The Great Gatsby - Definition


The Great Gatsby - Definition

The cover of a more modern edition

The Great Gatsby, by the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published in 1925. The story takes place in New York City and Long Island in the 1920s. It has often been described as the epitome of the "Jazz Age" in American literature.

Fitzgerald's novel was not popular when it was first published, selling fewer than 24,000 copies during his lifetime. Largely forgotten during the Great Depression and World War II, it was republished in the 1950s and quickly found a wide readership. Over the following decades it emerged as a standard text in high school and university literature classes in the United States. It is cited as one of the greatest English-language novels of the 20th century.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Contents

2 Important quotes
3 Trivia
4 Publications
5 Film
6 See also

Summary

Jay Gatsby is a young millionaire with a dubious and somewhat notorious past. He has no ties to the society he circulates in and no one quite knows how he made his fortune. Some say he was a bootlegger during the Prohibition years. Rumors circulate of his "killing a man", or being a German spy during the Great War and that perhaps he was a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm. However, despite the glamorous parties he throws, with their countless gatecrashers whom he generously tolerates, Gatsby is a lonely man. All he really wants is to "repeat the past" – to be reunited with the love of his life, Daisy. But Daisy is now married to the staid, respectable millionaire Tom Buchanan, and they now have a daughter. For Gatsby, this hardly constitutes a problem in conquering his love for Daisy; and Daisy, feeling trapped and bored in her marriage, is flattered by Gatsby's attention.

The protagonist of the novel is Nick Carraway, a young Wall Street trader at the height of the free-wheeling days prior to the collapse of the financial market that lead to the Great Depression in 1928. Carraway moves into the small guest house next to Gatsby's mansion (a "factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy"). Eventually, Carraway cynically realizes that the uber-rich, as respectable as they may seem superficially, are indeed "careless people," and Tom and Daisy are no exception. Tom has a mistress, Myrtle, the wife of the gas station owner in the wasteland between the fabulous mansions on Long Island and New York City. One day, when Gatsby lets Daisy drive his new car, she accidentally causes Myrtle's death. Gatsby takes the blame and is consequently shot by Myrtle's desperate husband, Wilson, in Gatsby's mansion. Hardly anyone shows up for Gatsby's funeral, including Daisy. Gatsby was buried with the same mystery that he suddenly appeared, as he was "not one of us, anyway."

Literary elements

Structure

Nonlinear representation of time

Themes

The main themes of the novel are:

The rise and fall of the American Dream. 'Does Gatsby embody the American Dream?' is a question that is asked to countless students who read the book. He was born to a family with no ties to society but has become a millionaire and the embodiment of success in America. In the novel, Gatsby downplays his dubious business links (to Meyer Wolfshiem), which is entirely in Gatsby's favour. Many speculate whether or not the character of Gatsby was, indeed, modeled on the famous gambler of the day, Arnold Rothstein. Tom and Daisy Buchanan represent the cream of American society and yet they drift aimlessly from place to place ("wherever people play polo and are rich together"), with no morals, no commitment, and no dreams. Myrtle and George Wilson, victims of the Buchanans, are helpless in the face of the Buchanan's wealth and incorruptible power and influence.

The corruption of the rich. Tom and Daisy are just as corrupted by their wealth, whatever their status in society, in contrast to Gatsby, for whom the acquisition of wealth has its origins in the underworld. Tom Buchanan is unfaithful; Daisy Buchanan is artificial; Gatsby himself is enigmatic and a shadowy figure.

Minor themes:

The novel discusses questions of racism through the character of Tom Buchanan who, on top of his loose morals, is also a white supremacist. This, however, a minor theme, adds to the Buchanans' corruption in contrast to Gatsby.

Symbols

The green light on the end of Daisy's dock is introduced at the end of Chapter 1, when Gatsby reaches, "trembling", out toward it across the Sound. It clearly represents Gatsby's dreams, but has other, more subtle, associations such as money.

The disembodied eyes of a giant advertisement in the slum where Myrtle lives, referred to as the eyes of "Dr. T.J Eckleburg", symbolise a brooding presence in the slum, as if God is constantly watching those who live there, a symbol which the characters themselves are aware of, George Wilson's assertion that "God sees everything" in chapter 8 being made while he is staring at Eckleburg's eyes.

The colors white and yellow have special significance in the novel. White is a symbol of purity and goodness, while yellow is the color of corruption and greed. This illuminates the character of Daisy, who is named after a flower that is white on the outside and yellow in the center.

Fitzgerald was among the American expatriates who lived in Paris in the 1920s. The name Gatsby is a close homophone of the word gaspille from the verb gaspiller: to waste.

Important quotes

“…I’m inclined to reserve all judgements…”
Nick describing himself in Chapter 1.

“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known”
Nick describing himself.

“…there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life…”
This is Nick describing Gatsby's personality in Chapter 1.

“…an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness…”
This is Nick describing Gatsby's personality in Chapter 1.

“No — Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and shortwinded elations of men.”
Nick, illustrating the novel's narrative stance in Chap 1.

“…a factual imitation … spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy…”
This is Nick's description of Gatsby's house (Chapter 1)

“…drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.”
Nick describing Tom and Daisy's lifestyle.

"I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." Daisy, talking to Nick about her daughter.

“She turned to me helplessly: ‘What do people plan?’ “
Daisy.

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together…”
Nick's opinion of Tom and Daisy in the final chapter.

“Her voice is full of money…”
Gatsby describes Daisy's voice.

“ ’What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?’ cried Daisy, ‘and the day after that, and the next thirty years?’”
Daisy's aimlessness is shown here, when the main characters are deciding what to do.

“ ’Can't repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ’Why of course you can!’”
Gatsby.

“ ’They're a rotten crowd’ I shouted, across the lawn. ‘You're worth the whole damn bunch put together’”
Nick, on impulse, shouts this to Gatsby, referring to the Buchanans and the Wilsons.

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . And then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
The final lines of the novel.

Trivia

The introduction features a poem attributed to Thomas Parke D'Invilliers, who is actually a character from Fitzgerald's first novel This Side Of Paradise.

Publications

The Great Gatsby

Scribner; Reprint edition (June 1, 1995) ISBN 0684801523

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (Cliffs Notes)

Cliffs Notes; (June 5, 2000) ISBN 0764586017

The Great Gatsby – Penguin Critical Studies Guide

Penguin Uk; Study Guide edition (November 2003) ISBN 0140771972

The Great Gatsby (Audio Editions CD)

The Audio Partners; Unabridged edition (April 2002) ISBN 1572702567

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference

Carroll & Graf; (March 10, 2002) ISBN 0786709960

Film

The Great Gatsby has been filmed four times:

1974 movie version

In 1926 by Herbert Brenon – A silent movie of which, according to the IMDb, no copies have survived (only a trailer with a few minutes of footage remains);
In 1949 by Elliott Nugent – Starring Alan Ladd;
In 1974 by Jack Clayton – Often considered the definitive screen version, starring Robert Redford in the title role and Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan, with a script by Francis Ford Coppola; and finally
In 2001 by Robert Markowitz – A made-for-TV movie starring Toby Stephens and Mira Sorvino.