“Gatsby turned out all right in the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams[…]”
Chronological and Psychological Narrative (NARRATION) - mouthpiece for Fitzgerald’s criticisms about the Jazz Age
Metaphor, ‘preyed’
Nick aligns himself with Gatsby’s ideology of the new, self-made man.
Pushes the narrative - Forebodes Gatsby’s fate before, voices his own opinions which puts strain between the accuracy of the events recollected/being relayed - bias and emotion. He is an intradiegetic narrator
“One autumn night, five years before…”
Timestamp, although it doesn’t comply in a linear-structure. Nick only begins to reveal more about Gatsby’s past as we learn of his fate and relations. Pushes the narrative - storytelling lexis may insinuate the events recollected are abstract and may resemble fiction - GATSBYS INTANGIBILITY, as a feeling. He doesn’t seem quite real. By estranging Gatsby, he makes a social comment against the peculiarity of self-invented men despite going into the Bonds business for this reason. Shows the economic and social pedestal between them.
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
Polysyndetic listing, semantics of war: smashed, retreat, mess Pushes the narrative - Criticism of old-money, believes Daisy and Tom’s idleness and exploitation of their social status is unethical and morally ambiguous: Hypocrisy from his racism?
“There was something gorgeous about him [Gatsby], some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.”
Opening, unreliable fixed perspective narration - vague, does not elaborate on Gatsby’s physicality - almost metaphysical in depiction
Shows the effect of Gatsby as a person and the importance of his character versus the consumerist masses who gather like moths to his parties
“Three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.”
- “Three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.” Derogatory, taboo language (although normalized in the 20s) - lexical choice “haughty rivalry”, irony Pushes the narrative - Nick’s hypocrisy is clear through his narrative voice, bucks dehumanises and sees minority as inhumane
- Ambiguous character who is constantly between the classes
Nick
Vehicle Character: acts as a mouthpiece for Fitzgerald’s own opinions - case study of the “Jazz age”, Fitzgeralds own term
- Nick comes and disappears out of the narrative during crucial interactions with other characters, ie. Gatsby and Daisy
“Share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
Metaphor for his social position within the novel - associate with the wealthy although he is not quite one of them. Imaginary watcher Pushes the narrative - Because Nick seems incongruent to the setting, makes us question his account on the situation. “Enchanted and repelled” as antithesis show the contrasting views on the American dream - Nick characterised as cynical
“Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs, and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms.”
Semantics of light and Vision - represent a misleading and corrupted society. Unlike Tom and Gatsby who are driven by passion and want, Nick doesn’t seem to have much motivation following the end of the war - lost generation Pushes the narrative - Nick as an outlier, his reaction and criticisms seem out of place as he is slowly learning more about New York and American society
“I went over and looked at that huge incoherent failure of a house”, “Sat there brooding on the old, unknown world.”
rags to riches, reflects Fitzgerald himself - Nick doesn’t seem to remember the world before it was indoctrinated with consumerism and extreme capitalism. Pushes the narrative - Reflective piece at the end to zoom into the issue of the American dream
“Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all”
Ironic - Nick does not offer an omniscient view so we cannot trust him fully. Perhaps this is a flaw - he doesn’t recognise how Daisy and Tom are limited due to their old-money social status/gender norms Pushes the narrative - The reader is immersed within a narrative they always feel the need to question because of Gatsby’s bias
“Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction — Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.”
Eponymous title, ‘great’ romanticises Gatsby and his legacy in respite of his criminal connections Pushes the narrative - Nick seems to disregard every other perspective on Gatsby except his own, “unaffected scorn” infers that Gatsby represents everything he dislikes but he is still drawn in and remarks about him - perhaps his passion and devotion to his dreams, even though he criticises these dreams
“I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all.”
Gatsby is the subject noun, Nick second - shows the value of Gatsby and his character on Nick. It is only until people demonstrate apathy for Gatsby’s death does Nick feel alienated from American Society, not when he learns of the unethical values Gatsby has used to gain his wealth Pushes the narrative - Turning point in how Nick sees the American dream and aristocrats
“Became aware of the old island that here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes - a fresh, green beast of the new world.”
