The Great Gatsby question

Or the American Dream backfired. The national goal of possible upward mobility is thwarted by an indolent, corrupt upper class that prohibits entry into its ranks. On the one hand, SF mishandles the theme as JG's rise to social prominence was hardly honest, nor entirely by his own efforts, on the other hand, an indictment on how that dream corrupts those who wish to follow it. The book is marred throughout by simplistic, shallow insights such as the brilliantly stated poetic line about Americans not accepting being either fiefs or slaves. My goodness, SF, whatever nationality would?

Everybody makes their own trap and lives in it.

Marriage is a trap, the acquisition of wealth is a trap, living with wealth is a trap and being poor is a trap as well. Gatsby and Myrtle escape their traps when they die. (Geez this is a pessimistic book! Why do I love it so much??)

Plus what Karen and Monty say :)

What I really got from the book is that often we hold those we love to an unrealistically high standard; we place them on a pedestal as a trophy for us to look at and admire (thanks to my awesome Lit teacher for that analogy). Or, in Gatsby's case, they can become a trophy that really belongs to someone else and you become obsessed with the thought of it for your own. Its almost as if Daisy isn't really seen as human by Gatsby, but rather as someone who is much more than who she really is. Sometimes those we love the most are the ones we can never have for our own.
That just what I came away from reading it with. One of the greatest classics ever, hands down.

Honestly, I think this book is about just letting go of the past and if you don't you just end up living in a world of false hope that something will be as good as it was in the past. Gatsby could have lived a wonderful life, but instead he gave up on his future and tried to recreate the past and look how he ended up. Sad, desperate, and eventually, dead

Gatsby lived in the moment, no plans for the future. This occurred with many in this Era.

I thought one possibility could be how all the money in the world cannot truly buy happiness. Tom and Gatsby both had this tremendous power and money and lived lives of luxury. Both Tom and Gatsby could wave their magic wallet and make magical things happen, but in the end Daisy didn’t truly love either of them. Daisy loved the idea of the men having the money but didn’t love the men behind it. Money is a wonderful mask that can’t buy true love- only the illusion of it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

The Great Gatsby was based off a real life bootlegger in Cincinnati named GEORGE REMUS.

His real life story is pretty interesting.. murder.. intrigue.. tunnels under his mansion..

My BF lived not to far from where his mansion was over on the west side of Cincinnati...

I think there are a lot of great points made in this thread on what this book might be about. I would like to add another perspective. The thing about Fitzgerald is that the words on the page are everything. The writing is natural and beautiful. The reason the Great Gatsby has never been made into a good movie is that the story is secondary to the writing. So maybe the story isn't all that important here. Maybe it's more of a record of something that Fitzgerald wanted to convey in his unique way.

It is that time dose not last , seize the movement.

thinking about this off the top of my head, and remembering some college discussions about the book.

I think it has a lot to do with both the Robber barons, combined with the gilded age. As much as it is a dysto-romance (not sure what the dystopian version of a romance would be called:)... the book is also a social commentary.

In the US, there is the myth of the classless society, and the self-made man. Combine this with the gilded age. Note that the concept of the term gilded age, meant that the gold (glitter, shine, value:0) was only paper thin. What happens when you scratch away the gilding, and get a look underneath?

I think the book is also trying to demonstrate that there is little difference re drives, and morality-ethics/ integrity, between the financial elite, and the lowest crime-lord. So, why then is one revered and the other despised?

I suppose there is also gatsby's personal struggle with self and identity, literally- as he has tried to create the perfect, ideal social-elite.. all the while hiding his truth. What happens when we hide or suppress our truth?

anyone care to expand on this, or add to it...? :)

I think it is as Alex says that we keep unrealistically high standard about people that we do care about, and that after a while we can't see how everyone changes through their lives. Daisy changed in those years that Gatsby and her were seperate but she didn't realised it either. He cared about a life WITH HER but she cared about safety and easiness. He just couldn't see through his last memorry of hers and died thinking that she was still the same dreamfull young lady.

First World Problems

Things aren't always what they seem. The analogy to Faust is accurate but Gatsby didn't seem to seek out his predicament. He got offered a deal that was too good to be true and willingly didn't examine the situation very closely. Once he couldn't avoid the truth any longer he was too comfortable to leave it. Other characters also portray this willing ignorance in the pursuit of some dream or ideal.

And a story of obsession, to add on to what Monty said.

Athar wrote: "I've read the book but i still haven't understood the overall gist of it. All other books i've read seem to have a different and unique message to convey but as far as i can see, this book is only ..."

In Gatsby himself it's Faust revisited. A guy corrupts himself (sells his soul) to acquire wealth and pays with his life for his blind ambition. By targeting small towns for the sale of his illicit bonds, Gatsby betrays his working class roots. Fittingly, he pays for his crimes at the hands George Wilson, one his own social class.

But overall, it strikes me as a cautionary tale warning about the "Jazz Age" moral decay of American culture. (Note that Fitzgerald's Gatsby/Jazz Age overlaps Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, another exploration of the post-World War I Lost Generation's decadence.) Fitzgerald brings the lines of class distinction more sharply into focus by having the wealthy Tom Buchanan cuckold working class George Wilson, only to be cuckolded himself by a working glass dreamer who came East and became rich through corruption--Jay Gatsby.

It is the working class folks, Myrtle Wilson and Gatsby, who pay with their lives, while the wealthy adulterers, Tom and Daisy, return to their idealized Midwest at the end of their extramarital flings. The West/Midwest is shown as a land of innocence and nobler values, while the East comes across as decadent.

None of the main characters, all from the Midwest, escapes the taint of corruption. Jordan cheats at golf and habitually lies and drives carelessly. Nick Carraway is decadent because he assists Daisy in defiling her marriage, and--given the prejudice of the time against homosexuality--he is further discredited by his tryst with Mckee. Indications are he is infatuated with Gatsby as well. In the end, Nick, like the Buchanans, retreats to the Midwest, reeling from the effects of corruption.

Moral decay is symbolized in the Valley of Ashes, a wasteland setting overseen by the godless eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg peering from an abandoned billboard.

Moralism is further expressed by having the most corrupt characters (Gatsby and Myrtle) die miserable and violently, like Tolsty's adulterous Anna Karenina, who threw herself under the wheels of a train. The wealthy escape, leaving a wake of destruction, and Nick survives to tell the story.