Literary Analysis On The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was written in the early 20th century and since then has been a part of every American teen’s high school curriculum. The author depicts the story of Jay Gatsby as he invents a life of wealth and decadence in order to pursue his childhood love interest. H.L. Mencken reviews this novel in the Chicago Sunday Tribute in 1925, as no more than a “glorified anecdote” (Mencken) because it is a superficial story about superficial people. Mencken’s evaluation of The Great Gatsby correctly disparages the story’s superficial characters and simple plot as “somewhat amateurish” (Mencken) and how the theme lacks true value as the love is shown to be “preposterous… motif reduced to a macabre humor” (Mencken) instead

The story is plot-driven rather than character-driven since none of the characters truly grow or evolve in the story except possibly the narrator as the objective outsider who can step out of the superficial fantasy and carry on after Gatsby’s death. Mencken is correct when he states that most of the characters “are mere marionettes… not quite alive” (Mencken) as they all seem to have very simple emotions and few intentions. I agree that the author does not go below the surface, “he depicts this rattle and hullabaloo with great gusto” (Mencken). Both Tom and Myrtle illustrate marionettes that are mere puppets in this anecdote. When Tom confronts Gatsby for sleeping with his wife, he is more concerned about his status of lower class as he calls Gatsby a bootlegger as the biggest insult to the man that is sleeping with his wife. "I found out what your 'drug-stores' were." He turned to us and spoke rapidly. "He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn't far wrong." (Fitzgerald 143). Myrtle’s superficiality is evident when her mood and energy changes with her outfit to look rich. ”Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon

Mencken that The Great Gatsby is no more than a glorified anecdote around a theme of preposterous love. Both Gatsby and Daisy have fabricated superficial lives based on wealth and excess. Gatsby loves Daisy because she represents the pinnacle of the dream he strives to concoct. When Daisy attends one of Gatsby’s parties, his flaunting of his wealth catches Daisy and makes her emotional. This leads Daisy to rethink her choice of Tom over Gatsby as she notices the unnecessary amount of “beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such—such beautiful shirts before." (Fitzgerald 99). Daisy shows guilt here when she realizes she married Tom for his money but now Gatsby has the same means or maybe more. Gatsby spends so much of time pining over Daisy and this idea he has of her even though she left him when he didn’t have anything. Gatsby doesn’t seem to care about how shallow Daisy is because he is the same. Their love is so preposterous because they both only want what will make them look good in the eyes of others, not what will make them happy. Gatsby only loves the fact that he cannot have Daisy making her a more valuable prize, not a woman he loves. He puts Daisy on a pedestal due to the image he has created of her and “It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes.” (Fitzgerald 158). Once again, he values Daisy not for her depth or