The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Then wear 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.”- Thomas Parke D’Invilliers

Key FactsGenre – Modernist, Jazz Age novel, novel of mannersTime written: 1923 –24Narrator: Nick Carraway – not only narrates but implies that he is the book’s authorPoint of view: first and third person – some sections presented objectively and some sections presented with his own interpretations

Tone: Nick’s attitudes towards Gatsby are ambivalent and contradictory – at times he seems to disapprove of Gatsby’s excesses and at other times, he admires Gatsby and describes him in a nostalgic toneTense: pastSetting: Summer 1922Place: Long Island and New York CityProtagonist: Gatsby and/or Nick

Nick Carraway: narrator and moral arbiter of The Great GatsbyTom Buchanan: represents brutality and the moral carelessness of the established richDaisy Fay Buchanan: Nick’s distant cousin and Tom’s wife. She is the “golden girl” who has become the incarnation of Gatsby’s dreamJordan Baker: an attractive woman golfer who becomes involved with the narrator and who is given to compulsive lyingJay Gatsby: a racketeer and a romantic idealist, he devotes his life to amassing the wealth he thinks he need to win Daisy and thereby make his dream come true

Characters

George Wilson: the proprietor of a shabby garage in the Valley of Ashes. Myrtle Wilson: a woman of ludicrous ostentation, whose “animal vitality” attracts TomOwl-Eyes: A stout, middle-aged man who attends Gatsby’s partiesMeyer Wolfsheim: The Jewish gambler and racketeer who is Gatsby’s business associate

SymbolsThe Valley of Ashes and ashes – the modern worldThe green light at the end of Daisy’s dockEast Egg and West EggThe partiesThe careers of the main charactersThe eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg – GodThe automobile – an ideal based on materialism is ultimately destructive

ThemesThe decline of the American DreamThe spirit of the 1920sThe difference between social classesThe role of symbols in the human search for meaningThe role of the past in dreams of the future

Motifs:

The connection between events and weatherThe connection between geographical location and social valuesImages of timeExtravagant partiesThe quest for wealth