...The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the novel the characters are quite careless, Tom and Daisy Buchanan in particular. One of the main characters, Nick, even says “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.” pg 191. These characters are a married couple but both cheat on each other. They emotionally and physically abuse people which eventually leads as far as murder. Tom Buchanan cheats on his wife, Daisy with a woman named Myrtle, who is also married. In addition to this, he doesn't really try and hide that fact. This is shown when Nick is having dinner with Miss Baker and the Buchanan's, and Tom leaves the table to answer a call. Miss Baker tells Nick, "Tom's...
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...Analysis of “Materialistic Perception” in F. Scot Fitzgerald Using Marxist Literary Criticism Chapter I 1.1 Introduction The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. 1.2 State of Problem The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its narrative. That era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other economy struggle that was the result of the materialism and capitalism damaging on social behavior, led to the widespread social distress. 1.3 Theoretical Framework Using literary criticism to interpret what is the ideal life of America in 19th century and what is the dream of American people after World War I. as a Marxist interpretation of the novel makes especially clear, reveals its dark underbelly instead. Through its unflattering characterization of those at the top of the...
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...Symbolism of Houses and Cars in The Great Gatsby Francis Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of symbolism, which is portrayed by the houses and cars in an array of ways. One of the more important qualities of symbolism within The Great Gatsby is the way in which it is so completely incorporated into the plot and structure. Symbols, such as Gatsby's house and car, symbolize material wealth. Gatsby's house "[is] a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy" which contains "a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy" is a symbol of Gatsby's large illegal income (Fitzgerald 9). Gatsby's large income isn't enough to keep him happy. He needs "The house he feels he needs in order to win happiness" and it is also the perfect symbol of carelessness with money which is a major part of his personality (Bewley 24). Gatsby's house like his car symbolizes his vulgar and excessive trait of getting attention. Gatz's house is a mixture of different styles and periods which symbolizes an owner who does not know their true identity. The Buchanan's house is symbolic of their ideals. East Egg is home to the more prominent established wealth families. Tom's and Daisy's home is on the East Egg. Their house, a "red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay" with its "wine-colored rug[s]" is just as impressive as Gatsby's house but much more low-key (Fitzgerald 11) (13). East egg and Tom's home represents the established wealth and...
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...The Great Gatsby During the Jazz Age in 1925, The Great Gatsby was written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. It was a novel that served as a portrait of the frenzied post- WWI society. It was a novel noted for its remarkable way in which the author captured a cross section of American society. Reflecting mostly on the way Fitzgerald lived, the characters in Gatsby live in a time of corruption. Tom Buchanan’s infidelity, Nick Caraway’s fascination with the lifestyle of wealth, and Jay Gatsby’s idealism of riches are all a reflection of the lifestyle that the author, F. S. F. and his wife Zelda led in the roaring 20’s. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda had had marital problems as well as Tom and Daisy Buchanan did. Like Tom, Fitzgerald had a mistress. Tom insisted that he “[wanted Nick] to meet [his] girl,” he did not care about how uncomfortable it would make Nick to meet the woman he was fooling around with (p 28). Tom and Daisy moved around multiple times similarly to Fitzgerald and his wife. Both couples lived in Chicago, but an incident caused the Buchanans to move up Northeast to New York. “They were careless people Tom and Daisy” just like Zelda and Scott, “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and left other people to clean up the mess they had made.” (p 179) Always running from their problems, Tom and Daisy did not like facing the music. Along with Scott and Zelda, Tom and...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, demonstrates that Jay Gatsby lives a life of the American Dream gone wrong by lowering his morals with the corrupt nature of greed, Jay only focuses on the past to move forward in his own grand dream for himself, and how Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism during the Roaring Twenties exemplifies theme areas in the novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the cars represent a form of status. Nick takes taxis while Gatsby drives his custom made, cream-yellow car. According to Dan Seiters, “It is a rich cream color, a combination of the white of the dream and the yellow of money, of reality in a narrow sense,” (1). After Daisy kills Myrtle a bystander talks about the car and says, “It was a yellow car....
