Romanticism And Realism In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Great Essays
The choices made by today’s media, such as “news reports” and television shows flaunting celebrities famous for being celebrities, might show that the world is solely populated by materialists. But, pondering the situation, one must come to see that at least a portion of those watching these “news reports” of fashion and celebrity icons must be romanticists. They pine for a better life for themselves or their family, but do not have the good fortune to be one of the rich or famous. Another completely separate faction are realists when it comes to such “news” programs and the misplaced attention on the rich and famous. This group may take a short moment to assess the situation and then do what is called for: change the channel. In the novel …show more content…
Fitzgerald shows in his novel that he greatly favors realists.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents a shining example of romanticism in the figure of Mr. Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s romantic outlook on life caused him to eventually abandon himself and his dreams, and in the end it cost him his life. Gatsby’s legal name was James Gatz and he was born a poor farm boy in Minnesota, however his imagination never accepted that he belonged in the lower class. “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself”(98). Gatsby dreamed of self improvement above all else and desired to move himself constantly upwards in the eyes of society. In itself this is a noble dream and truly the essence of American self improvement, however it was not to last long. Just before Gatsby was to begin his term of service in the American army during the course of the
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Nick is an upstanding young man from a well to do Western family. Despite coming from a wealthy family, Nick was taught the value of reserving judgement at a young age by his father who said “Remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had”(1). Nick took this advice to heart and managed to be a fairly accepting person and withheld judgement upon those people who didn 't have the same experiences and opportunities that he had. This treatment towards others allowed Nick to be friends with people as different from each other as Gatsby is from the Buchanans. Throughout the majority of the novel, Nick gives a fair unbiased eye to the people and events that he witnesses, however one of the last phrases he says to Gatsby is “Worth the whole damn bunch put together”(154). This quote, in reference to people like the Buchanans, displays the distaste Nick has for such people. Nick can see that both Tom and Daisy are careless, harmful people who do not care much about who or what may get in their way, and simply barrell ahead. Nick however, is not completely enamoured with Gatsby, and because of his somewhat removed position he can honestly assess people. An excellent example of this is that Nick admits in the beginning of the book that even though he found Gatsby to be a wonderful person who he couldn’t help but like; he initially believed Gatsby “Represented

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