A Lack of Real Friendship in The Great Gatsby
Money and wealth may not be lacking in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby—but friendship is. On the surface, it appears that several characters are friends, and indeed they are friendly at times towards one another. But there is always the hint or suggestion of an ulterior motive lying just beneath the surface—whether it is Gatsby using Nick to get closer to Daisy, Tom using Myrtle for personal pleasure, or the guests at Gatsby’s parties using him to have a good and reckless time that they could never enjoy… Continue Reading...
The Jazz Age and Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the great novel of the Lawless Decade—the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age, as it was otherwise known. It was a time of easy credit and flowing cash. It was a time of Prohibition, when alcohol had been outlawed and people looking for a good time had to go underground to the speakeasies, where they drank their liquor in hiding. To be human meant to be a criminal, and thus everyone who wanted to have a drink became a scofflaw. The 1920s was the decade of… Continue Reading...
Topics
The theme of unrequited love in The Great Gatsby
Discuss the fallibility of youth in The Great Gatsby
Discuss the primacy of socioeconomic status as it manifests in The Great Gatsby: which characters confront it with the most grace? Which with the least?
If Daisy and Jay had been members of the same socioeconomic class would they have ended up together? Why or why not? Provide textual evidence.
Nick Carraway goes to great lengths to show and tell the reader that he is a reliable narrator: discuss three concretes way he does this and how successful… Continue Reading...