Imagery reinforces the idea of fantasy in the Great Gatsby, Nick’s fascination of Gatsby. Embodies the man’s capacity Pushes the narrative - Nick’s alienation towards a conventional American society who withholds the American dream because of its destructive nature. Nick’s fascination with the ‘new world’ and Gatsby - pre modifiers of power denote a biased perspective of Gatsby as well as Nick’s pedestal despite his immorality
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther … […] So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Syntactic parallelism, symbolism - seems almost cyclical and nihilistic. Nick’s devotion and belief in Gatsby will create an endless cycle of resistance against a society with aristocrats in power. Pushes the narrative - Seems the American dream begins to fade away as a result of Gatsby’s failure, even though Nick always says it will return it seems like a losing battle. New York transformed by a green beast into a corrupt city - criticism of fantasy: none of them seem justifiable at the expense of others, Nick overlooks this
“Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead,” “He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.”
Wolfshiem values connections over humanity, as shown by his provenance - human worth seems to be simplified to whether they can be used as a means to an end. Shows the cunning nature underpining the 1920s. Pushes the narrative - Character is made to exemplify Gatsby’s immorality and corruption within a newly-emerging America. Even with this, Nick never resents Gatsby even though he clearly doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation. Instead, he scorns Wolfshiem for missing the funeral
“Shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.”
Oxymoronic, link back to Nick and the American Dream - grass being ‘created’ shows criticisms on newly-made west egg and how the whole of NYC is now a new, reinvented metropolis. Sunlight reflects his crimes coming to light? Seems ironic that he is being prosecuted for crimes he hadn’t committed instead of the ones he had Pushes the narrative - Gatsby’s epiphany of the futility of his American dream - perhaps he had regretted all the investment into Daisy: first time realising and understanding she is not the woman he depicted her to be
“The touch of the cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of compass, a thin red circle in the water.”
Seems almost romantic, natural imagery to show that perhaps this is the fate for those who involve themselves within the criminal underworld. Simile, gore isn’t describe with imagery - feels almost filtered Pushes the narrative - Even though Gatsby is a criminal bootlegger, there still seems to be an element of fantasy within his death - feels almost romantic. Compass might represent his journey is now over, was destined with him to die and pushes further criticisms of the American dream. Seems passive - part of the natural order.
“Loud and scolding,” “Beat me!”
Short syntax to build up motion for the accident as well as hendiaya to highlight the violence between Myrtle and Wilson. Pushes the narrative - Unlike Gatsby’s passive death, Myrtle seems to rebel until the end. Perhaps she has more class and social consciousness as aristocrats can be detached from these issues. Like Gatsby her ambitions were never met
“Business was over”
Euphemism, makes Myrtle’s accident seem almost normalised and less substantial to Gatsby’s romantic death Pushes the narrative - Lower-classes of society are viewed as means to an end - Myrtle wasn’t significant enough to get a whole description. It is shocking, alarming and brutal - sets outrage and serves as rising tension to Gatsby’s death. She is always outshined by the higher classes even within death
“Her life violently extinguished.” “Left breast was swinging loose like a flap”
Simile, pre modifier - symbolism of a candle: knowledge, truth and spirituality lost. Gorey imagery juxtapose Gatsby’s elegant passing Pushes the narrative - Sets Wilson’s outrage into motion, Gatsby is seen as a monster due to this incident
“Gatsby turned out all right in the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men”
Metaphor of foul dust represents coming and going - Tom and Daisy described to “retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness”, infers a tragic end (genre as a tragedy) but no blame is placed onto him. Pushes the narrative - forebodes the incident, shows Nick’s immediate approval even though he represents everything he has an unaffected scorn for. This immediate bias puts into question the accuracy of his account
“He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody.”
‘eagerly’ feeding into these baseless rumours because Gatsby doesn’t regard himself with usual people at his party - he seems more like an entertainment figure than an actual human being. Seems ironic as he unintentionally starts trouble with Tom which led to his undoing Pushes the narrative - Gatsby as a figure doesn’t seem to be recognised as a human himself, watered down to his achievements and peoples speculation on his nature and origins. Doubt for his true identity, although no-one truly knows - Gatsby’s isolation from a conventional American whilst following his American dream: his ambition is isolating
- “It’s more that he was a German spy during the war.”
There’s no modal verb, shows that people are strict with their convictions of Gatsby. German spy arguably worse than a murderer - sacrifice patriotism. Shows that in making the achievements that he’s made, anything can truly be sacrificed Pushes the narrative - Nick doesn’t know the true Gatsby yet - he criticises these rumours for being false, however some of them have a truth of element within them with how Gatsby disregards his moral compass in order to enact his American dream
“Standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of stars.”
Gatsby lives in the shadow of his ambition, Nick’s first impression is not about the man himself - but his ambitions. Light motif may insinuate his dishonesty of his provenance. Pushes the narrative - Stars are unobtainable, sets up the notion that Gatsby’s American dream is doomed to fail
