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This Side Of Paradise Great Gatsby Analysis

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Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most famous annalists of 1920s America, an era that was dubbed “the Jazz Age.” In 1913 he enrolled in Princeton but apathy and difficulties in academics plagued him and he never graduated. He instead enlisted in the army in 1917 as World War I drew to an end. While in the army, he met and fell in love with a beautiful, wild seventeen-year-old named Zelda Sayre and she finally agreed to marry him; but her overarching desire for fun, wealth, and leisure led her to delay the wedding until he could provide her lavish lifestyle. With the publication of ‘This Side of Paradise’ in 1920, Fitzgerald became a literary sensation, earning enough money and fame to convince Zelda to marry him. Many of the events from Fitzgerald’s …show more content…

J. Eckleburg. To begin, the green light is situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and is barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg balcony. It represents Gatsby’s desire for Daisy and the potency of hope; as well as inevitable disappointment to come. Gatsby famously reaches out towards the light in the darkness; as he longs to achieve his goal which is ultimately Daisy; who according to Gatsby represented the paragon of perfection and was part of the aristocracy that he longed for as a child. However, Daisy falls short of Gatsby’s ideals as she is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. The narrator characterizes her as careless and a person who destroys things and then retreats behind her wealth. The fact that Gatsby would amass such a great deal of wealth just to win Daisy shows how much he wanted to ditch his poor status to win her love. Because Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy is associated with the American dream as the narrator states; the green light may have also been how America may have looked to early settlers of the new nation as it rose out of the ocean. Furthermore, the novel’s final statement, “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,” finds that narrator returning to the theme of the significance of the past to dreams of the future, represented by the green light. He focuses on the struggle to achieve ones goals by both transcending and re-creating the past. Yet humans prove themselves unable to move beyond the past as the current draws them backward as they row forward toward the

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Firstly, The Great Gatsby proves the corruption of the American Dream through the green light. The green light symbolizes the American Dream; specifically society’s desire for wealth. The fact that the green light ‘coincidentally’ “burns ... at the end of [Daisy’s] dock” (Fitzgerald 92), suggests that Daisy really is only the face behind Gatsby’s pursuit of wealth.

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At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick reflects upon Gatsby’s life and pursuit on the beach where “the green light” at the end of Daisy’s dock can be seen. As a significant metaphor, “the green light” represents Gatsby’s dream which guides him to keep pursuing wealth and social status, while the position of the light, the distant and inaccessible Daisy’s dock, indicates the close connection between Gatsby’s unreal dream and Daisy, and as well the disillusionment of the dream. In the last three paragraphs, Nick explains the disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (162). Gatsby has always strived for his ambition and dream.

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All of the characters in the novel have their own aspirations and goals, but Gatsby is of particular curiosity in this subject. When Nick, the protagonist, first sees Gatsby, he remarks that “[H]e stretched out his arms toward the dark water… I… distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away… When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished” (Fitzgerald 21). This quote is representative of Gatsby’s yearning for his lost love, Daisy, and the life he imagines of them together. Throughout the novel, the “green light” is used to represent the unattainable American Dream that many strive for. Gatsby works incredibly hard to reach his “green light”, Daisy, but he ultimately fails to make his dream come true.

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To Gatsby, the green light was one of his most prized possessions. It meant so much to him on so many levels. When Gatsby finally came into contact with Daisy, all of the significance suddenly went away. All of the fantasy suddenly went into reality and it wasn’t as much of a fairytale as he had presumed. This can also correlate with “The American Dream”.

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F.Scott Fitzgerald is an American novelist and a short story writer. He is the author of the famous novel “ The Great Gatsby”, which is written in the 1920’s. The period of the 1920’s is well known as the roaring twenties due to lack of morales and the lowering of standards and expectations, people intended just to have a good time not caring about the outcomes of their and how they will effect their lives. Fitzgerald wants to prove in his novel the death of “The American Dream” it’s just a myth. The author of this novel shows the death of the american dream through the events surrounding Gatsby, and Daisy.

