The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" (1925) is the great American novel of the Jazz Age, a tragic romance wrapped in a brilliant critique of the American Dream. Compact, beautifully written, and perfectly structured, it's a novel that seems to grow richer with each reading, revealing new layers of meaning beneath its glittering surface.

**Plot and Structure**

The plot is deceptively simple: narrator Nick Carraway moves to Long Island in the summer of 1922 and becomes involved with his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, who throws lavish parties while obsessively pursuing Nick's cousin Daisy Buchanan. The affair between Gatsby and Daisy reignites, leading to tragedy when Daisy, driving Gatsby's car, kills her husband Tom's mistress Myrtle Wilson, setting in motion the events that lead to Gatsby's murder by Myrtle's husband George.

But this bare summary misses the novel's brilliance. Fitzgerald structures the narrative with perfect economy – every scene, every image contributes to the whole. The novel builds inexorably toward tragedy while maintaining hope until the devastating final chapters. The pacing is masterful, balancing exposition, dramatic scenes, and reflective passages.

The choice of Nick as narrator is inspired. He's both insider (Daisy's cousin, Yale educated, from a "prominent" Midwest family) and outsider (less wealthy, more moral, ultimately disgusted by the East). His position lets Fitzgerald maintain dramatic distance while creating intimate character portraits. Nick's voice – sophisticated but not cynical, judging but not harsh – perfectly serves the novel's tone.

**The Characters and the American Dream**

Jay Gatsby is one of American literature's most iconic figures – the self-made man who reinvents himself completely, accumulating vast wealth in pursuit of an impossible dream. Born James Gatz, a poor Midwestern boy, he transforms himself into "Jay Gatsby," millionaire and mysterious host of legendary parties.

What makes Gatsby fascinating is the contradiction at his heart: his dream is both noble and deluded. His capacity for hope, his willingness to wait five years, his belief that he can repeat the past – these are touching. Yet his dream is fundamentally hollow. He doesn't love the real Daisy but an idealized vision. His wealth is built on bootlegging and criminal enterprise. His parties are empty spectacles attended by people who barely know him.

Fitzgerald's genius is making us both admire Gatsby's romantic idealism and recognize its futility. Nick's final judgment – "They're a rotten crowd... You're worth the whole damn bunch put together" – expresses this double vision. Gatsby's capacity for wonder is valuable even if the object of his wonder isn't.

Daisy Buchanan is brilliantly ambiguous – charming, beautiful, and ultimately hollow. Her voice "full of money" captures perfectly how the novel links romantic love and material wealth. She's both victim (trapped in a loveless marriage to the brutish Tom) and villain (choosing comfort over love, letting Gatsby take the blame for Myrtle's death). She represents the dream that proves unworthy of the dreamer.

Tom Buchanan embodies old money's arrogance and casual cruelty. Racist, sexist, hypocritical (condemning Gatsby's affair with Daisy while maintaining his own with Myrtle), physically imposing, Tom represents everything wrong with the American elite. Yet he survives while Gatsby dies – a harsh commentary on American society.

**Symbolism and Imagery**

The novel is extraordinarily rich in symbolism. The green light at the end of Daisy's dock represents Gatsby's dream – beautiful, beckoning, just out of reach, and ultimately illusory. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg on the billboard overlooking the valley of ashes suggest a blind or absent god watching over the wasteland of modern America.

The valley of ashes itself – the desolate area between West Egg and New York – represents the reality beneath the Roaring Twenties' glamour: poverty, moral decay, the cost of others' wealth. Myrtle Wilson's death in this wasteland is symbolically perfect.

The parties at Gatsby's mansion are brilliantly rendered – glittering spectacles of waste and superficiality. The guest lists, the food, the music, the lights create atmosphere while suggesting the emptiness of this world. No one knows Gatsby; people come for the free alcohol and entertainment. When Gatsby dies, no one attends his funeral – the ultimate comment on these friendships.

**Themes: The American Dream Corrupted**

The novel is fundamentally about the American Dream and its corruption. Gatsby embodies the dream's promise: through determination and self-invention, anyone can succeed. But Fitzgerald shows the dream's dark side: the worship of wealth, the link between success and criminality, the sacrifice of authenticity for image.

The geography is symbolic: Gatsby comes from the Midwest (representing innocence and authenticity) to the East (representing sophistication and corruption). The East offers glamour but destroys those who pursue it. Nick's return to the Midwest at novel's end suggests values worth preserving beyond the East's glitter.

