-The title 'The Great Gatsby' seems to be a reference to the names of people within circus shows that usually are called for example '.... the great'. This suggests that 'Gatsby' is the name of someone and Fitzgerald is already implying that this character is a kind of performer, using his talents to entertain his audiences. It is perhaps also a reference to a more sinister kind of performance, suggesting that 'Gatsby' is superficial, playing a role within his society. However, the adjective 'great' has connotations of someone who has achieved good things, that Fitzgerald perhaps holds this character in high esteem. This immediately suggests that while this character is someone who possibly plays a part to entertain, he still has some kind of respect and dignity. It is important for this to be the title as it introduces the significance of 'Gatsby' and the high opinion that Nick, the narrator, has for him which creates bias from the beginning.
Location
- The first chapter in 'The Great Gatsby' opens with a description of the area that he lives in and surrounds it. He describes two places, 'West Egg' and 'East Egg', which are in the physical shape of an egg, suggesting that these places are to some extent quite similar. However, although these places are physically symmetrical, they differ when it comes to social class. While 'West Egg' is 'the less fashionable of the two' while 'across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water.' This demonstrates that although superficially they seem to be similar, in actual they are very different in terms of social class as 'West Egg' contains middle class people, 'East Egg' is home to old money, the upper class and established. Nick also makes a direct comparison between both his and Gatsby's house. He describes Gatsby's house as 'a colossal affair' while his was 'a small eyesore' , suggesting that Gatsby is extravagant. This to some extent causes some suspicion of Gatsby as if he is wealthy as Nick describes him as a 'millionaire' then we begin to question why he is living in 'West Egg'. However, Nick doesn't seem to be jealous, in fact he considers himself to 'have a view of the water... all for eighty dollars a month', implying that he feels lucky and arguably grateful for living within close proximity to the rich as it makes him feel apart of something, while still living on the outside of it as he is poor compared to them.
-Nick then visits 'West Egg' which the more fashionable side and describes their house 'glowing...with reflected gold' which represents the wealth of Tom Buchanan.
Themes
-There is a consistent theme of 'unhappy marriages' which Fitzgerald introduces through Tom Buchanan who is cheating on his wife Daisy. By Tom doing little to conceal his affair, it reinforces our opinion that while he is rich and takes for granted his wealth, he also takes for granted his wife. This demonstrates the little amount of respect that he has for his wife and perhaps is a wider representation of his expectation to be able to control and have power over people, his money and everything that is around him.
-The theme of 'gossip' is introduced by Daisy and Tom when they ask Nick if he was 'engaged to a girl out West.' Daisy seems to be surprised by his denial of it being true as she says 'but we heard it... we heard it from three people, so it must be true.' This suggests that they live in a society where there is much rumour and gossip, which perhaps fuels things which aren't always the truth and later leads to the downfall of many of the characters. Tom says to Nick 'don't believe everything you hear.' This shows it to be significant as many of the characters believe what they want to rather than what is true.
- There is a mood change and thing's start to become sort of dreamy. This is shown through his specific use of language such as 'rippling and fluttering' and 'ballooned slowly to the floor' This could be a reference to the wealthy being constantly in a dream like state, suggesting that their lives are a fantasy rather than reality. However, this slows the pace of the novel which contradicts Tom, Daisy's and Jordan's fast lifestyle, suggesting that it is a type of performance for Nick's benefit.
Characters
Nick
- We are given an insight into Nick's family background, who is the narrator of the novel. Fitzgerald opens the novel with a piece of advice that Nick's father gave him. This signifies the important of this to the book as a reader we will be constantly viewing the events that occur through this advice. The advice is that 'whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.' This implies that Nick himself is from a wealthy background, however it allows the reader to have an expectation of Nick to reserve many of his judgements as he determines this to be of importance to not only his life, but also the novel. This implies that Nick will be an unbiased observer to the characters and what occurs. The Great War is then mentioned which gives us a era and context of 'the roaring' 1920's. This means that it was also set during the Prohibition in America which was when alcohol was made illegal which meant that there were lot's of opportunities for people to sell alcohol illegally as it was rare and hard to come buy, creating a black market for it. This meant that while for generations there had been little to no social mobility as much wealth was passed down through families and there were no opportunities for poor families to gain wealth, meaning that it was only established names that were in the upper classes. This is how the term 'old money' was coined during the Prohibition. There was all of a sudden an opportunity for people to become wealthy, however because much of it was gained through illegal means, many of the people who had 'new money' were labelled as criminals and therefore found it hard to penetrate the upper classes. During this time there was much social unrest which meant that many of the established wealth segregated themselves from the new money as they were suspicious and nervous that they would lose their position of status in society, therefore looking to humiliate many of the 'bootleggers'.
