Bruce Jay Friedman

F. Scott Fitzgerald does not mention the idea of the American Dream a single time throughout his novel, The Great Gatsby, but despite this he makes a subtle statement on what the American Dream is in the 1920’s. The American Dream is the idea that if you live in America, and you work hard, you can get rich. Fitzgerald develops a theme around the American Dream through Gatsby, how Gatsby’s story reflects the true meaning of this dream in the 1920’s, and how the novel covers what wealth and…

the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!” (Title Page). This quote by Thomas Parke D’Invilliers alludes to the heart-wrenching protagonist Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby characters squander their money on elaborate parties in palatial homes, ornate vehicles, refined garments and other paraphernalia necessary to compensate for their…

and for the characters whose pasts we know about we can tell they have not changed. Evidence 2: “It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach that afternoon in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants, but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a rowboat, pulled out to the Tuolomee, and informed Cody that a wind might catch him and break him up in half an hour”(Fitzgerald 98). Gatsby knew at a young age who he wanted to be. He was a rich man in a poor boy’s world. At…

around in the story. It’s pandemonium in a sense. Even from the beginning, we learn early in the story that Daisy and Jay are in love. But when Jay left for war and Daisy promised she’d wait for him, all of that changed when Jay “went to Oggsford”, because shortly after Daisy married a man named Tom and now carries the last name of Buchanan. I thought it got even better knowing Jay lives right across from the…

Many people believe having material possessions mean that they have achieved the American Dream. Most people today will think about a life closer to that of Jay Gatsby rather than Ben Franklin or Mary Antin when thinking about someone successful who has achieved the American Dream. Material wealth is the easiest way to judge someone’s social status and class and how successful and prosperous life is. Many people…

To take a photo, cameras absorb light through the lens allowing the image to focus and be digitally broken down. To change how a photo is taken and furthermore interpreted, the lens is the most important component in photography. Often times, photographers will try many different types of lens before deciding on one that provides the most clarity. Of the tools a writer is given in the constraints of written words, characterization is perhaps the most useful in conveying the central themes in…

prepackaged” lives (Huddleston 1). The similarity between these two movements is reflected in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, texts which both explore the unattainability of the American Dream. The novel’s heroes, Jay Gatsby and Dean Moriarty, serve as vessels for this exploration and thus there are key similarities between the portrayals of the two characters. However, while Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as inauthentic…

She was not unlike a beautiful flower floating through existence, easily influenced, frail weak, and softly planted into the ground. Daisy Buchanan former lover of Jay Gatsby and current wife of Tom Buchanan with whom she lives with on East Egg also with her daughter. Both her and Tom hail from old money, and do not understand the true value of hard work. Furthermore, Daisy is described in the novel as frivolous,…

Gatsby 's’ Era According to F. Scott Fitzgerald himself from the novel, “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world”(68). Reading The Great Gatsby is like seeing the Queensboro Bridge, once a reader starts the novel it is taking a step into the roaring 20’s nothing can compare. The reader feels the excitement from the novel that people had for the American dream in the 1920’s.…

The Development of The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby can be argued to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best novel. Written in the 1920s, it reflects both the time period as well as different aspects of his own life, such as his marriage. The Great Gatsby is composed of multiple complex motifs, such as eyes and materialism, which develop throughout the novel by the use of symbolism and diction, and reveal Fitzgerald’s belief that the American Dream is dead, or is not completely achievable. Firstly,…