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The Great Gatsby Research Paper

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The roaring twenties present an environment where wealth, privilege, and social status are the illusion of a perfect life. This American dream was originally a symbol of hope for success and a better life, but is blurred into a goal of material wealth and status. With this glamorous lifestyle comes the devastating consequences of unhappiness, delusions, and harsh realities. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, characters such as Gatsby, Daisy, and Nick navigate between illusion and reality, each carrying different motives of the pursuit of happiness in relationships and achieving the American dream. Symbolizing the corrupt dream of the 1920’s, Jay Gatsby is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his fantasy of a perfect life. Similarly, …show more content…

His love of wealth and material possessions is not only a personal interest, but also one of Daisy’s interests. Revolving his life around her, Gatsby only “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald, 78). He takes pride in showing off his expensive shirts, “throwing them one by one” (Fitzgerald, 92) In chapters five and six, readers sympathize for Gatsby, seeing that he is merely a love-struck human who is throwing his life away for a girl not worth his time. Nick Carraway, however, sees Daisy as who she truly is. Formerly the sweet girl who loved Gatsby in Louisville, Daisy will never desert her social class in the East Egg to be with Gatsby of West Egg. Gatsby takes off his rose-colored glasses and realizes the past cannot be repeated. “Only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible” (Fitzgerald, 134) He faces reality in chapter seven, when Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby and proves her real nature. Unfortunately for Gatsby, he is unable to create a better life for himself without Daisy before getting murdered a few days after his epiphany. Already coming from a wealthy family, Daisy Fay’s dream is to live an easy life filled with riches and glamour. She marries Tom Buchanan of Chicago, who is from an aristocratic family and promises her the luxurious lifestyle of her dreams. “By the …show more content…

“He hurried the phrase “educated at Oxford,” or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him now. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all.” (Fitzgerald, 65) His lies about being an Oxford man and his previous criminal activity makes Nick mistrustful of Gatsby. He sees the flaws in Gatsby’s motives and desires to repeat the past. After Gatsby dies, Nick moves to Minnesota. While he is attracted to the fast paced and fun lifestyle of New York, he finds this lifestyle grotesque and damaging. This inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication, just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people. “That’s my Middle West...the streetlamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark... I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.” (Fitzgerald, 176). Nick returns to the Midwest because he is disillusioned with life in New York and realizes that the reality of the American Dream is a destructive force despite its positive

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Nick travels back here after the war before he goes over to West Egg, and after Gatsby’s death he travels back west because “after Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me” (Fitzgerald 176). When he moved back to the Midwest, he saw Tom there he was upset at him because he was one of the main reasons Gatsby was dead. The father of Gatsby went East to see his son's funeral, and while there he showed Nick Gatsby’s notes to become successful. Not in the Midwest but in Kentucky is where Gatsby meets Daisy and they fall in love this is also where Gatsby gets the idea that Daisy is “High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl” (Parkinson 54) and how that makes him think of Daisy's life in an unrealistic light. Because of Gatsby’s view of the house, he starts to see money and wealth as “a source of power” (Parkinson 54) and a tool to be used to gain something or become

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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a novel that explores the complex relationships between the wealthy elite of the Jazz Age. The story is set in the wealthy enclave of East Egg, where the excesses and moral decay of the time are on full display. Two of the most important characters in the novel are Gatsby and Nick, who form a bond that is based on mutual respect and a shared understanding of the world around them. In this essay, I will explore the relationship between Gatsby and Nick, and the significance of the East Egg setting in the story. Gatsby and Nick come from very different backgrounds, but they share a sense of disillusionment with the world around them.

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Nick is made the narrator of the story that he is to tell of Jay Gatsby and is the reliable one who tells us that he must “reserve all judgments”. Nick’s values are rather parallel to Gatsby’s values of loyalty and honesty. Throughout the story, Nick’s admiration of Gatsby grows as they become friends although he “disapproved him from beginning to end.” As we are told the story from Nick’s point of view, the reader is forced to accept his thoughts and observations of the whole society, but most of all Gatsby. Nick realises that Gatsby has invested his whole self into trying to achieve his dream and Nick is in admiration of his determination.

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While Nick and Jordan maintain a decent relationship throughout the majority of this novel, by the end of it, he realizes that Jordan is a willing accomplice to the destruction that is being caused by these relationships. While Jordan is certainly different from the women in this novel, a self made woman with no need for a man, she still thrives and takes advantage of this materialistic world that Nick doesn’t want to be a part of. Nick is initially drawn to Jordan’s beauty and confidence: “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you. ``(39), Nick says to Jordan at one of Gatsby's parties early on in the novel.

