Scott Fitzgerald place people would only ever want to pass through, home
to “ash-gray men who move dimly and already crumbling
1. Fitzgerald was obsessed with a desire for wealth and success
2. He vowed that someday he would become a member of the
leisure class and this desire provides him with the most
fruitful themes for hiss fiction
3. The possibility of social mobility in America is an illustration.
4. Social hierarchies of the New world are just as rigid as those
of Europe
5. Gatsby is a combination of the good and bad evil in America
The great Gatsby
Characters:
1.Nick Carraway 2. Daisy Buchanan
3.Tom 4. Myrtle Wilson (เมียน้อย Tom)
5.George Wilson (สามีตัวจริง Myrtle) 6. Jay Gatsby (ชู้ Daisy)
7.Mr. Gatz (Gatsby’s father)
Theme:
A. Decay/Moral Corruption: American dream is death in a
corrupt world. It is evidence in the so-called “Valley of
Ashes” – a barren wasteland served to comment of the
downfall of American society. This wasteland is full of the
empty eyes of an advertisement: there is no god since the
eyes see nothing and can help no one.
Setting: West and East are 2 opposing poles of values, one is pure and
idealistic, and the other is corrupt and materialistic.
Class – The existence of a class structure in Amr.is so obvious
and Gatsby is aware of it so he tried to fake status, even buying British
shirts and claiming that have attended Oxford in an attempt to justify
his position in society.
Symbols:
1. The societies of East and West Egg = illustrated the
differences between the new rich and the older rich families
that Gatsby use money to blend himself with the older
moneyed family.
a. The Western states = politeness and the basic
ethical principles of honesty
b. The East is full of trickery
The way the characters line up morally correlates with the
geographical choice of lifestyle.
Techniques:
1. The narrator, a young man by the name of Nick Carraway
Summary:
Chapter2:
o Nick begins this chapter with a long description of the
landscape between West Egg and New York City, what
Fitzgerald calls “a valley of ashes” because its desolate
houses and prominent railroad tracks make it feel like a
through the powdery air.”
o This valley of ashes stands in contrast to the comfort and
the glamour of East and West Egg, which in its description
appears vibrant, luxurious, and clean.
o Fitzgerald uses the juxtaposition of these two locations to
suggest that the American Dream, may be empty and
unrealistic, a kind of fantasy that misleads men and settles
them unhappily in this lifeless place.
o Fitzgerald’s valley of ashes thus becomes a symbol of the
failures of the American Dream, just as Doctor T. J.
Eckleburg’s eyes, peering out from a decrepit billboard,
symbolize God, or, rather, a god whose once bright eyes,
dimmed with age, “brood” over this valley of ashes. If there
is a God, Fitzgerald suggests, then he has abandoned
humanity and turned his back on the desolation Nick
describes.
Symbol:
1. Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes. = Godlike image in their
deathlike existance
o Doctor T. J. Eckleburg was an oculist who
purchased a billboard in the valley of ashes.
o This billboard went forgotten and unnoticed for a
long time,
o eventually fading to the point where the blue of
the doctor’s eyes became less bright, but not less
disarming.
o Fitzgerald uses the eyes as a symbol of God or of
a god who stares solemnly out at his creation,
watching in silence as civilization begins to
decay. God, Fitzgerald suggests, has turned His
back on humanity.
2. The Valley of Ashes.
o Fitzgerald describes the landscape between East
Egg and New York City as a symbolic valley of
ashes where civilization has begun to decay and
men shamble around in gray clothes, gray cars, and
gray houses covered with ashes.
o This is a potent symbol of desolation and
decline, and it stands in contrast to the wealth of
East and West Egg, which seem vibrant and hopeful
by comparison.
o This is the place where people go when they have
no more hope, and the valley thus becomes a
symbol of the failure of the American Dream.
 *Important theme
1. The American Dream.
o using the symbolic valley of ashes to show the
readers what has happened to that dream in the
modern era. Financial and social stratification,
fueled by the rapid growth of industry in America,
has left many of its citizens behind.
o Men like George Wilson, for instance, have no hope
of bettering themselves, because the modern
world leaves them no options to climb the social
ladder. George Wilson owns a garage and nothing
more. These men live in the ashes and nothing
more.
o For many Americans, Fitzgerald argues, the
American Dream will never be a reality
Chapter 3:
Symbols:
1. Colors. yellow becomes more prominent, appearing in the
dresses of the two women in yellow,. It’s clear, from these
descriptions, that yellow has been associated with opulence
and money, the same way gold is associated with riches.
*Important theme:
1. Performance.
There are many performances in this chapter (the gypsy’s
dance number, the orchestra’s jazz numbers, and the
woman in yellow’s piano playing), but the most important
performances are those from people pretending to be
something they’re not. This could be said of all the guests
at this party, who, in attempting to have fun and make
connections, pretend to be happier and more successful
than many of them actually are. Jordan Baker, for instance,
cheated at a pro golf tournament once, but acts like a
champion. Nick pretends not to think much of the parties he
attends, but that’s all he can write about. And Gatsby, too,
pretends to be someone greater and richer than he is.
Nick again tell us what he loves about the Midwest, and to
explain how, after Gatsby’s death, New York and the East Coast lost its
allure. He sees West Egg as a kind of fantastic landscape where life is
vivid, exciting, and fast, but seem to haunt the landscape, the way
Gatsby’s death haunts Nick. He leaves the East after Gatsby’s murder
and never returns.
Important Symbol:
1. The Green Light. = symbol of the American Dream, shines
again at the very end of this novel, as Nick stands on
Gatsby’s lawn and considers his friend’s shattered dreams.
Gatsby has everything but the dream to be with Daisy is just
the past like American dream is corrupted in 1920S as Nick
says “we beat on, boats against the current … ”
o Representing Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the
future, associated it with Daisy
o Comparing how American rising from the ocean to
settle in New England
**KEY: Gatsby dream to be with Daisy is in the past. She proves to be
unworthy for his quest since she neither possesses nor deserves
idealized perfection attributed to her. Likewise, the American dream
in the 1920S was ruined by the unworthiness of its goal: money
and pleasure

Chapter 9
Mr. Gatz shows Nick a photograph Gatsby had sent him of the
estate in West Egg. It’s smudged all over, as if Mr. Gatz had been
showing it off back home, boasting about his rich and successful son.
He also shows Nick a copy of an old book in which Gatsby had written
out his daily schedule: 6:00 AM, rise from bed. Practice elocution, 6:00
- 6:00 PM. He’d also written out his “resolves” in a list: no more
smoking. Bath every other day. Be better to parents. It’s easy to see
how a boy this regimented could’ve had success in the military and
how he was able to then move up in the world.