The Great Gatsby (summer assignment)
Plot Structure and Organization
The whole structure of the story “The Great Gatsby” is built around the idea of Gatsby. The tale doesn’t focus on the narrator, for the narrator (by comparison) is the most meaningless and passive character in the book. Nick moves away from him small sheltered town to live out on the east coast. Trying to make a living as an honest working stock broker, he doesn’t have big dreams or desires. In the first chapter Nick is told by his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom about the wealthy and luxurious Gatsby who throws great parties. Nick keeps hearing all sorts of different things about Gatsby as the story continues. Finally in chapter three Nick meets Gatsby but doesn’t really get the chance to get to know him.
Nick learns all about how Gatsby fell in love with Daisy (nick’s married 2nd cousin) before the war. Then before Gatsby could return to Daisy she got married. The story only gets worst from there. As we learn of Tom’s mistress. The story collimates in Gatsby and Daisy trying to rekindle their love but Tom catching them. Daisy changes her mind and decides she loves Tom again, and that’s when Tom’s mistress gets hit by a car driven by Gatsby and Daisy. The husband of the mistress Wilson kills Gatsby. The whole tale was about chasing dreams that will never quite become true, and the empty pursuit of pleasure.
Central Theme
The central theme of the Great Gatsby was the failure in chasing the American Dream. Each character demonstrates different ideas of the American Dream and each fails to reach their own.
Gatsby’s chance at his true dream passed him by and he never realized that you can’t change past events. Many people’s dreams have already passed them by and they spend their whole lives trying to change what has already happened.
Myrtle a poor ordinary wife sleeps with a rich man trying to move herself up the social latter. Her pursuit of this destroyed her marriage and in the end killed her. Many people sell themselves for something that in the end will do them more harm than good. Myrtle sold her self out for a chance at her happiness which Tom never planned to truly provide for her.
Daisy like many people settled not for love, but for money. This choice destroyed her chance of ever being happy with her husband. Her dream of the perfect life was ruined by her marring the wrong person for the wrong reasons.
Nick moved out from his small Midwest life style to try and make it as a city stockbroker. Nick soon realized that the city lifestyle was void of common moral values. He couldn’t handle all the lies and deception of the rich and fast paced city life. This represents the new and popular life style of the time. A simple dream would often go array in these new big cities. The changing American lifestyle was reflected through Nick.
Fitzgerald’s book is really just speaking out to the rapidly changing America then it is a story. The central idea being the elusive American Dream, and how people compromise themselves for a chance at something they will never have.
Style
Fitzgerald’s style of writing in this book was fascinating. Everything she did had a purpose, and she changed it to convey different messages/ideas about the American dream. At the parties her style was fast paced and lively. All the characters jumped around in their conversations. None of them were ever that interested in what the other was saying, but always focused on themselves. I felt this displayed the new super facial life style of the newly wealthy.
Also Fitzgerald chose to constantly disguise Gatsby’s character in misconceptions. Fitzgerald’s choice to surround Gatsby with mystery completely affected the way the reader views Gatsby until the end of the book. The mystery of Gatsby’s past displayed how people could become wealthy in those times by associating themselves with boot legging and crime.
Though nothing was more fascinating then her choice of making Nick the narrator. For he was connected to every main character, and caught up in the middle of all their lies, yet strangely free of it all. He was a character who by nature just sat back and perceived everything around him. This trait allows the reader to interpret the characters around Nick in many different ways. Though Fitzgerald does try to sway the reader’s interpretations by having Nick act ether genuine or heart felt with a few cheaters (For ex: Daisy’s sadness expressed to Nick on the porch, or Nick and Gatsby’s conversations based on trust). I felt that Fitzgerald is one of those people who like Nick likes to sit back and observe, and that she used Nick as her medium but also focal point to allow the reader to observe the story for themselves. I know this seems like a pretty big assumption but personally I find many times that the narrator of the story is the one that the author must connect to the most.
Literary Devices
Fitzgerald uses a couple of literary devices such as exposition, imagery, characterization, hyperbole, and tone.
Exposition is used two separate times when Nick stops to explain things. One time he stopped to explain Gatsby’s past. The other time was when Nick described Wilson’s reaction after Myrtle’s death.
Fitzgerald uses imagery mixed with hyperbole to focus on so many different aspects of her book. Describing Gatsby’s house, his extravagant parties, and the people that attended them impressed the idea of his wealth upon the reader very strongly. When Nick first goes over to Tom and Daisy’s house, Fitzgerald describes Tom with many strong features and then she describes Jordan and Daisy to be billowing and pure in their all white outfits. The furniture in Myrtle’s apartment is too big for the room, and doesn’t belong (much like Myrtle).
Fitzgerald in this same way uses characterization to focus on different aspect of the American Dream (see central theme for more examples).
Finally I felt Fitzgerald uses tone more than anything to bring out parts of her book. The tone is mostly set by Nick. Fitzgerald doesn’t always make Nick have opinions on situations. For the most part he merely observes (allowing the reader to fell however they like), but when Nick does take sides or feels strongly towards something the reader almost always matches him. I think tone in this book is kind of hard to see but I can see that its there and constantly being used. Fitzgerald over all uses many different types of literary devices and these were merely the ones she used multiple times.
