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The Great Gatsby Essay F Scott Fitzgerald English Literature Essay

The Great Gatsby Essay F Scott Fitzgerald English Literature Essay

In ‘The Great Gatsby ‘ by F. Scott-Fitzgerald, the scene has an highly cardinal portion to play in the reader ‘s grasp of the text as a whole. ‘The Great Gatsby ‘ is set in 1920 ‘s America and is a extremely symbolic contemplation of this clip in America as a whole, in the peculiar prostration of the American Dream in an epoch of extraordinary wealth and philistinism. The two chief subdivisions of America referred to in the novel, are the East, and the West. Each have wholly different intensions and the people populating in each, differ greatly. West egg represents old money, and so the people who live here have inherited their luck, and because of this, they look down on the East Eggers, who have worked in organized offense and Hollywood and earned their lucks. Both eggs are characterised in wholly different ways, those in the West were just, comparatively guiltless, unworldly, while those who lived in the East were corrupt, and mercenary ( Tom and Daisy ) . The Easterners who moved West, moreover, take the idiosyncrasies of the East egg to their new lives in the West, a premier illustration of this is Gatsby. The Valley of the Ashes is besides a symbolic scene within the novel as it symbolises the represents the moral and societal decay that consequences from the unconstrained hunt of wealth, as the rich dainty themselves believing about nil other than their ain pleasance. It is a colourless, bare country as a consequence of it being a dumping land for ashes. The parties here are noisy and bibulous compared with the mellow and relaxed parties of the West.

The ethical geographics of the novel is backed up by the symbolism of the American East and Midwest. The West symbolises New money-people who have gained their money through illegal patterns like bootlegging- the illegal merchandising of intoxicant and in comparing, the East symbolises Old money- people who inherited their luck. The Midwest includes provinces such as Minnesota, Nick ‘s hometown and North Dakota, Gatsby ‘s hometown. For Fitzgerald, the Midwest is identified with the hopeful spirit, which is shown clearly in Gatsby. Here, old fashioned, stable values are seen and it is built on close relationships and comfort of old traditions. It is hence important that Gatsby originated from the Midwest. Nick feels sympathy towards Gatsby because of his similar beginnings, as they are both Midwestern. However, the Buchannan ‘s, who were besides originally from the Midwest have an wholly different position on life and have lost the caring values of those from the West. They have taken the more rough values of New Yorkers and followed them as a consequence of remaining in the East for a long period of clip. After traveling to the East, they adopted a careless, adrift manner of life, caring merely about material things and no longer about the beauty and pureness of life in itself. Tom and Daisy Buchanan have been in the influence of corruptness for so long that they have absorbed the traits of moral decay in their characters. “ Even when the East excites me most, even when I was most keenly cognizant of its high quality to the bored, sprawling, conceited towns beyond Ohio… even so it had ever for me a quality of deformation ” This quality of deformation referred to by Nick is moral decay and how visual aspects can be delusory. A great illustration of this fact is The Valley of the Ashes. This facet of puting symbolizes the moral decay hidden behind the beautiful privacy of the two Eggs, and suggests that beneath the hyperbole of West Egg and the false personal appeal of East Egg lies the same ugliness as in the vale. This is a personification of the message that things are non ever as they seen and even although the West is beautiful, it is a privacy of corruptness as the wealths of the dwellers here are through illegal workss. Therefore, we can work out the destinies of the characters by their geographical scene, particularly Gatsby. The scene, here is an of import factor as it shows the superficial universe in which we are stuck- like East Egg.

