The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a novel which was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and it was published in 1925 at New York. The

Great Gatsby follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the

summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his deep passion for

the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. So every weekend during one long, hot summer Gatsby has a party in his huge house on

Long Island. Gatsby being a man without a past, and having a lot of money that seems to have come from nowhere,

eventually he is there for a reason following a dream of love.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

He was born in Minnesota, of United States of America on September 24th in 1896 . He was a child of an upper-

middle-class family. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. He published

many stories and novels, and also some of them were turned into films. All in all, he was a kind person full of love and

dreams, and he inspired writers even since his first publications. In his life, except the problems which he had to face, he

didn't give up so easily his work as a writer and there were always some people to encourage him. But the truth is that

his career wasn't for a long time. He died in Los Angeles, California on December 21st in 1940 at the age of 44. His death

was caused by a heart attack but that wasn't surprising to the eyes of some people because he had been an

alcoholic since his college days.

Some of his greatest novels are:

''This Side of Paradise'' which was published in New York, 1920 ''The Beautiful and Damned'' which was published in New York, 1922 ''The Great Gatsby'' which was published in New York, 1925 ''Tender is the Night'' which was published in New York, 1934 ''The Love of the Last Tycoon'' which had been unfinished, but it was published in New York, 1941

The Jazz Age

The Story itself is essentially about the moral decay that ensued in America during the 1920s. Although, other countries had

class divisions the US had the equivalent of an upper class in the form of patricians or members of long-established wealthy

families. These New World aristocrats lorded themselves above other people and spent much of their lives partying their way

through the ''Jazz Age''. In addition, 1920 had seen the prohibition of alcohol, with the result that organized criminals had seen a

way to make good money by bootlegging, or illegally selling liquor. When both of these groups came together they formed a

social order of dilettantism-people who assumed and cultivate pretensions of sophistication. The story of the Great Gatsby spirals

into tragedy as the book progresses with a succession of events-manslaughter murder and then suicide-tragedy that seems all the

more horrific in contrast to the spirited and frothy

excesses that have come before. It's a book that is representative of an era. This collision of subcultures, the wealthy and

excessive nature of the elite, set against the '' average Joe'' that gave the book it's potency. Myrtle, for example the wife of a lowly

garage owner gets seduced by the dilettante lifestyle and starts an affair with the moneyed Tom Buchanan leading to tragedy for

both her and her husband. There is a moral judgment involved in the process of reading such a story: people tend to get

what they deserve in life and the real victims are those who get caught up, either by accident or by attraction.

From a historical perspective the book tells of a bygone age that is part of US history. Prohibition ended in 1933 when

the US government realized the irony of the situation. The Great Gatsby became a curious window into a

world that had been and gone. A world where elements of US society had drowned themselves in a moral and ethical

sump. It was a warning about what can happen when people become decadent and dishonorable. The novel served as an

antithesis to the values and image that clean-cut Americans wanted to promote in the 1950s as a new generation became

the custodians of their proud nation. Iniquity was brushed under the carpet and

only allowed to exist in the land of fiction.

Thoughts and messages we get from the novel

It is important to follow your dreams, being optimistic and have hopes for a better tomorrow. Love is a motivating

power . Money doesn't bring happiness. Gatsby incarnates the American dream.

He was the poor child who took advantage of the favourable for him coincidence and gained power and money even

by unfair means. The centre of Gatsby's existence was his love for Daisy. Self-made and not of a noble family but with

manners of a gentleman he achieved the social recognition through the parties that he organised in his house. His hidden

desire was that Daisy might appear there one day. His soul was pure. His illegal enrichment at the time of liquor

prohibition in New York and his partnership with men of the underworld was part of his plan in order to win Daisy's

heart. If he became someone powerful he could claim equally and successfully the woman of his dreams. Daisy's

marriage was a mistake for him. The war and his professional plans separated them. Everything had to continue right

from the point where they stopped five years ago. He succeeded a lot of things out of nothing. Would he give up his

dream now that he could almost reach it? He was so close but so far at the same time from his dream. Laxity of morals.

Social hypocrisy: a husband who talks about family values when he deceives his wife. Gatsby's and Daisy's love was

unlucky. The car accident was convenient for Tom. He suddenly becomes the protector of his weak wife. He is the moral

instigator of Gatsby's murder. One marriage which is saved by mistake and one love that dies unfairly. Although before

the accident Daisy looks more determined (she is sarcastic to Tom) and reacts badly to the prospect of their wedding,

after the accident she abandons totally herself in his hands. Together they decide to leave the city before Gatsby's murder.

Although Nick knows about that he decides not to tell Gatsby himself. Daisy is irresolute, weak, always dependent on a

man (either Gatsby or her husband). In the end Tom and Daisy are selfish; they ruin other people's lives (Myrtle's as

well) and afterwards they return undisturbed to their wealth. Death is a mercy for Gatsby. He would be miserable if

Daisy was far away from him. Gatsby would probably not give up. He would do whatever he could to win her back. Yet,

he imagined her to be the mistress of his tower. She was part of his social evolution. He refused to leave away with her.

He wanted the story to be as he had imagined it. We learn Gatsby's story through the eyes of the unprejudiced and being

everywhere Nick Carraway who is eventually proved to be the only true and supportive friend Gatsby has. He was the

only one who felt the unfairness in Gatsby's unlucky end and the detraction of his name that was caused after his death.

He trully valued the nobility of his character and his chivalry. And that was the image he tried to pass through his book,

which was actually a book about Gatsby's life.

Myrtle and her husband are two tragic characters. Myrtle is charmed by the rich Tom and whatever he stands for, she is

attached to him and alienated at the same time from her husband, which results in her dreadful accident. Her husband

turns out to be a murderer and a suicide. How vain all these seem to be now in contradiction of how much promising

things looked in the beginning. As the story ends, ''Gatsby believed in the green light, the magic promise for the future.

He didn't realize that as we reach forward towards the dream, it moves ever further away from us. We press on like boats

against the current and all the time we are carried back into the past!!''