- Nick is also characterized to not have much ambition as it seems that he just falls into bonds which is just what everyone else is doing and he's just going along with the crowd. He develops himself into an observational character throughout the novel which shows that he cares and has little ambition for his own life but that he is heavily interested in watching others.
Tom and Daisy
- He goes on to introduce 'two old friends who (he) scarcely knew at all' which contradict each other as it is expected that if you are old friends, you tended to know them pretty well as this is usually what keeps a friendship going, otherwise it is likely to die out. This could describe that shallowness that surrounds wealth. He describes his friend Tom as 'powerful' and 'arrogant' which almost hints that something will later occurs to make him hate Tom as it is possible these weren't his first views of Tom but in fact it has been coloured by an incident that has happened. There was also much social unrest in terms of the 1920's being coined the 'jazz age' by Fitzgerald. Jazz originated from African Americans, meaning that there was less segregation between black people and white people. However, because there had been segregation for so long, many upper class white people felt threatened by jazz's popularity which is why Tom says 'if we don't look out the white race will be...utterly submerged... it's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.'
-Daisy is introduced as a girl who had 'an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget', suggesting that she is quite a flirtatious character which was much more common as it was the era of the flapper girls. She's perceived to be quite playful and doesn't take herself seriously but like Tom, she takes her wealth for granted. The way that Nick says 'And so it happened' makes it seem that this is the real beginning to the story.
- Daisy mentions 'the baby' as if she is insignificant. Fitzgerald does this by throwing the sentence 'you ought to see the baby' in amongst other things that aren't really connected. This actually draws the reader to this sentence and makes us think that maybe there is more to the baby then is first mentioned as it seems to be a touchy subject because as soon as
Daisy mentions her, Tom then cuts her off and changes the subject.Gatsby - The second character that is introduced to us is Gatsby 'who represented everything for which (he has) an unaffected scorn.' This contradicts the opening advice that his father gave him at the beginning about placing no judgements on people. However, Fitzgerald words this by saying that he only 'represents' what he despises, rather than being an individual who he hates, suggesting that he does in fact actually like Gatsby.
Jordan
- Jordan can be seen as a representation of the 'flapper' girl was a prominent figure in the 1920's. They were girls that started to rebel and deviate against traditional stereotypes of women and therefore wore shorter skirts which was seen as scandalous. This was because many of the young men died in the war, making many women spinsters for the rest of their lives. With this information, it meant that the traditional roles of mother and wife were no longer likely for them so they made a conscious decision to deviate from their roles and become more stereotypically masculine. They did this by cutting their hair short, smoking and driving their cars fast which are many of the attributes of Jordan Baker.
-Nick also passes judgement by describing Mrs Baker as 'balancing something on it (her chin) which was quite likely to fall.' While Nick explains that his tolerance has a limit, it seems as though this would be based upon something terrible that someone did, however this judgement of Jordan seems to be superficial as it is his first impression rather than getting to know her before casting a judgement.
-Nick also passes judgement by describing Mrs Baker as 'balancing something on it (her chin) which was quite likely to fall.' While Nick explains that his tolerance has a limit, it seems as though this would be based upon something terrible that someone did, however this judgement of Jordan seems to be superficial as it is his first impression rather than getting to know her before casting a judgement.
Narrative Elements Imagery
- The narrator uses a lot of imagery to describe the amount of wealth that his friend, Tom, has. He uses phrases such as 'gleaming white', 'fresh grass', 'frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling' and wine-coloured rug'. These words are used to create an image in the readers mind of the wealth that is shown throughout the house.