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Fitzgerald uses puting to reflect his characters, but besides to exemplify the cardinal subject in the novel, corruptness of the American dream. This is represented by The Valley of the Ashes which symbolise the moral and societal decay which Fitzgerald saw behind the false image of felicity and wealth. “ This is the vale of the ashes-a antic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the signifiers of houses and chimneys and lifting fume and eventually, with surpassing attempt, of work forces who move indistinctly and are already crumpling through the powdery air ” The thought of the word “ ashes ” suggests decease and asphyxiation as ashes are like dust and when in the air, gets stuck In your pharynx and makes you look and experience Grey. The thought of the work forces “ already crumpling through the powdery air ” is a grotesque image which suggests the people are obscure or about dead which shows understanding to the poorer people populating here who must work in rough conditions. The people populating in the vale are about described as to intermix into their gray milieus and hence about impossible to distinguish between. It is clear in this subdivision that Fitzgerald was to a great extent influenced by T.S. Elliot and his novel ‘The Wastelands ‘ . It is highly fitting that this is where Myrtle and Tom met and besides where Myrtle was killed, as their relationship was perverting the moral positions of society as rip offing on a spouse is an highly disrespectful and shows deficiency of ethical motives, as does slaying. Myrtle is a victim of moral decay in this novel which is unmistakably shown to the reader. “ Over the great span, with the sunshine through the girders doing a changeless spark upon the traveling autos, with the metropolis lifting up across the river in white tonss and sugar balls all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The metropolis seen from the Queensboro Bridge is ever the metropolis seen for the first clip, in its first wild promise of all the enigma and the beauty in the universe. ” The metropolis of New York is, here, being described at it ‘s most idealistic, as if from the eyes of person merely seeing it for the first clip, seeing merely the reflecting possibilities of it and none of the ugly worlds and corruptness. To Nick, New York is at the same time absorbing and abhorrent, fast-paced and dazing to look at but missing a moral Centre. While Tom is forced to maintain his matter with Myrtle comparatively discreet in the vale of the ashes, in New York he can look with her in populace, even among his friends, without doing an indignation. Even Nick, despite being Daisy ‘s cousin, does n’t look to mind that Tom shows off his infidelity in public. This shows the corruptness of New York in the novel as workss which, back in West egg would be considered unhallowed and dismaying, in New York, cipher seems to care. The color white is used as a symbol to demo that things may look guiltless and pure, but corruptness lies on the interior. White is hiding the dishonesty which lies within the powerful metropolis. Peoples populating here, become morally and socially corrupt as a consequence of the compulsion for material things taking over their lives and money and celebrity going more of import than life itself. Therefore the American dream is being corrupted. Meyer Wolfsheim is a Jew who fixed the World Series and is symbolised by the condemnable underworld, his character is for that ground corrupted. He is linked with New York and this adds to the fraud exposed in the reader ‘s ideas to the milieus. Through Fitzgerald ‘s graphic imagination, the critical subject of corruptness and infidelity is clearly evoked and this is critical to our apprehension of the messages included in the narrative.

In The Great Gatsby, there are two little islands, East Egg and West Egg, which are “ indistinguishable in contour, separated merely by a courtesy bay ” . Among them, the West Egg is “ the less stylish of the two ” , on which unrecorded Nick and Gatsby. Across this courtesy bay “ the white castles of stylish East Egg glittered along the H2O ” , on which Tom and Daisy live their carefree and at leisure lives. The two Eggs represent a difference of societal category, while the bay symbolizes a enormous spread between the two which will ne’er be able to come together as one. Although merely a bay separates them, the differences between the two eggs could non be greater. Equally good as stand foring old and new money, the two Eggs besides represent the thoughts of life in the past and present. East Egg epitomizes how Daisy and Tom both live with old universe thoughts and an old fashioned manner of thought. As a consequence of this, they refuse to travel on into the West where new, exciting things are. West Egg tells us how Gatsby and Nick are populating in the present, seeking to be ideals of today ‘s society, and so holding the greatest and most excessive ownerships. We know, through this, that the West eggars live in the hereafter and are n’t afraid to travel on in life. Gatsby and Daisy live on different eggs and this means that the semen from wholly different societal backgrounds. Gatsby and Daisy, before the war had a crack but when Gatsby moved on to contend in the war, Daisy met Tom and married him as she knew Gatsby was n’t affluent like Tom. Daisy moved on in life, but Gatsby still held onto Daisy in his bosom. When he became rich, he bought a house right across the bay from her so he could ever see her and his excessive parties, we find out are held in the off-chance that Daisy attends one. Gatsby ‘s epicurean house and parties are in world, a frontage. Even although the wealth barrier is overcome when Gatsby becomes affluent, the societal barrier still remains as they live on the different islands. In world, Gatsby ‘s dream useless as it will ne’er come on farther. He does non gain that he is, throughout the whole clip, separated from daisy forever by his societal lower status. The scene enhances our apprehension of this as the contrast between the two eggs is limpidly described to us.

West egg is a topographic point of old money, lineage, category and manner. Daisy and Tom ‘s house epitomises these things. Tom and Daisy both come from highly affluent households and this is how they achieved their money, through heritage. “ Their house was even more luxuriant than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial sign of the zodiac, overlooking the bay ” The symbol of the color white hiding corruptness is used once more by Fitzgerald here. This suggests that Tom and Daisys house, although looking beautiful, guiltless and pure, masked the true coloring material of the interior where infidelity and corruptness prevarications. In world, the glister of the outside conceals emptiness and moral decay of the inside. Once once more, the differences in the two Eggs, heighten our understanding as to what is go oning in the novel as we are shown the importance of the comparing between them.

