Literature Analysis #3

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitxgerald

1. The story begins with a young man named Nick Carraway who begins to describe a summer from a while ago. He has just moved to New York and goes to visit his cousin, Daisy, where he sees her husband, Tom, and friend Jordan. He then learns that his cousin’s marriage is an unhappy one, because Tom has mistresses. Later on that summer, Nick goes to town with Tom, where he meets the mistresses, Myrtle. After this chaotic experience, Nick attends one of Gatsby’s outrageous parties with Jordan. Gatsby is a mysterious man, who owns the giant mansion next door to Tom. At the lively party, Nick and Jordan meet the mysterious Gatsby, who takes Jordan aside for a private conversation. Days later Nick and Gatsby go on a drive to town together where Nick learns a little more about Gatsby’s strange life. Nick later learns that Gatsby wants Nick to invite Daisy over for tea, because he is hopelessly in love with her and has been waiting years for them to reunite. Nick reluctantly agrees and Daisy comes over and is astonished to see Gatsby. After an awkward and exciting reunion their affair begins. Eventually both Daisy and Tom attend one of Gatsby’s parties which reveals Tom’s suspicion and dislike towards Gatsby. Later on Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan meet at Tom and Daisy’s for lunch. The tension is high as Tom begins to realize what is happening. The group eventually goes to town where the affair is blatantly revealed. In Gatsby’s mind Daisy must say she never loved Tom for his plan to come true. She can’t say this and Gatsby is visibly devastated, but hasn’t lost all hope. Eventually Gatsby and Daisy leave and agree to meet everyone back at Daisy’s home. As Tom, Nick, and Jordan later drive home they see a car accident up the road and stop. The woman killed in the accident is Myrtle, Tom’s secret lover. Also Tom learns that the car who killed her was the same color as Gatsby’s and they didn’t even bother to stop. Nick talks to Gatsby that night and learns that Daisy was driving the car. Tom tells George, Myrtle’s now crazy husband, that Gatsby was driving. George then goes to Gatsby’s, kills him and then kills himself. Nick has a small funeral for Gatsby, however no one attends, sadly unlike the giant parties he used to throw. Nick ends his relationship with Jordan and moves back to the midwest, because he can’t handle his disgust for the greedy people of the city life.
2. One of the main themes was the emptiness of the upper class. Nick as a wallflower observed the characteristics of not only the main characters, but also the interactions of the people at Gatsby’s parties. He noticed the empty pursuit of greed with no real emotion or empathy or purpose. The selfishness of Daisy, who allowed her desires to ruin others’ lives. Also, the carelessness of Tom who, although he said he loved Daisy, went on frequent “sprees” with other women, showing that the vow of marriage meant nothing to him. Nick but all of these together and by the end realized the overall reckless, carelessness of the upperclass.
3. Nick’s tone in telling this story is ambivalent and somewhat nostalgic. He is ambivalent towards Gatsby as a character. For example, he admires Gatsby’s dedication to make this dream transformation of “James Gatz” to “Jay Gatsby” come true. However, at times like the night Daisy hit Myrtle, and how Gatsby was so consumed with Daisy’s emotions that he paid no mind to the gravity of the situation. At this time Nick hated Gatsby. Although, Nick’s opinions went back and forth overall he had an admiration for Gatsby’s unique character which he showed through his nostalgic tone. As he reminisced on his life changing summer, his descriptions of Gatsby are always very romanticized showing Nick’s admiring nostalgia towards his old friend.
4. -Narrorator point of view: Since the story is told as Nick looking back on his experience, the audience gets his opinion of the situations. However, it is essential that the story be told from Nick’s point of view because he is the only clear-thinking, outside party to witness these events. The story told by Gatsby or Daisy would be too clouded with emotional judgements that the true story wouldn’t be told.
   -Imagery: Nick describes everything in such great detail, from the colors to the sounds. He paints a vivid picture of Gatsby’s parties and character’s facial expression, which gives just as much insight to the character’s emotions and thoughts as their words do.
   -Foreshadow: “So we drove on toward death in the cooling twilight.” (pg. 91) This quote is said right before Tom, Nick, and Jordan drive up to the scene of Myrtle’s tragic death. This line added to the building ominous tone of that chapter.
   -Juxtaposition: The juxtaposition of Gatsby and Daisy, made both of their opposing characteristics seem more extreme. Gatsby’s long, tedious planning of the perfect life he sought and the preciseness he used to execute it was quite opposite to Daisy’s emotional whim decision making process. 
   -Symbolism: This technique isn’t realized until the end, when Gatsby’s dream of blissful happiness is crushed by reality. This comes to represent the unrealisticness of the American dream and how it is essentially ruined by human’s innate greed. This theme of greed and reality vs. fantasy was evident throughout the whole novel.
   -Setting: The setting is essential because the analysis of the greedy upper class wouldn’t have made sense elsewhere. The roaring twenty’s was perfect to reveal the pointless indulgence and emotional recklessness of the upperclass.

Characterization

1. One example of indirect characterization, is when Nick first meets Jordan. He describes how with every move she makes he feels inclined to apologize. This seemingly strange descriptor, allows the reader to infer that Jordan must have an intimidating, strong presence about her. The scene where Gatsby and Daisy first reunite is filled with indirect characterization. Nick describes Gatsby’s tense body language and broken sentences. He also describes the look of awe on Daisy’s face. Without coming right out and saying it Nick reveals the excited nervousness between the two at that moment. Much more difficult to find in this book are examples of direct characterization. One is when Nick is describing his relationship with Jordan, this time rather than using a detailed description of an encounter the two had, he just goes out and says that she is the type to avoid clever men. This rare use of direct characterization maybe is to show that Nick doesn’t romanticize his relationship with her unlike he does romanticize other’s characteristics. 
2. When the author focuses on character it is usually in the form of lengthy descriptions of the character’s expressions, body language, and what the mixture of those might mean. The author never merely states the character’s dialogue. Instead he goes into detail about facial features and expressions, which emphasizes the importance of the character. For example, the first time Nick met Gatsby, the author used half of a page to describe Gatsby’s smile. 
3. The protagonist, Nick, is definitely dynamic. He is constantly changing as he takes in new information from his surroundings. He doesn’t take part in much of the story’s action, which makes him a unique protagonist, instead he is a wallflower, observing and learning. He is dynamic in his opinions of others. For example, he is never sure of his feelings for Jordan and sometimes he was in awe of Gatsby and other times he was in disgust.
4. After reading this book, I felt like I knew Nick. I felt sorry for him, in that he had witnessed all of this tragedy and everyone else more or less walked away, however he was left to deal with the remnants, being the honest, caring person he is. Due to all of the descriptive language this story really came alive to me, especially the initial description of Gatsby. “He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles that you only come across four of five times in life. It face-or seemed to face- the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.” This description of Gatsby’s smile is captivating and makes you feel as though you are looking at a real person.