Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Gatsby loved Daisy when the two of them were very young, but believed that the only reason she rejected him was because he was poor. Unlike Nick and Daisy, however, all of Gatsby's wealth is new, won by ill-gotten gains. His recent status as a man of great social standing is only an appearance of reality, not reality itself and the 'old money' of West Egg will not accept him as one of their 'own.' People know that Gatsby is a bootlegger, and gossip about him even while they go to his parties but Nick comes to like Gatsby, and tries to deny the truth of these allegations.
The climax of the novel occurs when all of the various infidelities that have been taking place are revealed to their respective participants. As Nick is the only character who has not been involved in an extramarital affair he is once again a distanced observer. While Gatsby is driving a car with his lover Daisy, they kill Myrtle, Tom's lover, in a hit and run. Daisy is driving...
Gatsby dies at the hands of Myrtle's husband George, much like he lived, in a gallant lie, all for Daisy. And Tom watches this, in distant and horrified fascination much as he has the entire novel.
Tom emerges as the only person who appreciates Gatsby. For all of Gatsby's lies, Gatsby is the only character in the novel who loves someone, and risks everything. The reader follows Gatsby's journey through Nick's eyes, first seeing Gatsby as a mysterious figure, then as a heroic 'Oxford Man' and soldier -- and finally, robbed of these illusions, Nick and the reader see who Gatsby really is, a liar and a bootlegger, but a fundamentally romantic and decent man. Gatsby's faults are a product of his society, a society which Nick is a part of but which he ultimately rejects.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1995.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1995.
He half-admires Gatsby, and gradually as the story wears on he begins to admire Gatsby uncritically and becomes overly credulous: at one point he actually believes that Jay is an Oxford man. Gatsby did serve in World War I, but the most significant aspect of his service manifests itself in meeting Daisy -- Gatsby vowed to be worthy of Daisy by any means necessary, even if he had to
In this context, Tom is actually the one who lives his life in idleness, without giving it any meaning. Moreover, Daisy's superficiality makes of her an exponent of the consumerist world as well. Daisy makes a choice between the ideal, represented by Gatsby and the conventional stability offered by Tom, symbolizing materialism in general: "She wanted her life shaped now, immediately -- and the decision must be made by
Great Gatsby the old rich and the new rich. The power play between these two sectors at the East Egg and the West Egg is one of the most immediate themes of the novel. The old rich or traditional aristocracy is represented by Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker who behave with ingrained grace, simple taste, subtlety and elegance. They are suspicious about, and discriminating against, the new
Gatsby will always be interpreted as an interloper, even though some people, like Nick, have enough ability to step outside of the culture, and express admiration for Gatsby's futile project of self-improvement, and Gatsby's desire to win Daisy by making money. The Balinese experience binds the participants "into a set of rules which at once contains them and allows them play" (Geertz 450). Some creativity and transgression is allowed
American Lit Definition of Modernism and Three Examples Indeed, creating a true and solid definition of modernism is exceptionally difficult, and even most of the more scholarly critical accounts of the so-called modernist movement tend to divide the category into more or less two different movements, being what is known as "high modernism," which reflected the erudition and scholarly experimentalism of Eliot, Joyce, and Pound, and the so-called "low modernism" of later
Romanticism There are many way to approach the concept (or movement) known as romanticism, and over the many years romanticism has been perceived and defined in wildly different ways. Scholars and historians have spent tens of thousands of words dissecting, describing, and trying to come to terms with what romanticism really means. The truth is there are many ways to approach romanticism, and this paper looks into scholarly approaches to romanticism