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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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... Dang Close! F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby portrays a high class society with a powerful grasp on money, and how they use affluence to their advantage to avoid responsibility for their actions. Tom and Daisy Buchanan have a seemingly flawless marriage: a well-disciplined daughter, an enormous mansion in Long Island, New York, and one of the largest inherited fortunes in America. However, the couple would not have achieved a perfect image if they did not use money to hide their problems. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how the power of wealth helps the rich escape consequences of immoral behavior. Daisy consistently suffers emotional abuse from Tom’s affairs, yet she chooses not to face the results of confronting him and is still a loyal wife due to her fear of losing the protection that his money provides. Because Daisy’s inseparability from to wealth makes her unable to call out her husband, Tom evades the consequences of his cheating. Even though she is perfectly aware of her husband’s adultery, she does little to prevent him from seeing his mistresses in order to remain in a “distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belong” (22). That is to say, Daisy's decision to openly confront Tom about the scandals would not only pose...
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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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...to do. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the observant narrator Nick Carraway moves out east to New York’s bright West Egg, in hopes of pursuing a fresh start with his new career in the bond business. Nick becomes utterly mystified by his new neighbor, the one and only Jay Gatsby, whose entire life revolves around his longing for something he cannot have, Daisy Buchanan. As Nick begins to acquaint himself more with East and West Egg, and the people who live there he learns how deceiving the glamorous lifestyles are truly that wealthy Americans appear to be living. In every chapter Fitzgerald uses colors as prominent symbols and thematic...
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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, which people consider as Fitzgerald’s best literary work, portrays the journey of a man in acquiring success and love throughout the Jazz age. The protagonist is Jay Gatsby who attempts to win Daisy Buchanan’s love a high-class woman by using illegal ways to become wealthy. This paper uses themes as a literary device as it relates to The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. The most important underlying themes of the novel however are honesty and dishonesty, American dream, class, violence, gender roles, and moral decay. Theme of honesty and dishonesty: As compared to other works, the theme of honesty in Fitzgerald’s novel fails to distinguish compassionate characters from the uncompassionate ones. Honesty and dishonesty is a major...
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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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...The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald Download free eBooks of classic literature, books and novels at Planet eBook. Subscribe to our free eBooks blog and email newsletter. Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry ‘Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!’ —THOMAS PARKE D’INVILLIERS The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 I n my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’ He didn’t say any more but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon—for the intimate...
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...The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald Download free eBooks of classic literature, books and novels at Planet eBook. Subscribe to our free eBooks blog and email newsletter. Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry ‘Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!’ —THOMAS PARKE D’INVILLIERS The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 I n my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’ He didn’t say any more but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon—for the intimate revelations of young men or at least...
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...The Write Approach: English Language Arts Research and Writing Guide Student Name: John Burroughs High School Burbank, CA The Write Approach Table of Contents Glossary of Terms The Writing Process Thinking Maps The Six Types of Writing Prompts Jane Shaffer Writing Terms Writing a Thesis Statement Writer’s Signal Words 1 4 5 6 7 8 11 Things NEVER to Do in an Essay 12 MLA Guidelines and Style Sheet Sample Essay Formatting Guide to Formatting Essays Using MS Word Revising and Proofreading Essays JBHS Proofreading Symbols Proofreading/Editing Worksheet MLA Quoting and Citation Guide Quote Integration FAQs Work Cited Page Why Did I Get This Grade? JBHS Academic Honesty Policy List of Resources and References Academic Honesty Contract 14 15 © JBHS English Department 2009 19 27 28 30 32 33 35 38 40 43 44 Glossary of Writing and Research Terms Annotated Bibliography: Includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources used for researching a topic. Audience: Those whom you want your writing to reach. A writer needs to choose the appropriate words and style for his or her intended audience. Body Paragraph: Makes up most of an essay and has three main parts: a topic sentence, concrete detail/commentary, and a concluding sentence. Citation: [also known as parenthetical or in-text citation] Names a source and page number for text which quotes from, uses specific details from, or paraphrases source/research...
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