Gatsby ‘s sign of the zodiac is another of import facet of puting in ‘The Great Gatsby ‘ . At the beginning of the novel, it is the Centre of all the excessive parties and epicurean things. The expression of his house mirrors his character. Although his place is surprisingly excessive, it is flat and vulgar. If his house was in East Egg alternatively of the West, it would be wholly out of topographic point. Gatsby lacks societal designation. Even although his house is brilliant, it is all for show and is all superficial. “ It ‘s a bona-fide piece of printed affair. It Fooled me. This chap ‘s a regular Belasco. It ‘s a victory. What thoroughness! What pragmatism! Knew when to halt excessively — did n’t cut the pages. But what do you desire? What do you anticipate? ” This is said by Owl eyes, depicting the books it Gatsby ‘s library. It shows Gatsby ‘s ignorance of cognition and sightlessness in affecting Daisy with a deceptively rational privacy. It describes how Gatsby ‘s library is filled with echt books, but these books are merely for show. When Owl eyes references that Gatsby had non cut the pages, it tells the reader that Gatsby has non read these books. Owl eyes besides compares Gatsby to Belasco, who was a Broadway manufacturer who was celebrated for how close his sets were to the existent thing. Gatsby ‘s library is merely an expensive aggregation, once more as a frontage to pull Daisy and show people his wealth. Gatsby ‘s dream represents his dream as through it, he wished to acquire back with Daisy. He thinks that if he makes his house the best it can be so Daisy will come back to him. In world, this is non traveling to go on. After the decease of Myrtle Wilson and Tom and Gatsby ‘s statement in the Plaza hotel, Gatsby realises his dream is good and truely over and knows now that he will ne’er be able to win Daisy back. Equally good as his character changing, his house besides changes. In Chapter 8, the house is about deserted. Gatsby is entirely, the house is quiet. It “ seemed so tremendous ” because the parties had ended, the invitees had gone. Suddenly it is dark and dust-covered, without the ‘ornaments ‘ of the superficial life of the house to cover up the disregard. “ This house had ne’er seemed so tremendous to me as it did that dark when we hunted through the room for coffin nail… there was an incomprehensible sum of dust everyplace ” This mirrors Gatsby ‘s character at this minute in the novel as he has lost Daisy- his dream and so the loss of ambiance is a spot like his shell being lost, he is non longer a magnetic, exciting character, but a dull, lifeless adult male which is precisely the same as his house, which coincidentally links highly closely in description with the exanimate Valley of the Ashes. This scene, one time once more helps our apprehension as to the plot line as Fitzgerald relates everything back to Gatsby ‘s character to heighten our apprehension of the chief issues of the corruptness of the American dream and how money and dreams corrupts society in the subdivision.

Following Daisy ‘s determination to take Tom over Gatsby and after killing Myrtle, she disappeared and this is when the universe collapsed for Gatsby. His dream fell off merely every bit rapidly as it was formed and whilst making so, his whole life was taken off from him in the wink of an palpebra. The alteration in Gatsby ‘s life was symbolised by the manner in which Fitzgerald uses imagination at the terminal of the novel when Gatsby uses his swimming pool to perpetrate self-destruction in the summer of 1922. Nick imagines what it must hold seen and felt like to Gatsby: ” He had lost the old warm universe… He must hold looked up at an unfamiliar sky through scaring foliages and shivered as he found what a monstrous thing a rose is and how natural the sunshine was upon the created grass. A new universe, stuff without being existent, where hapless shades, take a breathing dreams like air, drifted fortunately about ” Gatsby ‘s dream had died merely as it was born. His universe appears empty and his dream is dead so the universe seems empty and foreign to him. The scene described here reflects the impairment and decease of Gatsby ‘s dream. Gatsby Washington trailing his dream for so long and seeking to take a life which was perfect, through this, he failed to see the negative side of life. So in the terminal when his ownerships are no longer of import and he does n’t hold this perfect dream to follow, he becomes lost and does n’t cognize what to make any longer, so resorts to come ining a new universe where everything is non every bit pleasant as in his old universe, a topographic point where a rose is non beautiful but monstrous and the lone things now, which can woolgather are the shades. The graphic imagination of his last minutes in our universe here, shows the reader how Gatsby ‘s universe filled up with things which e did n’t necessitate and as he exits our universe, he looks at them and is afraid of the devastation he has created. It finally, shows the monetary value he has paid for his dream, through the description of the scene and this helps us to understand the failings in his character and to understand the chief job here.

In decision, the scene in ‘The Great Gatsby ‘ by F. Scott Fitzgerald is important as it plays a really of import portion in our grasp of the text as a whole. It gives us an penetration into the symbols and messages in the novel which are cardinal to our understanding as to what is go oning in the novel at certain parts. The scene besides adds to our enjoyment of reading the novel as we learn more about the characters which makes us able to grok the more complex thoughts of the novel easier. The scene expressed the societal place and how the characters spend their lives which is a critical portion of the plot line as it is the contrast in societal background which destroys Gatsby ‘s character and leads to the devastation of his dream and facets of other people ‘s lives in the novel. Puting, in world, is the foundation to our apprehension of everything in the novel, from the beginning, Fitzgerald describes each and every portion of the milieus clearly throughout the entireness of the novel and without this, it would non hold as strong a message as it does, which is critical in every facet of Fitzgerald ‘s ‘work of art ‘ .

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