The novel also explores time and the past's inescapability. Gatsby's famous declaration "Can't repeat the past?... Why of course you can!" expresses his delusion. Fitzgerald suggests the past is irretrievable; trying to recapture it leads to tragedy. The American Dream itself might be founded on this same delusion – that we can escape history and reinvent ourselves completely.

**Fitzgerald's Prose**

The writing is extraordinary – lyrical without being purple, precise in observation, metaphorically rich. Fitzgerald can move from precise social observation to poetic meditation seamlessly. Consider the famous final passage:

"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—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

This is as fine as American prose gets – capturing simultaneously hope and futility, aspiration and defeat, individual story and national myth.

The novel is full of memorable images: Gatsby reaching toward the green light; Daisy's voice full of money; the valley of ashes; the eyes of Doctor Eckleburg; "the foul dust" that "floated in the wake of his dreams." These images stick in memory, enriching subsequent readings.

**The Jazz Age and 1920s America**

The novel brilliantly captures 1920s America: Prohibition and bootlegging; the nouveau riche and old money divide; flappers and changing sexual mores; the car as symbol of freedom and danger; jazz and parties; the stock market boom. Yet it's not simply period piece – Fitzgerald uses the era to explore timeless themes.

The 1920s' particular form of American Dream – quick wealth through questionable means, lavish consumption, the belief that prosperity would continue forever – is captured perfectly. The novel was published in 1925, four years before the crash that would end the party. Fitzgerald's portrayal of the era's emptiness seems prescient in retrospect.

**Critical Reception and Legacy**

Initially, "The Great Gatsby" was a commercial and critical disappointment. Fitzgerald died in 1940 thinking himself a failure. But the novel's reputation grew steadily, especially after World War II. It's now considered one of the greatest American novels, a staple of high school and college curricula, and a cultural touchstone.

The novel has influenced countless writers exploring American themes: wealth and class, innocence and corruption, the American Dream's promises and failures. Its critique of American materialism seems even more relevant in our age of extreme wealth inequality.

Multiple film adaptations (most famously Baz Luhrmann's 2013 version) testify to the story's enduring appeal. Gatsby himself has entered American mythology – the self-made man destroyed by his dreams, the romantic doomed by reality.

**Ambiguities and Interpretations**

The novel's richness partly stems from its ambiguities. Is Gatsby admirable or deluded? Romantic or obsessive? Is Daisy worth his devotion? Is Nick a reliable narrator? His drinking, his possible attraction to men (the scene with Mr. McKee), his own romantic failures – all complicate his authority.

Is the novel's ultimate message hopeful or pessimistic? The final passage suggests both – we beat on despite futility, which is either noble or tragic depending on interpretation. This ambiguity keeps the novel alive across different eras and sensibilities.

**Criticisms and Limitations**

Some find the novel too short, wanting more development of characters or situation. Others find Nick's voice too elevated, not quite believable as a bond salesman's narration. Feminist readers note that Daisy and Jordan are seen entirely through male eyes; we never access their inner lives.

The novel's treatment of race and class, while critical of Tom's racism and the wealthy's callousness, still operates within limited perspectives. African American characters are virtually absent; working-class characters (the Wilsons) are sympathetic but limited.

Some readers find Gatsby's devotion to Daisy unconvincing – would this ambitious, capable man really pine for five years over a shallow woman? But perhaps this is Fitzgerald's point: the dream's unworthiness is part of the tragedy.

**Final Verdict**

"The Great Gatsby" is a nearly perfect novel – compact, beautifully written, thematically rich, and structurally flawless. In under 50,000 words, Fitzgerald creates a vivid world, memorable characters, and a profound meditation on American dreams and their corruption.

The novel works on multiple levels: as tragic romance, as social satire, as critique of American capitalism, as meditation on time and loss. Its prose style is among American literature's finest. Its symbolism is rich without being heavy-handed. Its characters are memorable and complex.

What makes it endure is its perfect capture of something essential about America: our capacity for hope, our worship of wealth, our belief in reinvention, our willingness to sacrifice authenticity for image, our inability to escape the past we claim to reject. These tensions remain central to American life nearly a century later.

For readers willing to look beneath its glittering surface, "The Great Gatsby" reveals profound truths about love, class, and the American experience. It's a novel that can be read in an afternoon but rewards a lifetime of rereading. Fitzgerald achieved what he hoped for: creating a work of art that would endure. The green light still beckons, and we still beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.