F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"

Paper Summary:

This is a review of "The Great Gatsby", by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which analyzes and comments on one man's personal vision of the 1920's American Dream and the dynamic yet decadent society that fueled his aspirations of wealth and happiness. The author of this paper provides comprehensive descriptions of all the characters, and reveals Gatsby's undying devotion to the pursuit of Daisy Fay Buchanan's love. The author also explains how Fitzgerald produced in his novel, set in the 1920s, a tale for any generation with the message that no one should be deterred from searching for their own piece of heaven on earth.

From the Paper:

"The Great Gatsby, through the honest, heart-felt narration of Nick Carraway, celebrates and criticizes the Jazz Age society, stressing its failure to reach its full potential as well as its inability to separate corruption from financial success and happiness. The corruption of this 1920's society caused the inevitable downfall and demise of Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald's version of the heroic American character.
"From the outset of the novel, Nick Carraway is established as the mostly impartial but not passive narrator. His loyalties shift during the novel, and he becomes more critical of the individuals he previously thought to be friends and acquaintances. Nick is the straight-edged man in the Eggs, a suburb inhabited by an assortment of millionaires, eccentrics, and upstart societal darlings of the theatrical and musical worlds. Nick comes from a wealthy Mid-West family, but is indeed one of the normal, upstanding people in the novel, not a false face trying to fit into a self-chosen social coterie. Although he lives next to Gatsby's mansion, Nick is detached from the "garish, drunken-Broadway atmosphere" of the Eggs (Sutton 38). He is the most appropriate of all the characters to be the narrator because, as he explains, "...I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known"(Gatsby 64). It has been said, "Nick, who is, like us, within and without, simultaneously repelled and enchanted by the inexhaustible variety of life, is the hero we can and must become"(Gross 168)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Berryman, John. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Hall. Vol. 1. p. 242.
• Bufkin, E.C.. "A Pattern of Parallel and Double: The Function of Myrtle in The Great Gatsby." Modern Fiction Studies. Vol. 15. No. 4. Winter 1969-1970. p. 517-24.
• Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Co. 1992.
• Gross, Barry. "Our Gatsby, Our Nick." The Centennial Review. Vol. 14. No. 3 1970. p. 339-40.
• Hall, Sharon K. Editor. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Vols. 1,6 & 14.New York: Gale Research Co. 1982.

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