LITERATURE


THE ROARING TWENTIES The theme of The Great Gatsby is that past cannot be repeated and everybody has to move forward in life. The author of the book F. Scott Fitzgerald was a popular writer in the 1920s and by using plot, style, figurative language, character, and setting he is able to develop the theme. Past is something that has already taken place and there is nothing you can do to bring it back. Characters in the book such as Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, all deal with some aspects of past that they want to bring back. Also, the 1920s was a time of prosperity and luxurious lifestyle and in The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald has created settings and ploto under that helps tstand the story as well as the period of time. The story begins with Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moving to New York to learn about the bond business. His next door neighbor is a newly rich man named Jay Gatsby who throws many lavish parties at his mansion every Saturday night for people he hardly knows. One night Nick is invited by Gatsby to attend one of his parties. It was during that party where Nick was able to meet Gatsby face to face and they became very good friends. However, Nick later finds out from Jordan that the only reason Gatsby made the effort to invite him to his party was because Daisy, the woman Gatsby was madly in love with, was Nick's cousin and Gatsby wanted Nick to help him get Daisy back. Daisy, on the other hand, is married to Tom Buchanan and no matter how much wealth Gatsby has earned for her, daisy is reluctant to go back to the love that existed five years ago. For some time, Daisy was lost in Gatsby's love and was ready to leave her husband and child. But fate had something else in store and while going back home, daisy and Gatsby get in an accident that changes everything. In that accident, myrtle, Wilson's wife and tom Buchanan's affair, is killed by daisy that was driving recklessly. Gatsby, desperate to repeat the past with Daisy and as crazy in love as he was, took the blame on himself. Tom Buchanan took full advantage of the situation and when Mr Wilson came to him with a gun to kill him for the sin of cheating on Daisy with myrtle by telling Wilson that the person who killed myrtle was Gatsby and he was the man who had an affair with Myrtle and not Buchanan. One day when Gatsby was resting in his pool Mr Wilson gives him a surprise visit and shoots him leaving him drowning in the pool with red blood stains in the water. After Gatsby's sudden death his father arrives to tell nick about what kind of a person Gatsby really was.
Jay Gatsby is a very interesting character in the book. He is a self- made newly rich man who lives in a place known as the west egg. There are many rumors circulating among people about Jay Gatsby. Most of them are true but some are not and Gatsby doesn't care for it. There is only one goal in his life and he will do whatever he can to achieve it. His goal is to win back Daisy, his love of about five years ago. The only reason why Gatsby thought of being wealthy was because he wanted to provide daisy with everything she wanted in life because that's how she has been raised. Gatsby plans a meeting with daisy one afternoon and the more he talks to her the more he wants her back in his life. For instance in this quotation Gatsby is talking to Nick and he says, "I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured (Nick). "You cannot repeat the past." ... "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!" ...he looked around him wildly, as if the past ere lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand." This quote is significant to the story because it shows what Gatsby really wants and how desperately he wants it to happen at any cost. Nick Carraway tells Gatsby that one can never repeat his past no matter how badly he wants it, but Gatsby refuses to accept that. Through the character of Gatsby we are able to see the fact that time never stops for anyone and whoever wants to repeat their past ends up losing their future. Another vital character in the story is a man named nick Carraway as mentioned earlier. He is the voice of the story because of the fact that he is the narrator. Nick Carraway is a principled, nice, and judgmental person, even though in the beginning he describes himself as being very open minded. He is a good friend of Gatsby and he tries his best to help him out with his situation with daisy. Nick caraway can be described as being very subjective as well as objective in the story. The style of The Great Gatsby has both objective and subjective point of view. However, we see more of subjectivity in the story because of the fact that nick caraway observes others and then puts his opinions about things. He is also objective because he observes other people and narrates it. For instance nick says in this quotation "I drove from the station directly to Gatsby's house and my rushing anxiously up the front steps was the first thing that alarmed anyone". This quotation is important because it tells us what nick Carraway is thinking at the moment therefore he is subjective. However in this other quote he says "there was the boom of a bass drum, and the voice of the orchestra leader rang out suddenly above the echolalia of the garden". This quotation is an example of the narrator's objectivity and how he observes what is happening around him. Nick Carraway is able to mix both ingredients of an objective and a subjective point of view in the story. If he has to share his feelings and his opinions then he uses subjectivity and when he has to say something about other people and what they think and do, he uses the objective point of view. The author also uses figurative language to define the indefinable and help the readers visualize the scenery. An example of that would be this quote, "the wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life." Words such as blown off, bright night, wings beating in the trees helps us to imagine it and it gives a feel to the sentence. Another example is "the Buchanan's house floated suddenly toward us through the dark rustling trees." these two examples tells us that he uses great detail in his figurative language that helps to create an imagery in the head of the readers. The author also uses diction that gives a sense of culture and that most people today don't really use in their speech. For instance, "oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od!" The words Ga-od gives the reader a sense of shock and it sounds like an accent from the east side of the country. Another example is "stand up now, and say -how-de-do." people nowadays don't usually say how de do when they meet someone. Also word such as gay don't carry the same meaning as it use to in the past. Here in the book the author uses it as in happy as in this quote "just as Daisy's house had seemed mysterious and gay than other houses." Mysterious and gay give the sentence a tone and a feeling of uniqueness and happiness.
The setting of the great Gatsby is very important because it says a great deal about the people who live there. There are four major settings in the book such as the East Egg, West Egg, the valley of ashes and New York City. Nick and Gatsby live in the West Egg which is the place of the newly rich people and is also considered to be the fashionable side of the egg. East egg, however, is the place for old aristocratic families who were already rich and they don't need to show off their wealth to anyone and they also have many social connections. Daisy and tom Buchanan lives in the east egg where family matters. The valley of the ashes is the place where poor people like Wilson and myrtle live who own a little auto shop and are the victims of the rich as clearly seen at the end when tom Buchanan misleads the poor Wilson making him commit a murder. New York on the other hand symbolizes what America has become in the 1920s where anything goes and where business was done, where bootleggers and crime flourishes. East egg and west egg is important because that's where the main characters live and Gatsby keeps an eye on daisy from the west egg. East egg symbolizes for him his past and his motivation to re live it. The way Fitzgerald writes the novel is very interesting and throughout the book there's is repetition of dialogues, details, and weather .Nick Carraway observes people and tells his readers what he sees and then after that there is a dialogue that makes it interesting. For instance, "she looked at tom alarmed now, but he insisted with magnanimous scorn... "Go on he wont annoy you. I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over". This quote is important because it is logical and it is shows how the author justifies everything that he says. The author also repeats the weather scenery to create the appropriate tone. For example "A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water." The words small gust of wind shows the change in the situation and "a thin red circle in the water" implies the blood in the water. This weather metaphor gives a chill to the readers and creates a very depressing tone. Overall F. Scott Fitzgerald uses style, character, plot and setting to develop his theme as explained above. He manages to relate what is happening during the decade in his books and does it successfully.
INTERNET SOURCES http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/BOOK/BD021~The-Great-Gatsby-by-F-Scott-Fitzgerald-Posters.jpg http://imagecache2.allposters.com/IMAGES/KNO/7042P-Fitzgerald_a.jpg BOOK SOURCE Fitzgerald,F.Scott. The Great Gatsby. New Jersey,Enslow Publishers, Inc. 1920.
Home \| History \| Literature \| Science \| Art \| Focus

