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The Great Gatsby Title Analysis

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The lights can be seen from a mile away, and the bustling music grows louder as Nick Carraway walks up the steps into Gatsby's extravagant mansion. Gatsby’s party is unbelievably luxurious: guests marvel over his Rolls-Royce, his swimming pool, his beach, crates of fresh oranges and lemons, buffet tents in the gardens overflowing with a feast, and a live orchestra playing under the stars. Liquor flows freely, and the crowd grows rowdier and louder as more and more guests get drunk. In this atmosphere of opulence and revelry, Nick is curious about his host and sets out to find Gatsby. However as guests mill around exchanging rumors about their host it becomes clear that no one seems to know the truth about Gatsby’s Greatness, wealth or personal history. The title The Great Gatsby symbolizes the magnificence of Jay Gatsby, however it is outweighed by the falsehood of his persona. …show more content…

"The trust was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a Son of God -- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that” (Fitzgerald 54). This presents Gatsby as a living legend because he is the richest, coolest, handsomest man, who drives the best car and throws revelrous parties. He is the perfect human being who is living the ‘American dream’ and everyone wants to be around him, and everyone is around for his parties. This interpretation of the title applies best in the beginning of the novel, when Gatsby is all mysterious rumors, swirling success, and unimaginable luxury, with Nick in his

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The Great Gatsby is an great piece of American literature by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In The Great Gatsby author Fitzgerald focuses on issues of the American dream, love and wealth are discussed. Which tend to draw the attention of the readers. Especially interesting is the question of whether Gatsby is even deserving of being called great or if the title ironical. It is argued that Jay Gatsby is a person of false love.

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Despite what the title suggests, within “The Great Gatsby”, Jay Gatsby is neither truly great, nor even named Gatsby. His elaborate transition from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, both literally and figuratively changing his identity, completing an ingenious façade to replicate the essence of greatness Gatsby sees in the aristocracy. Although Gatsby attempts to build his own greatness through material wealth, his only means is through the criminal activities of Wolfstein, with this unsavoury connection to the insidious underbelly of New York City undermining Gatsby’s quest for greatness. It is only from the distinctive perspective of Nick Carraway that the idea of Gatsby as “great” emerges. As explained by Carraway, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (pg. 140), this glamourous hopefulness being what attracts Carraway towards Gatsby, with Gatsby representing the idea of the American Dream for Nick Carraway.

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This Jay Gatsby is great because he is a wondrous exciting person, at least to the outside world. But behind this bold rich exterior, he’s hiding that almost all of his stories and accomplishments are lies. Gatsby is a crook who made his fortune by bootlegging and most likely illegal mob activity with Meyer Wolfsheim. Calling Gatsby great in this sense is strongly ironic. Behind closed doors, he is nothing but a sham.

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The American Dream that Scott F. Fitzgerald stressed about in his novel The Great Gatsby is the notion of perfection; can never be acquired, but can always be reached for. Gatsby was not a man who came from wealth, as a young boy he always knew he would achieve to be something great in his life, even comparing himself to Christ. “The truth was that Jay Gatsby,

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In “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald designates Jay Gatsby as “great” to highlight his complex background, his goals in life, and the themes of this book. Gatsby’s greatness is not determined by his wealth and big parties, but his perseverance and his pursuit of the American Dream. In this novel, Fitzgerald is being when referring to Gatsby as “great” because although he has many accomplishments under his belt, it’s about how he got to them and Gatsby sacrificed some important things and will sacrifice more important things to get to this point in life. First, Gatsby being described as “great” relates to his ability to dream and make those dreams turn into reality, it’s not referring to his impressive wealth and his big parties.

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The description in the opening paragraphs of Chapter 2 is appropriate to the total atmosphere of this chapter because it shows, by reusing the words “gray” and “ash”, that everyone is unhappy, sullen, and are not content with what they have. “The valley of ashes” shows how these people feel. The wealthy only care about themselves and doing extravagant things to make themselves happy. It also shows how people like George Wilson, who lives in the ashes, struggles to be able to get what he wants and does everything to make it happen. George Wilson believes that “the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleberg” are the eyes of God and that they are watching over him and all the poor.

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In this passage, Nick illustrates his self-proclaimed “open-mindedness,” implying that he does not judge people by their social class. Nick characterizes himself as objective, unlike the general public. He stating that although Gatsby “represented everything for which [he had] an unaffected scorn,” Gatsby is also “gorgeous.” Nick’s emphasis on his objectiveness is interesting because it demonstrates that he feels a need to clarify and demonstrate this character trait.

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In the given passage from the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author compares and contrasts two sets of characters, Tom and Daisy with Gatsby, to surface the differences that had been drawn between them due to their attitudes and moral values. Through the usage of dialogues, focus on the moral values of each set and Nick Carraway’s description of the characters the author conveys this idea to the readers. One reason behind the significance of this passage is the fact that through the usage of dialogues and Nick Carraway’s descriptions the author adds a dimension to the ‘careless’ characters in the novel, Tom and Daisy. Throughout the novel Tom has proven to be a selfish and hypocritical man who would do anything to save

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The small passage above is something I found while writing an entirely different final assignment about wealth and poverty, but this passage made me want to write about The American Dream in The Great Gatsby. I like how this blog says by the 1920s the dream has been ruined into a need for money, getting it any way possible. This is so true in The Great Gatsby. For example, Jay Gatsby seemed to get most of his money from bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition. He felt he needed this money to have a happy ending with Daisy.

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How does Gatsby feel about his social class as a child? Gatsby is humiliated as a child being less fortunate. While he was in college, him working as a janitor was a complete embarrassment. Gatsby used the character Dan Cody as an inspiration of what kind of lifestyle he wanted to have. I feel like Gatsby didn't like the feeling of others being above him so he did all he could to get above them.

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Significance of Title: The Title of this book takes after the main character that this novel centers around: Jay Gatsby. It holds a significant demonstration of irony because the name “Gatsby” was a name made up by Gatsby himself in the duration of his dream. In addition, the title “Great” comes into place ironically and in a sense of an illusion, because Nick the narrator speaks of his flaws and illegal activities that is nothing nears the meaning of Great. Instead, Gatsby’s power, determination, and capability of making his dream reality is what holds this title.

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Regardless of whether one can be prejudicial based on a novel's cover, it is without question that a novel's title does not necessarily give any factual insight into a novel's contents. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a novel that proves exactly why one should never judge a book by its title. The title implies two things; that there is a character named Gatsby, and that he is great. There is indeed a prominent character in the novel named Gatsby, however the latter implication is false. His false greatness is then further driven in the novel, when Gatsby is initially portrayed as being more remarkable than he actually is.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE The title is significant because of how Gatsby is perceived by all the guests at his parties. He is famous in his town because of his wealth, and everyone knows who he is, so in a way, he is “great.” In a different view, the usage of the word “great” in the title is ironic; he is not exactly an exceptional or inspiring man.

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In the last passage of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader gains insight into Gatsby’s life through the reflections of Nick Carraway. These reflections provide a summary of Gatsby’s life and also parallel the main themes in the novel. Through Fitzgerald’s use of diction and descriptions, he criticizes the American dream for transformation of new world America from an untainted frontier to a corrupted industrialized society. In the novel, Fitzgerald never mentions the phase “American Dream,” however the idea is significant to the story.

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