The Great Gatsby Narrative

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is set in America during a period known as the “Roaring Twenties” or the “Jazz Age”. The Great Gatsby, offers the reader an insight into the problems and values of various characters, that remain socially separated by distinct classes, and in particular the central protagonist - Jay Gatsby. Through Fitzgerald’s use of the character, Jay Gatsby, the reader is provided with the disadvantages and occasional advantages of living in the American 1920’s. This has been primarily achieved by the use of compositional features in order to construct and further enhance the reader’s understanding of the nature of Gatsby’s character and the era in which they belong. During the 1920’s, the standard of living …show more content…
For the reader, Gatsby acts as a lens for the American Dream – which was a widespread aspiration for American’s that people could transcend the class system by working hard and through the acquisition for wealth; however, Gatsby’s American Dream was to secure Daisy’s love. With Fitzgerald’s use of Nick’s narrative voice, he describes Gatsby dreaming about Daisy while he was overlooking the bay towards the green light at the end of daisy’s dock, “He was content to be alone…he stretches his arms out… I could have sworn he was trembling (p.25).” This quote illustrates Gatsby’s frame of mind at the time; as the light represents a kind of hope that Gatsby will attain his American Dream and his body trembling at the time suggests the emotional importance. Gatsby goes to extraordinary lengths to impress Daisy, this is illustrated when Gatsby takes out a pile of shirts “Shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel… fell in many coloured disarray… shirts with apple-green and lavender and faint orange… (p.89).” The association with such subtle natural colours suggests the purity and richness of Gatsby’s feeling towards her. Not only is the grasp of Daisy’s love remaining unattainable a major problem, but despite his vast fortune he is not accepted by the East Egg crowd, even though they enjoy his lavish parties. Fitzgerald’s use of the juxtaposition between West Egg …show more content…
Gatsby represents the familiar archetype of men during the 1920’s, as one of his problems is that he has fallen into the corruptness of the American Dream, as he’s in love with a married woman that is unattainable. During the interaction of Gatsby and Daisy at their reunion, Nick uses a “defunct mantelpiece clock (p.84)” as a device to help the reader understand that Gatsby fails to realise that after five years of separation, she is no longer the woman she once was. Daisy remains to be the centre object of Gatsby’s dream, he treats Daisy similar to an inanimate object as opposed to a human being, and doesn’t believe that she possesses uniform emotions; as demonstrated when Nick tells Gatsby, “Daisy’s embarrassed too (p.85).”One very important compositional feature employed by Fitzgerald during this part of the novel, is the pathetic fallacy used to reflect the character’s mood and behaviour from the weather. The atmosphere inside the room remains extremely awkward when it is “pouring (p.85), to being comfortable and content when there are “twinkle-bells of sunshine (p.86)” in the room Gatsby’s unattainability of Daisy represents people during the time of the 1920’s, as many of them were obsessed with their social status, to the extent they had to be in “love” with a figure whom was wealthy and maintained a strong social