F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel, The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s fame has
After the suffering of World War I in the 1920s, many of the upper class Americans focused on filling their lives with endless joy and concentrating their energies on their own pleasure and comfort to forget about wartime memories. The 1920s era was were money had become the foundation of society due to the American dream, where everyone left behind their horrible past and centralized on becoming wealthy and being the most superlative. As a result, in The Great Gatsby through many rhetorical devices, Fitzgerald uses Nick Carraway as his persona in order to portray that money became too powerful and people became extremely selfish and greedy in the 1920s.
Fitzgerald utilizes many rhetorical strategies throughout his novel. Specific to the excerpt the rhetorical strategies metaphor and personification are found to be used to strengthen Fitzgerald’s key themes of dreams and reality. Ultimately though, the rhetorical strategies and themes contribute to creating the effect that Gatsby is truly above the average man and that Gatsby, at least to Nick, is some amazing creature that grew from his dreams. The first instance of personification to be used in the passage is in the line, “I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever: I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart” This use of personification has the effect of
“They were careless people…” says Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby. In a story depicting the 1920s during a time of prosperity, growth, and the emergence of the America as a major global power, this statement may seem to be contrary. But in reality, Nick Carraway’s description of his friends and the people he knew, was not only true, but is an indication of those who were striving for the American dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream is foolish, the people who pursue it are immoral and reckless, and this pursuit is futile.
“I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father said snobbishly, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.’ Ch.1
The 1920’s was a very interesting time in United States history. After all World War I had ended and many Americans did not realize that the Great Depression was in the near future, so the 1920’s fell between these two dramatic events. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby teaches many morals, but none more important than the duality of the 1920’s. Duality is evident in Gatsby's dreams, his death, his lover Daisy, his wealth, and his parties, which all reflect the duality of the 1920’s. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald makes the concept of achieving the American dream seem improbable. Gatsby has the American Dream of being successful and wanting to marry the girl of his dreams. However, Fitzgerald argues that The American Dream is a paradox because dreams aren’t supposed to be achieved, and are better off to remain in one’s imagination. For example, Gatsby wants to marry the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Sadly Gatsby sets such a high standard for her that she will never be able to live up to. Gatsby envisions Daisy as the golden girl, and once he put his plan into action, he realizes
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzerald expresses a negative view of the 1920's and the American Dream. He does this using the characters, setting, and symbolism.
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man 's needs, but not every man 's greed.” As humans, we work hard in order to have the greatest opportunity to succeed in life, which will fulfill our wants. F Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, utilizes effective language and punctuation in the text, which helps him accomplish his purpose: Illustrate what material goods does to a society. From a rhetorical standpoint, examining logos, ethos, and pathos, this novel serves as a social commentary on how the pursuit of “The American Dream” causes the people in society to transform into greedy and heartless individuals.
Self-Reinvention: The act of reinventing or changing oneself, this means, changing ones’ personality, social status, and past. One person who reinvented himself was none other than the Great Gatsby. Gatsby is an obvious example of self-reinvention, especially when he tells Nick about his real story. Another person who reinvented himself is the narrator Nick. Nick is the less obvious example of self-reinvention; however, he still undergoes a self-reinvention process. Self-reinvention is one of the main themes in The Great Gatsby. In this book, the author is trying to show the reader that self-reinvention doesn’t always turn out the way one expected. He shows this by giving us the examples of Nick and Gatsby.
In the text, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a wide range of literary techniques to convey a lack of spirituality, and immorality. Techniques such as characterisation, symbolism, and metaphors help to cement the ideas Fitzgerald explores. However, there are some features to this world that redeem it. Which are displayed through expert execution of techniques like characterisation, contrast, and repetition. The world of The Great Gatsby is home to many morally corrupt and spiritually empty characters however, the world itself is not a spiritual and moral wasteland.
Nick Carraway is man from a wealthy family in Minnesota moving to west egg to learn about the Bond business. Then he gets involved with Mr. Gatsby which then sparks the beginning of the novel. Gatsby then gets involved with the nightmare of the American Dream. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s perfectly as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. This novel shows the lack of social skills in newly made millionaires such as Gatsby that cannot even pick up on an invitation to lunch.
In spite of many characters creating an illusion of themselves, Nick actually is living in a reality, and is able to recount and narrative to the reader from his opinion a more realistic viewpoint. Nick’s last name “Carraway” literally can be broken into care and away. His name is symbolic of the reality in the story. His narration tells the perspective which identifies the illusions that the other characters have created of themselves. Nick actually does care for his actions and tries not trying to get intertwined with the drama in the story. Nick is not swayed by materialistic items, but rather lives a smaller house and is more modest in his earnings. Nick is able to distinguish the corruption between the Eggs and how money dominates their lives. Another example of how why Nick represents living in the real is his break up with Jordan at the end of the novel, and him moving away from New York. Nick recalls his experiences in the eggs and describes those of East Egg, "They 're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You 're worth the whole damn bunch put together.”(Fitzgerald 162). This quote to Gatsby represents that Nick actually does have a friendship with him, and he does not shy away from his opinion on the East egg citizens who have taken advantage of Gatsby and got
One event that is surprising to me personally in the book was when arthur gave nate his 1st place prize which was a skateboard that nate really wanted. Why this is surprising to me is because nate hated him because he entered in his troop and stole his 1st place spot and took his spot in his troop with his friends teddy and francis which they
Quote: “Again twelve stanzas. By this time the soma had begun to work. Eyes shone, cheeks were flushed, the inner light of universal benevolence broke out on every face in happy, friendly smiles. Even Bernard felt himself a little melted.”
1. The point I find to be the most crucial to the plot in Chapter 1 is the Buchanan’s blatant unhappiness. Tom is obviously unhappy in his married life because, not only is he restless in the sense that he moves frequently, but he also is having an open affair. Daisy is also obviously unhappy because of the way she so readily opened up to Nick, whom she did not know well despite their familial relation, and in the way she interacted with Tom. Even if I had not read this story before, I would have picked up on the fact that this singular point would be a catalyst to the rest of the plot.