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After the devastation of World War I, the American people had a revolution in the social standards from traditional views to more modern. The moral compass of people was no longer based on basic religious rules but instead regarded ethics as a relative concept. This venturing out from traditional ways gave the people a door to start the extreme materialism and partying as a way of life. Along with the “roarin” side of the 20s, there also came a group of writers known as the Lost Generation. One of these writers that arose with the Lost Generation was F. Scott Fitzgerald.

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Resolution of the story The Great Gatsby starts at chapter 9, after the tragic incident has ended. The chapter opens where Nick has moved back to the west and is reflecting back to the day of the incident. It also unfolds Gatsby’s past through acquaintance with Gatsby’s father, Gatz. After Gatsby’s death, no one else wanted to arrange Gatsby’s funeral and as Nick was the only “real” friend, he decided to take care of the funeral. Many can be seen from chapter 9 that relates to the text such as the green light.

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This indicates that Gatsby was a man who believed in the “orgastic future” and a world that was superior to the one he found himself in. Furthermore, Gatsby 's attempt to pursue the American Dream is seen through his struggle to reach for the “green light” which symbolizes Gatsby 's dream of being with Daisy, This is demonstrated when: He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness (5).

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Imagine living in a perfect world. Nothing in this world can go wrong, nothing can do you harm, and nothing is out of reach. This is the world of an idealist- a person who forms or pursues ideals unrealistically. Although this philosophy would hold its believer in a constant daze of false happiness, when reality hits, it could be devastating. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, main character Jay Gatsby is blinded by the fantasy of transforming himself into a famous figure of wealth and social status and, as a result, winning over his love, Daisy.

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John A. Pidgeon says that, “The theme of Gatsby is the withering of the American Dream”(Pidgeon 179). The prime example of this is Gatsby, who “believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther” (Fitzgerald 180). The green light symbolizes Gatsby’s dream to be upper class with Daisy, but he can never reach it. Furthermore, it is frustrating for him that when he does attain wealth, Daisy is still out of his reach.

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Women in Fitzgerald’s literature cannot achieve their goals; it does not matter if they belong to the “old” or the “new” school, nor the upper or lower stages in the social scale. It is hard to determine if the woman’s question was as Fitzgerald depicts but, anyhow, he is mirroring the society where he lives in many different aspects. As a male author, he probably cannot provide a complete view of this topic. Notwithstanding, he masters the narrative technique to portray 1920s’ American society and his work can be considered as a faithful chronicle of that

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He is greedy because he uses his wealth to try to win over Daisy. Gatsby buys a house across the bay from Daisy, and he can always see the green light shining toward him at the end of her dock, as Fitzgerald writes: “…he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away…”(Fitzgerald 19). The symbol of Gatsby reaching toward the light represents his longing for Daisy, but just like the light, she is far away. Gatsby has worked so hard to try to win her back.

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On the day that Daisy and Gatsby are reintroduced, Daisy wears lavender which could represent unattainability of the “American Dream”. The color lavender taints the immaculate image that the “Golden Dream” or Daisy has because she was only seen in white before. The American Dream’s tainted color could represent how the only way for people to change their socioeconomic status drastically is through criminal activity like Gatsby did. Like the “American Dream” Daisy is unattainable to Gatsby because she is married. Gatsby is only able to be in a relationship with Daisy through them having an affair, which many people would view as a sin or illegal.

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Daisy seemed really nice and pretty and was the goal of Gatsby to get, but turns out she's not as great and Gatsby imagined her being, represents the false sense of glory people see in the American Dream. This proved in chapter 5, page 93, "Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

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This included women wanting to work and be more equal and men who came back from the war just wanted to forget everything. F. Scott Fitzgerald was an author in the “Twenties” and lived a very typical lifestyle at the time. Through his book, “Great Gatsby”, you really get the taste of the era. The analysis of the book through his language, characters and events, it shows how his life was and how people acted at the time.

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