THE ROARING TWENTIES

The theme of The Great Gatsby is that past cannot be repeated and everybody has to move forward in life. The author of the book F. Scott Fitzgerald was a popular writer in the 1920s and by using plot, style, figurative language, character, and setting he is able to develop the theme. Past is something that has already taken place and there is nothing you can do to bring it back. Characters in the book such as Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, all deal with some aspects of past that they want to bring back. Also, the 1920s was a time of prosperity and luxurious lifestyle and in The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald has created settings and ploto under that helps tstand the story as well as the period of time.

The story begins with Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moving to New York to learn about the bond business. His next door neighbor is a newly rich man named Jay Gatsby who throws many lavish parties at his mansion every Saturday night for people he hardly knows. One night Nick is invited by Gatsby to attend one of his parties. It was during that party where Nick was able to meet Gatsby face to face and they became very good friends. However, Nick later finds out from Jordan that the only reason Gatsby made the effort to invite him to his party was because Daisy, the woman Gatsby was madly in love with, was Nick's cousin and Gatsby wanted Nick to help him get Daisy back. Daisy, on the other hand, is married to Tom Buchanan and no matter how much wealth Gatsby has earned for her, daisy is reluctant to go back to the love that existed five years ago. For some time, Daisy was lost in Gatsby's love and was ready to leave her husband and child. But fate had something else in store and while going back home, daisy and Gatsby get in an accident that changes everything. In that accident, myrtle, Wilson's wife and tom Buchanan's affair, is killed by daisy that was driving recklessly. Gatsby, desperate to repeat the past with Daisy and as crazy in love as he was, took the blame on himself. Tom Buchanan took full advantage of the situation and when Mr Wilson came to him with a gun to kill him for the sin of cheating on Daisy with myrtle by telling Wilson that the person who killed myrtle was Gatsby and he was the man who had an affair with Myrtle and not Buchanan. One day when Gatsby was resting in his pool Mr Wilson gives him a surprise visit and shoots him leaving him drowning in the pool with red blood stains in the water. After Gatsby's sudden death his father arrives to tell nick about what kind of a person Gatsby really was.

