Sunday, 17 November 2013
Character Analysis: Gatsby
Jay Gatsby - Is the title character and protagonist of the novel despite the novel being narrated through Nicks perspective, Gatsby is a almost ridiculously wealthy character living in a huge Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is famous for the eccentric parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. As the novel progresses, Nick learns that Gatsby was born James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, he fell in love with her. Nick also learns that Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position he thought necessary to win Daisy. Nick views Gatsby as a deeply flawed man, dishonest and vulgar, whose extraordinary optimism and power to transform his dreams into reality make him “great”.
Character Analysis: Nick
Nick Carraway - Is the novel’s narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, friendly, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for the higher class characters with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island that is home to the newly rich, Nick quickly befriends his next-door neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. As Daisy Buchanan’s cousin, he facilitates the rekindling of the romance between her and Gatsby.The Great Gatsby is told entirely through Nick’s eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and colour the story.
Context
Author
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was apparently a very intelligent child but he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding school in 1911. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enrol at Princeton in 1913. Academic troubles and apathy troubled him throughout his time at college, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in 1917, as World War I neared its end. After his time in the Military Fitzgerald fell in love with his wife Zelda who nearly canceled their wedding because of how little money Fitzgerald owned until he released This Side Of Paradise which turned him into a literary sensation. This is quite possibly where the insparation for Jay Gatsby's character came from as Gatsby is also a ex military man who falls in love with a woman with high materialistic needs.
History and Fashion
In 1920's America - known as the Jazz Age, the Golden Twenties or the Roaring Twenties - everybody seemed to have money. The nightmare that was the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, was inconceivable right up until it happened. The 1920’s saw a break with the traditional set-up in America. The Great War had destroyed old perceived social conventions and new ones developed.
The young set themselves free especially, the young women. They shocked the older generation with their new hair styles and the clothes that they wore were often much shorter than had been seen and tended to expose their legs and knees. The wearing of what were considered skimpy beach wear in public could get the flappers, as they were known, arrested for indecent exposure. They wore silk stockings rolled just above the knee and they got their hair cut at male barbers. The President of Florida University said the low cut gowns and short skirts "are born of the devil they are carrying the present generation to destruction".
Quiz
This is a link to a quick quiz to test your overall knowledge of the sequence of events in the Great Gatsby. Enjoy!
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| http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/quiz.html |
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