The Great Gatsby Research Paper

Francis Scott Fitzgerald
In the much acclaimed book, The Great Gatsby written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, many of the events in the novel parallel Fitzgerald’s early life. Readers are able to get a personal look into Fitzgerald's life through the character of Nick Carraway. The Great Gatsby was published in the year 1925 and was one of the greatest literary documents during that time. In America, the 1920s was dubbed the “Roaring Twenties”. During this decade the economy soared, prohibition made bootleggers millionaires, and Americans were constantly celebrating. Due to the rising economy, Fitzgerald found himself in an era where he idolized the rich. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald attempts to confront his conflicting feelings about the

Fitzgerald captures the carefree time period in his novel The Great Gatsby. The character Jay Gatsby represents the extremes of 1920s wealth. Gatsby’s threw raucous parties in his mansion on Long Island. These bashes were free flowing with food and liquor with people attending from all over the city. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife were literatures notorious partiers. The famous party scenes in Fitzgerald’s novels were often based on real parties that he attended. Fitzgerald used the parties thrown by Gatsby to demonstrate the shallowness and hypocrisy of the people in the 1920s. Many flocked to Gatsby's parties for the alcohol and extravagance, yet little knew Gatsby and cared for him as a

Scott Fitzgerald. Nick was set in the same hometown as Scott and both attended an Ivy League school. Carraway was a man that Fitzgerald strived to be. He was a man that could turn down alcohol when he wants and had a moral and straightforward character. Nick was powerless and unable to change any of the events that unfold in the story. Through the behaviors of the other characters, Fitzgerald's lets Nick watch the carelessness and the deceit of his peers. Nick makes the choice that it is too late for Fitzgerald himself to make himself. Nick feels pity for Gatsby throughout the novel. Gatsby was a man Fitzgerald would have been a lot like. Ultimately, neither Nick nor Fitzgerald can forget the past and the choices that they didn’t make. Nick was Scott's idealized person he always wanted to