Jay Gatsby is a very interesting character in the book. He is a self- made newly rich man who lives in a place known as the west egg. There are many rumors circulating among people about Jay Gatsby. Most of them are true but some are not and Gatsby doesn't care for it. There is only one goal in his life and he will do whatever he can to achieve it. His goal is to win back Daisy, his love of about five years ago. The only reason why Gatsby thought of being wealthy was because he wanted to provide daisy with everything she wanted in life because that's how she has been raised. Gatsby plans a meeting with daisy one afternoon and the more he talks to her the more he wants her back in his life. For instance in this quotation Gatsby is talking to Nick and he says, "I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured (Nick). "You cannot repeat the past." ... "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!" ...he looked around him wildly, as if the past ere lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand." This quote is significant to the story because it shows what Gatsby really wants and how desperately he wants it to happen at any cost. Nick Carraway tells Gatsby that one can never repeat his past no matter how badly he wants it, but Gatsby refuses to accept that. Through the character of Gatsby we are able to see the fact that time never stops for anyone and whoever wants to repeat their past ends up losing their future. Another vital character in the story is a man named nick Carraway as mentioned earlier. He is the voice of the story because of the fact that he is the narrator. Nick Carraway is a principled, nice, and judgmental person, even though in the beginning he describes himself as being very open minded. He is a good friend of Gatsby and he tries his best to help him out with his situation with daisy. Nick caraway can be described as being very subjective as well as objective in the story.

The style of The Great Gatsby has both objective and subjective point of view. However, we see more of subjectivity in the story because of the fact that nick caraway observes others and then puts his opinions about things. He is also objective because he observes other people and narrates it. For instance nick says in this quotation "I drove from the station directly to Gatsby's house and my rushing anxiously up the front steps was the first thing that alarmed anyone". This quotation is important because it tells us what nick Carraway is thinking at the moment therefore he is subjective. However in this other quote he says "there was the boom of a bass drum, and the voice of the orchestra leader rang out suddenly above the echolalia of the garden". This quotation is an example of the narrator's objectivity and how he observes what is happening around him. Nick Carraway is able to mix both ingredients of an objective and a subjective point of view in the story. If he has to share his feelings and his opinions then he uses subjectivity and when he has to say something about other people and what they think and do, he uses the objective point of view.

The author also uses figurative language to define the indefinable and help the readers visualize the scenery. An example of that would be this quote, "the wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life." Words such as blown off, bright night, wings beating in the trees helps us to imagine it and it gives a feel to the sentence. Another example is "the Buchanan's house floated suddenly toward us through the dark rustling trees." these two examples tells us that he uses great detail in his figurative language that helps to create an imagery in the head of the readers.

The author also uses diction that gives a sense of culture and that most people today don't really use in their speech. For instance, "oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od!" The words Ga-od gives the reader a sense of shock and it sounds like an accent from the east side of the country. Another example is "stand up now, and say -how-de-do." people nowadays don't usually say how de do when they meet someone. Also word such as gay don't carry the same meaning as it use to in the past. Here in the book the author uses it as in happy as in this quote "just as Daisy's house had seemed mysterious and gay than other houses." Mysterious and gay give the sentence a tone and a feeling of uniqueness and happiness.

The setting of the great Gatsby is very important because it says a great deal about the people who live there. There are four major settings in the book such as the East Egg, West Egg, the valley of ashes and New York City. Nick and Gatsby live in the West Egg which is the place of the newly rich people and is also considered to be the fashionable side of the egg. East egg, however, is the place for old aristocratic families who were already rich and they don't need to show off their wealth to anyone and they also have many social connections. Daisy and tom Buchanan lives in the east egg where family matters. The valley of the ashes is the place where poor people like Wilson and myrtle live who own a little auto shop and are the victims of the rich as clearly seen at the end when tom Buchanan misleads the poor Wilson making him commit a murder. New York on the other hand symbolizes what America has become in the 1920s where anything goes and where business was done, where bootleggers and crime flourishes. East egg and west egg is important because that's where the main characters live and Gatsby keeps an eye on daisy from the west egg. East egg symbolizes for him his past and his motivation to re live it.

The way Fitzgerald writes the novel is very interesting and throughout the book there's is repetition of dialogues, details, and weather .Nick Carraway observes people and tells his readers what he sees and then after that there is a dialogue that makes it interesting. For instance, "she looked at tom alarmed now, but he insisted with magnanimous scorn... "Go on he wont annoy you. I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over". This quote is important because it is logical and it is shows how the author justifies everything that he says. The author also repeats the weather scenery to create the appropriate tone. For example "A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water." The words small gust of wind shows the change in the situation and "a thin red circle in the water" implies the blood in the water. This weather metaphor gives a chill to the readers and creates a very depressing tone.

Overall F. Scott Fitzgerald uses style, character, plot and setting to develop his theme as explained above. He manages to relate what is happening during the decade in his books and does it successfully.

INTERNET SOURCES

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/BOOK/BD021~The-Great-Gatsby-by-F-Scott-Fitzgerald-Posters.jpg
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/IMAGES/KNO/7042P-Fitzgerald_a.jpg

BOOK SOURCE

Fitzgerald,F.Scott. The Great Gatsby. New Jersey,Enslow Publishers, Inc. 1920.