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The classic American novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is well-known for its main character, Jay Gatsby, and Nick Carraway’s fondness and admiration for him. Yet, upon closer inspection, Nick isn’t fond of Gatsby at all for the majority of the story. Throughout the novel, Nick scoffs at Gatsby, feels disgust towards him, and doesn’t reserve judgement as usual when he recognizes him as a liar. However, by the end, Nick realizes his deep care for the man, and sees him as the best person in West Egg and East Egg put together. Despite Nick disapproving of Gatsby’s criminal history under his real name, James Gatz, Nick loves and admires him as a person.

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Children grow up with the idea that to succeed in life, you have to be rich, have a nice house and a fancy car with children and a loving spouse. Jay Gatsby started out as a very poor boy and when he got a taste of the good life, he wasn’t about to let it go. He strived to get what he wanted and what he wanted most was to be rich, have power, and to get the love of his life. In the 1920’s, there was a feeling in the air that one could rise up from nothing and have it all, but Gatsby learns that you can’t have it all.

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Nick Carraway a dreamer and a man of character moved from the Midwest to New York, after the war ended to educate himself in the bond business, and hopefully make money. When he moved to New York Nick was caught in the middle of people with hollow and shallow morals. People around him like Tom was cheating on his wife, Jordan baker was dishonest, and daisy was guarded and sheltered from life. Nick on the other hand was a man who saw things in a different perspective he didn't get distaratced by the glitz or gossip or the negativity around him instead he was fullfilling his aspirations while learning about life and the challenges around him. In chapter four Meyer Wolshiem, said to Nick " I understand you're looking for a buisness gonnegtion", then when in chapter five when Gatsby asks Nick, "Why, I thought---why, look here, old sport, you don't make much money, do you?"

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These falsely supported ideas about Gatsby soon fall through when Nick meets Gatsby for the first time. Upon learning he was talking to Gatsby, Nick immediately remarks that Jay had “...one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life” (Fitzgerald, 1925, p. 52). Instantly, Gatsby’s appearance impacts Nick and makes an impression that Gatsby is a man of greatness, the type of person you only interact with a few times in life if you are lucky. Even Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy’s who goes to Gatsby’s parties, is amazed by Gatsby after spending only an hour with him (Fitzgerald, 1925). Nick and Jordan interact with many people during the novel, especially during the parties at Gatsby’s house, though no one seems to stick in their mind with the same initial impression that Gatsby has.

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The Great Gatsby takes place in the roaring twenties and follows a young stockholder, Nick Carraway, and his journey moving amongst the fashionable elite. Here, Nick learns the truth about the American Dream whilst examining his peers' ignorant behaviors. One of the characters whose presence caused a ripple effect throughout the entirety of the novel was Gatsby. Through Gatsby’s actions, the reader is able to examine the behaviors of a man who achieved the “American dream” through years of hard work. Although Gatsby’s persistence and naivety are what defines him as “great”, it is also these qualities that led Gatsby to his demise.

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Gatsby gets himself into a mess by getting involved with Daisy. His dream to be with her blocks out his common sense of what he should do, and he chooses to save Daisy’s status by telling Nick

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He claims, “After Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction,” which ultimately causes him to return back to the Midwest (Fitzgerald 129). Though Nick originally came to New York hopeful, he quickly realizes he is unable to survive East Egg and West Egg without Gatsby by his side. A life without Gatsby is better to be lived at a distance away, so Nick can reminisce on the memories and not be constantly reminded of them. Henceforth, Nick creates a narrator that surrounds him and his relationship with Gatsby. Despite Gatsby’s pursuit of Nick’s cousin Daisy, the intimate moments between them

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Present Nick is looking back in the past at what Gatsby was and how he respected him for that. Gatsby is describe as such an extraordinary man but, so he was a vulnerable person who allowed his dreams to consume him. Nick describe how he might’ve turned out well but in reality his dreams had consumed him: “No—Gatsby turned out alright at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams….” (Fitzgerald 2). Just like how Nick started his introduction of Gatsby as optimistic it all but crumbles in the end like the fail American Dream Gatsby had made

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Nick becomes blinded by the wealth of Gatsby and the glamour of his magnificent parties. Eventually, Nick wants to just escape the drama that is going on in his life. The life Nick began to live

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .

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The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story about a man named Nick Carraway and his experiences from traveling from the midwest to New York to seek work in the bond business and to visit his cousin Daisy. But Nick doesn 't come home as the person he left as, because without him knowing it, Nicks life would forever be changed by the events that unfold on this trip. While on his trip, Nick got exposed to an array of things that the midwest didn’t have to offer, like frequent drinking and partying, experienced some unique new friendships, and sheer sadness before returning home. One of the better things Nick was exposed to while in New York was the rich, party lifestyle that many people lived in New York. Before coming to New York, some would have call Nick “square” because he wasn’t versed in the edicate of parting and drinking.

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