The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 Quotes

GATSBY ESSAY Explore the ways in which a comparative study of your TWO prescribed texts demonstrate how context plays a significant role in portraying values. In exploring the views expressed by composers of varying epochs, audiences are privy to the ways of thinking in these respective times to shape their own perspectives. Scott Fitzgerald in his satirical novel The Great Gatsby (Gatsby) (1925) is influenced by the post-war, jazz age values and ideas of modernism while Elizabeth Barret Browning’s poetry Sonnets from the Portuguese (Sonnets) (1850) is influenced by the Victorian Era and portrays ideas of romanticism. These varying contexts significantly assists both texts in sharing their differing perspectives on the definition of love

She was also born rich. Daisy isn’t an evil character in the story but she likes to take things for granted. She bases her life off of money just like Tom does because they think that money is the most important thing in the world to them. Daisy married Tom because he has money but their relationship is not the best. Tom goes off to other girls and messes around with them and Daisy doesn’t do anything about it because she is sick of him.

Firstly, being selfless and accommodating to others needs and wants is not something that the society in this time period can be proud of. Daisy, Tom and Gatsby develop the trait of selfishness in many ways throughout the novel. Daisy Buchanan is a wealthy woman who lives in the East egg and is married to Tom Buchanan. Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Jordan and Nick all go to town when Tom and Gatsby break into an argument because Tom finds out that Gatsby and Daisy are having an affair. Gatsby tells Tom the truth about Daisy and himself because Tom bombards him with questions when he says, “’She never loves you, do you hear?’

Gatsby himself realizes Daisy’s obsession with money: “‘She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried. ‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me’” (Fitzgerald 130). The quote reveals

The era’s “perfect woman”, Daisy Buchanan, is a bubbly, conflicted woman whose choice is between two men: her husband, Tom Buchanan, and her former lover Jay Gatsby. Since Daisy’s character was written in the 1920s, women’s characters were based on the traditional women of the time period, and many women then were still seen as objects and as less desirable than men. When Daisy is invited to Gatsby’s mansion, her first sight of him in many years upon seeing his expensive clothing, she is so overcome with emotion that she begins to weep “with a strained sound” and begins to “cry stormily” showing her true reaction to something as petty as material objects (92). She continues, claiming that

The Great Gatsby is an American novel written by Scott Fitzgerald. On the surface, the book revolves around the concept of romance, the love between two individuals. However, the novel incorporates less of a romantic scope and rather focuses on the theme of the American Dream in the 1920s. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as an era of decline in moral values. The strong desire for luxurious pleasure and money ultimately corrupts the American dream which was originally about individualism.

American Dream is the idea that anyone can achieve financial success and happiness through hard work and determination. But author F. Scott Fitzgerald gives readers a twist in his novel, The Great Gatsby, when his hero loses everything he worked to achieve. The great American Dream is not always the best dream. Gatsby had become a great success and was close to achieving the great American dream. Gatsby was an Archetypal character because the typical archetypal character goes through searches of fulfillment.

Daisy is shown through her expensive house, rich husband, and luxurious attire, to help mask her ultimately unhappy identity. She has had so many opulent experiences due to marrying Tom, yet she feels so empty and wanting more with her life: “’You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow’ she went on in a convinced way…‘I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything’” (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy’s true character is revealed shortly in the story when she tells Nick how she has seen and done everything, yet feels empty and that everything is terrible. Daisy believes that money can buy happiness, which is why she has to purchase everything to fill a potential void in her life.

Gatsby spent their years apart motivated to win over Daisy by gaining wealth. In his eyes, gaining wealth became equivalent to getting Daisy. He stated, “her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald, 2004, p.120). His life revolved around money and Daisy, who had symbolically chosen Tom’s pearls and wealth over Gatsby’s letter of love. He threw parties in order to attract her with his wealth.

Daisy shows this by the fact that she knows that tom is cheating on her but still stays with him under the false fact that she is catholic purely for the reason that he has money. She also shows this when she talks about her daughter and her hopes for her. Before the war daisy was in love with Gatsby but he was poor and when he left for the war she moved on and got married to tom who was rich. But when the two are reunited after nick sets up a meeting and when she sees Gatsby’s house she learns that she is rich and becomes attracted to him again simply for the fact that he has money.

The Negative Influence of Wealth Wealth and prosperity are the core of living a lavish lifestyle and having a successful life. However, money can influence people into debauchery. In the book, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces to us to some of the dangers of being rich. Most people in the Great Gatsby were very privileged, and they lived a lavish lifestyle.

Fitzgerald depicts the women of the novel as deceitful, sexual beings that are naturally subordinate to men through Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle. Daisy exemplifies the naturally inferior role of women relying on the wealth of men in their lives to take care of them. When Daisy talks about her daughter she claims, “a fool–that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(21) establishing women’s subordinate role in which they are ignorant to the affairs of their husbands and expected to rely on their beauty to carry them through life. When Daisy is accused of infidelity with Gatsby in the hotel, Gatsby claims that Daisy is attracted to men of wealth and, “only married [Tom] because [Gatsby] was poor and she was tired of waiting for [him]”(137).

Comparison of The Great Gatsby and “A Flapper” In the novel, The Great Gatsby, and the poem, “The Flapper,” show many similarities and have many of the same messages about women and how they they acted during the ‘20s. The Great Gatsby follows the narration of Nick Carraway, a young man who moves next door to a mysterious millionaire, Mr. Gatsby. Nick soon finds out Mr. Gatsby’s secrets and gets pulled into a giant affair.

Women, the Best Reflection of the Spirit of the Era F. Scott Fitzgerald and Stephen Crane are two prominent novelists in the American history. Best known for his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald is considered a prestigious member of the Lost Generation and completed four novels during his lifetime. Sharply pointing out the hollowness and fallibility of the American dream, Fitzgerald was one of the most critically acclaimed novelists in the twentieth century America. His novel The Great Gatsby is set in Long Island, New York and features the love story between Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire out of bootlegging, and Daisy Buchanan, the wife of Tom Buchanan who comes from an aristocratic family.

During the twenties the economy of the United States was changing greatly. Due to the establishment of the prohibition of alcohol the billionaires were those who would smuggle the goods to society. The Great Gatsby is a novel which portrays the different societies of the United States during the twenties differently. F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses on revealing the types of lives lived by each social group. Throughout the book we are exposed to the marginalization of women and the lower class during the time, since the important individuals in society were the wealthy people who impacted the economy of the country.