Summary of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Description

“Let me tell you about the very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his short story The Rich Boy. “They are different from you and me.” The author’s obsession with and intimate knowledge of class issues, wealth, and their effects on society, shines through every line of his masterpiece The Great Gatsby. First published in 1925, it’s an absorbing portrait of Jazz Age New York society in all its decadence and frenzied partying. The novel exposes the cynicism and inner emptiness of a class of people who seem to have it all but are empty. Jay Gatsby, who has gone from rags to riches via shady dealings, chases a materialistic dream which he mistakes for romantic love, only to lose everything when his fragile house of cards finally comes crashing down. Writing in 1927, two years before the onset of the Great Depression, Fitzgerald believed that a society built on the illusion of prosperity was ultimately doomed. “There has never been an American tragedy,” he told a bemused reporter, “there have only been great failures.” In the midst of the euphoric atmosphere of the pre-depression 1920s, his message didn’t go down well. Today, The Great Gatsby is considered one of the finest accomplishments in American literature – a painfully beautiful and gripping testimony of wasted opportunities. Recent history underlines its continuing relevance and the urgency of its central themes.

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Sujets

• Classics
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: GetAbstract AG
• Date de parution: 06 janvier 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798887270838
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald•First edition: New York 1925•208 pages

Novel
Modernism

Take-Aways The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is among the most important 20th century American novels. James Gatz ascends from humble beginnings to become a multimillionaire, rechristens himself “Jay Gatsby” and conjures up a privileged backstory. He longs for his lost love Daisy, who has married the rich but bombastic Tom Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy begin an affair, but she hesitates to leave her husband. As the novel builds to a dramatic close, a shocking twist leaves three characters dead. This tragic romance is a biting portrait of New York society in the 1920s. Daisy’s cousin and Gatsby’s neighbor Nick Carraway, who narrates the story, is an ambiguous and unreliable source. The novel is easy to read, despite the frequent use of symbols and metaphors, such as using eyes as a recurring indication of intrusion and insight. The novel is Fitzgerald’s disillusioned analysis of the American Dream. It’s a captivating story on the one hand and a complex piece of literature on the other, a mixture of serious and light reading. Fitzgerald maintained a lavish lifestyle, including heavy drinking, and incurred financial troubles. Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and The Damned were bestsellers, but Gatsby was a commercial failure. Today, it’s one of the most widely read books in the world. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

What It’s About
An American Nightmare
“Let me tell you about the very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his short story The Rich Boy. “ They are different from you and me.” The author’s obsession with and intimate knowledge of class issues, wealth, and their effects on society, shines through every line of his masterpiece The Great Gatsby. First published in 1925, it’s an absorbing portrait of Jazz Age New York society in all its decadence and frenzied partying. The novel exposes the cynicism and inner emptiness of a class of people who seem to have it all but are empty. Jay Gatsby, who has gone from rags to riches via shady dealings, chases a materialistic dream which he mistakes for romantic love, only to lose everything when his fragile house of cards finally comes crashing down. Writing in 1927, two years before the onset of the Great Depression, Fitzgerald believed that a society built on the illusion of prosperity was ultimately doomed. “There has never been an American tragedy,” he told a bemused reporter, “there have only been great failures.” In the midst of the euphoric atmosphere of the pre-depression 1920s, his message didn’t go down well. Today, The Great Gatsby is considered one of the finest accomplishments in American literature – a painfully beautiful and gripping testimony of wasted opportunities. Recent history underlines its continuing relevance and the urgency of its central themes.

Summary
Arrival on Long Island
In the spring of 1922, Nick Carraway relocates from the Midwest to New York to earn a living as a stock broker. Nick comes from a well-off merchant family, yet he’s less affluent than his new neighbors in West Egg, Long Island. He moves into a run-down bungalow, the only $80 a month rental in the midst of extravagant mansions. Nick also differs from the other West Egg residents in that he has a family contact in the staid, old-money community of East Egg across the bay. The country’s long-established elite live there, enjoying a status that the nouveau riche of West Egg – no matter how wealthy they become – will never be able to attain.