The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1. Nick Carraway is a young man who moves to West Egg in New York. His next door neighbor happens to be a very popular, wealthy man by the name of Jay Gatsby. When he first moves in, he becomes closer with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband, Tom. They all attend Gatsby's parties later in the summer and Nick meets his love interest, Jordan Baker. They discover Gatsby's past secret love affair with Daisy and come to understand that the affair is continuing throughout the summer. When Tom becomes suspicious of this affair, he starts accusing Gatsby of crimes and put his hate towards Daisy (despite his own affair with a woman named, Myrtle). Later, Gatsby and the crew are driving into town and he accidentally kills Myrtle with his car. When Myrtle's husband finds out Gatsby did it from Tom, he kills Gatsby and then shoots himself. Nick ends the summer with Gatsby's funeral and leaves the town of West Egg, reflecting on the relationships he once knew.
2. The two main themes in this novel are the loss of the American dream and the lack of values in a high class society. The characters in the story focus on their status in public and their party life instead of going after the typical job, house, and family routine. They live off their family's money and don't have to work for what they own. Because of these low standards, their morals are reflect on the characters as snobby, rude people. They have no depth to them emotionally and don't know how to act humble despite their many properties.
3. Depending on what or who Nick is talking about, his tone adjusts to the scene and the action. When he discusses his opinion and situations with Gatsby, he has an almost admirable voice. "He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself," Nick would say, enamored by Gatsby's greatness. When it came to the other rich people in the town, he had a sense of disapproval towards their ethics. He frowned upon their rudeness and lack of integrity. "Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry," explained the thoughts that were hidden in the mind of the high class. About love though, he portrayed relationships romantically and with a sense of hope. "He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God," he said, proclaiming his views on passion.
4. Fitzgerald used many literary techniques to explain his point through Nick's eyes. He used symbolism through the green light to display Gatsby's hope towards his and Daisy's relationship."A single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock," displayed the theme of the American dream and how it was barely staying alive in those times. His diction was thorough, describing every little idea with as much detail as possible. He used this kind of wording to show how much the upper class cared about money and wealth. When Nick met Jordan, he noticed her snobby ways through her body language; "She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall." Foreshadowing plays a big role in the events of the story, giving the reader something to keep in the back of their minds as the days unravel. When Gatsby gets into the car crash early on, it gives a hint of another automobile disaster in the future involving him. The tone involved while the foreshadowing takes place is mellow yet pertains to Nick's high standards of Gatsby. Characterization influences the lack of values theme. Nick talks about the rich folk as if they think they are the best and they know their life is being handed to them on a silver platter. "'They’re a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.' I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we’d been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time," Nick explained about Gatsby, using his features to describe how he felt about his high status. Lastly, Fitzgerald sets all the themes around the setting of the story. Taking place in West Egg during the early 1920's gives reason to encourage the heavy partying and drinking, leaving low standards for the American dream and wealthy people. "I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all--Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life," Nick realized after a long summer of contemplating life's importances: live rich without a dream or be a real person.
