Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

It depicts the contradictions of the period: financial boom and acute social inequalities;
technological advances and prohibition; cheerfulness and corruption. A close
examination of American values and beliefs, in particular the myths of the American
Dream and the self-made man of success, in rapid transformation under the influence
of consumerist and capitalist culture. The novel highlights the idea that in a consumerist
culture everything and everyone is a commodity -women in particular, who are
repeatedly objectified in the novel. Novel’s stress of false appearances. Instances of
deceitful impressions.

Narrative voice. First-person voice Notion of time as fluid but not

Nick Carraway acts as a central
narrator, focalizer and moral axis
of the novel. Consequently, Nick is
an unreliable narrator, on some
occasions even omniscient. he very
carefully builds an image of Gatsby
in us. He is both homodiegetic
and heterodiegetic narrator.
The use of “we” as collective
pronoun as a reply to Gatsby’s
construction of his own personal
universe.
Mythology. Two fundamental
myths are, the Arturian cycle and
the American Dream. Jay Gastby
combines the features of a self-
made man and a chivalric knight.
The American Dream. The Great
Gatsby portrays this shift as a
symbol of the American Dream's
corruption. Gatsby symbolizes
both the corrupted Dream and the
original uncorrupted Dream. Yet
Gatsby's corrupt dream of wealth
is motivated by an incorruptible
love for Daisy.
absolute. This is evident in the
constant chronological shifts
between past and present -
paralepsis- but also in the frequent
measurement of time and in the
references to the past. The reunion
where Gatsby meets Daisy is a
metaphor for Gatsby’s struggle to
control time.
The narrative analepses and the
collage of different moments and
viewpoints put together the pieces
of Gatsby’s enigma.
Gender: Gastby’s guest list is very
telling in its defeminization of
women and emasculation of men.
Body parts that synecdochally
characterize the women in the
story. The novel shows how
Fitzgerald perceived gender roles to
have functioned in the American
twenties: men saw themselves as
bread-winners expected to be
chasing the American Dream,
while women like Daisy and her
daughter were told to be no more
than “a beautiful little fool”.
Diction used by Nick to describe
Daisy Buchanan’s voice. Synecdochic
device that characterize he
throughout the novel and stands for
the complete character.
Consumerism. With the economy
booming, consumerism surged as
well. This was the dark side of the
surging economy: people become
consumed by consumerism,
obsessively and indulgently pursuing
material goods. people in the 1920s
are “bewitched” by consumerism and
indulgence.
Class: "old money" (Tom and Daisy
Buchanan); "new money" (Gatsby);
and a class that might be called "no
money" (George and Myrtle Wilson).
The idea was that old money (which
was inherited) was superior to new
money, and the "no money" class gets
overlooked by the struggle at the top,
leaving middle- and lower-class
people like George Wilson forgotten
or ignored.

The Green Light and the Color Green. The green light at the end East and West. After the stock boom
of Daisy's dock is the symbol of Gatsby's hopes and dreams. Equate in the 1920s, Westerners then began
the “green breast of the new world” seen by settlers in America to migrating back East to cash in on
“Daisy’s light” seen by Gatsby. It is also the colour of money. It has their fortunes and try to make even
symbolically functioned in the novel like never allowing the reader more money. The split between the
SYMBOLS

to pin down a singular meaning, promising to unlock the text but eastern and western regions of the
actually standing for a variety of conflicting allegorical ideas. United States is mirrored in Gatsby
by the divide between East Egg and
Wasteland = the Valley of Ashes. This place embodies the moral West Egg. Yet if the western
as well as the environmental dimensions of the wasteland. The American Dream brought one into
nouns in the area “farm,” “ridges,” “hills,” “gardens,” “houses,” and regions of relatively greater freedom
“chimneys” all would seem to describe a normal rural and opportunity, those who moved
environment—yet all these characteristic signs of civilization are east were confronting the rigid social
composed of dust instead of actual materials. systems epitomized by East Egg.