English III ci5363

The Great Gatsby works on the mind of the reader in two ways: first by presenting the real world (and its appearance is ugly at best) through the eyes of Nick Carraway: “the explicit tawdriness and violence of Tom’s and Myrtle Wilson’s affair and Nick’s detached yet forced presence in it emphasize an ugly reality impinging upon Nick’s past experience and present hopes” (Eble 41), and second by presenting Gatsby’s fantasy world: “the fantasy reaches us through the soft night and music and glitter, but through it run reminders of the real world, specifically in the person of Jordan Baker”

    6) The Great Gatsby is often referred to as the quintessential novel of the "Jazz Age." Using examples from the book, explain what this term meant, and Fitzgerald's attitudes towards that characterization of the 1920s.

In so far as Gatsby represents the simplicity of heart Fitzgerald associated with the Middle West, he is really a great man; in so far as he achieves the kind of notoriety the East accords success of his kind he is about as great as Barnum was. Out of Gatsby’s ignorance of his real greatness and his misunderstanding of his notoriety, Fitzgerald gets most of the book’s direct irony.