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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
I. Themes
A. Culture Clash
a. Juxtaposes characters from the West and the East of America.
b. East: unfair, corrupt, and materialistic (Tom and Daisy Buchanan)
c. Midwest: fair, innocent, and unsophisticated (Nick Caraway and James Gatz)
d. West: brought violence of the Old West to the East.
e. West Egg and East Egg represent similar moral differences.
B. American Dream
a. Gatsby represents the American Dream of self-made wealth and happiness, the
spirit of youth and resourcefulness, and the ability to make something of one's
self despite one's origins.
b. The American Dream does go awry throughout the book, though.
c. Meyer Wolfsheim’s enterprising ways to make money are criminal
d. Jordan Baker's attempts at sporting fame lead her to cheating
e. The Buchanans' thirst for the good life victimizes others to the point of murder.
C. Appearances vs. Reality
a. No real love between Gatsby and Daisy=no real truth to Gatsby’s vision.
b. Behind the expensive parties, Gatsby is a lonely man.
c. Gatsby is unable to separate the ideal from the real.
D. Moral Corruption
a. The wealthy class in the novel is morally corrupt.
b. No spiritual values in a place where money reigns.
c. T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland speaks to this idea.
II. Style
A. Point of view
1. Story is told by Nick Caraway.
2. Shows how Nick feels about the other characters.
3. Nick is a romantic, moralist, and judge who gives the reader retrospective
flashbacks that fill us in on the life of Gatsby and then flash forward to
foreshadow his tragedy.
4. Nick is a trustworthy narrator.
5. Nick undergoes a transformation because of his observations of the mysterious
Gatsby.
6. First person narration that mirrors much of Fitzgerald’s own ideas.
B. Setting
7. West and East are two opposing poles of values: one is pure and idealistic, and
the other is corrupt and materialistic.
a) East and West states of America
b) East Egg and West Egg
8. The wasteland of ash heaps between New York City and Long Island.
