The Great Gatsby Paper: The Lost Generation In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, you can observe many themes which align with Gertrude Stein’s idea of the “Lost Generation”. The three main characters, Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby are all members of this group who deal with finding purpose and meaning in pursuit of the American dream. The brutality witnessed in World War I caused cultural shifts and societal detachment. The notion of the “Lost Generation” encompasses the young people who felt purposeless and wandered aimlessly, exposed to the cruelty of war, unable to find the meaning of life. Living in a world that no longer made sense, they rejected their old ways of thinking and past ways of life such as patriotism …show more content…
He is the main character, a rich, self-made man. Despite his successful and busy life, he seems to desire one thing far above all else. He reinvents himself because of his love for Daisy, throwing lavish parties every weekend in hopes that one day she will attend. After winning her over, she becomes his idol. Gatsby doesn’t have a care in the world besides, as can be seen after they hit Myrtle in the yellow car. “’Did you see any trouble on the road?’ he asked after a minute. ‘Yes.’ He hesitated. ‘Was she killed?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I thought so; I told Daisy I thought so. It’s better that the shock should all come at once. She stood it pretty well.’ He spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered.” (Fitzgerald …show more content…
He is disillusioned by the hustle and bustle of the city and hopes to find what he’s missing in life. The reason he becomes so invested in Gatsby’s quest for love is that he’s looking for the same thing as him, only in a different way. He later realizes the superficiality of his new lifestyle and feels alienated from his wealthier counterparts. This can be seen when he says, "Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn." (Fitzgerald