The American Dream in The Great Gatsby
I recently finished reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I will analyze the American Dream in The Great Gatsby and how it plays a role in the plot.
The Great Gatsby takes place during the Roaring Twenties and is set in the fictional neighborhoods of West Egg and East Egg in Long Island, New York. The narrator of the novel is Nick Carraway, a man from Minnesota who studied at Yale, served in the military for a while during the war, and who has recently moved to New York to get into the bond business. He is the cousin of Daisy Buchanan, who is the wife of Tom Buchanan, the main antagonist of the book. Nick serves as a rational thinker in the book, in a way reflecting the reader's thoughts and disgust to the shallowness of the events and characters in the story.
The book follows the events that happen that summer. Nick moves into the house next to the mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious young man who has made a fortune through illegal activities after the war. Gatsby hosts huge parties but doesn't attend them; he spends time on the dock, reaching out to the green light on the opposite dock. The green light symbolizes Daisy Buchanan, the girl he loved but couldn't marry due to him being poor when he met her. Nick gets introduced to Gatsby and watches his and Daisy's relationship get rekindled as they start to talk to each other again.
One of the major themes of the book is that of the American Dream, as it drives most of the character's motivations. Gatsby has spent the last few years of his life building up his fortune to win back Daisy, who married Tom for his money and status although he is a fairly unlikeable character. Gatsby builds a huge mansion, has a swimming pool (which he doesn't even use), hosts huge parties (which he doesn't attend), all with the vain desire to attain Daisy, who is symbolized by the green light that comes from her dock which Gatsby reaches out to. The American Dream is that if you work hard, you can get what you want but as we see, this is not true in Gatsby's case.
I would give this book a 5/5. It is an enjoyable book and many themes are apparent throughout the book. Some of the more subtle themes must be thought about in order to find the meaning of it. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction with themes that are relevant to today.
The Great Gatsby takes place during the Roaring Twenties and is set in the fictional neighborhoods of West Egg and East Egg in Long Island, New York. The narrator of the novel is Nick Carraway, a man from Minnesota who studied at Yale, served in the military for a while during the war, and who has recently moved to New York to get into the bond business. He is the cousin of Daisy Buchanan, who is the wife of Tom Buchanan, the main antagonist of the book. Nick serves as a rational thinker in the book, in a way reflecting the reader's thoughts and disgust to the shallowness of the events and characters in the story.
The book follows the events that happen that summer. Nick moves into the house next to the mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious young man who has made a fortune through illegal activities after the war. Gatsby hosts huge parties but doesn't attend them; he spends time on the dock, reaching out to the green light on the opposite dock. The green light symbolizes Daisy Buchanan, the girl he loved but couldn't marry due to him being poor when he met her. Nick gets introduced to Gatsby and watches his and Daisy's relationship get rekindled as they start to talk to each other again.
One of the major themes of the book is that of the American Dream, as it drives most of the character's motivations. Gatsby has spent the last few years of his life building up his fortune to win back Daisy, who married Tom for his money and status although he is a fairly unlikeable character. Gatsby builds a huge mansion, has a swimming pool (which he doesn't even use), hosts huge parties (which he doesn't attend), all with the vain desire to attain Daisy, who is symbolized by the green light that comes from her dock which Gatsby reaches out to. The American Dream is that if you work hard, you can get what you want but as we see, this is not true in Gatsby's case.
I would give this book a 5/5. It is an enjoyable book and many themes are apparent throughout the book. Some of the more subtle themes must be thought about in order to find the meaning of it. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction with themes that are relevant to today.
I liked this review. As someone who's never read it before, you did a good job summarizing the story and I liked your focus on the American Dream as a theme. I mainly knew this was a movie and didn't realize it was a book. I might have to check it out some time. Good work.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I had heard about this book many times, I had never bothered to read it until now. What I found especially interesting about this blog post was how the American dream is shown to not always work out, such as Gatsby's case. Great job!
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