even when Gatsby confessed about his past he didn't always tell the truth. He told Nick he inherited great wealth, but in reality, Gatsby gained his wealth on his own. Even though Gatsby lied, the fact that he made himself what he was makes him even that much greater. When Gatsby was still James Gatz, he had a dream of leaving his life on the farm behind and become part of the upper-class. Even Gatsby's father knew when he said, "If he'd lived, he'd of been a great man." (169) Little did...
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...novel the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates Gatsby as a character who becomes great. He begins life as just an ordinary, lower-class, citizen. But Gatsby has a dream of becoming wealthy. After meeting Daisy, he has a reason to strive to become prominent. Throughout his life, Gatsby gains the title of truly being great. Even before Gatsby is introduced, he is hinted at being out of the ordinary. The first evidence of this is when Nick says, "Gatsby turned out all right at the end." (2) Nothing was known about Gatsby at the time and Nick is already saying Gatsby was okay. There's a air of mysteriousness surrounding Gatsby. Everyone knows of him, but no one knows who he really is or where he comes from. Even at our first glance of Gatsby, he's reaching out for something only he can see. There were many stories flying about Gatsby but no one knew what to really believe. In on instance Jordan made the comment, "I think he killed a man." (49) Even when Gatsby confessed about his past he didn't always tell the truth. He told Nick he inherited great wealth, but in reality, Gatsby gained his wealth on his own. Even though Gatsby lied, the fact that he made himself what he was makes him even that much greater. When Gatsby was still James Gatz, he had a dream of leaving his life on the farm behind and become part of the upper-class. Even Gatsby's father knew when he said, "If he'd lived, he'd of been a great man." (169) Little did his father know that Gatsby was already...
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...Pursuing the American Dream The Great Gatsby, written by Scott F. Fitzgerald in 1925, follows the life of the various characters that lived in West Egg, a fictional town on Long Island. It is narrated by Nicholas “Nick” Caraway, a Yale graduate and one of the main characters. By the way the book is written, one can deduce that Nick lived through all the events, or wrote what others told him about the events he was not present in, and wrote the book by end of it all. Its main theme is the pursuit of the American Dream, and what characters have to do to reach it, and how it can all crumble down. Basically, in this essay I will show the different ‘American dreams’ that are strongly projected in this novel. The first dream, the one with the strongest portrayal, was the desire of escalating in the social status ladder. There were characters with a high social status for their family’s name, like Tom Buchanan who inherited his family fortune. He was described as the kind of person that thinks money allows him to treat people as the lowest scum; even though his mannerism and tastes were exquisite, his attitude towards those who were not on the same status as him was detestable. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Page 188, The Great Gastby) Tom counts as an example of...
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...How Great Was Our Man Gatsby? As on author said: "F. Scott Fitzgerald created Gatsby, the eponymous character of his novel, The Great Gatsby, as a character who built himself into something great. He begins life as just an ordinary, lower-class, citizen. But Gatsby has a dream of becoming wealthy. After meeting Daisy, he has a reason to strive to become prominent. Throughout his life, Gatsby gains the title of truly being great. Even before Gatsby is introduced, he is hinted at being out of the ordinary. The first evidence of this is when Nick says, "Gatsby turned out all right at the end." (2) Nothing was known about Gatsby at the time and Nick is already saying Gatsby was okay. There's a air of mysteriousness surrounding Gatsby. Everyone knows of him, but no one knows who he really is or where he comes from. Even at our first glance of Gatsby, he's reaching out for something only he can see. There were many stories flying about Gatsby but no one knew what to really believe. In on instance Jordan made the comment, "I think he killed a man." (49) Even when Gatsby confessed about his past he didn't always tell the truth. He told Nick he inherited great wealth, but in reality, Gatsby gained his wealth on his own. Even though Gatsby lied, the fact that he made himself what he was makes him even that much greater. When Gatsby was still James Gatz, he had a dream of leaving his life on the farm behind and become part of the upper-class. Even Gatsby's father knew...
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