Gatsby Critics Flashcards
John McRae - Nick
“Nick narrates the novel through contradiction”
“Underlying insecurity makes Nick an unreliable narrator”
“[Nick] keeps undermining [his] self-image”
John McRae - Gatsby
“Contradictions between solidity and the intangible” - Gatsby’s green light
“Gatsby has a heart that is hollow”
John McRae - Wolfsheim
“Wolfsheim is the epitome of the grubby capitalist”
John McRae - America
“From nothing to the pinnacle”
“From a log cabin to the White House” (Abraham Lincoln)
Tredell
“[Jordan is the] epitome of the emancipated young American woman”
Cluley - Gatsby
“Gatsby builds his identity via his appearance”
“Gatsby becomes not only his own advertisement and product but his own dream from which he is awoken abruptly by a reality he had refused to acknowledge”
Cluley - Daisy
“Daisy, the creator of dreams, also has a great capacity to destroy them”
Cluley - book
“Whenever reality clashes against illusion in this novel the result is violently destructive”
Platt (f)
“[valley of ashes] is a world of insubstantial people, beliefs and morals”
Clark
1925 - “this patient romantic hopefulness against existing conditions symbolizes Gatsby”
Stocks
2007 - “Nick wants to portray Gatsby as ‘great’ and to ignore or edit anything that might undermine that image”
Flanagan
2000 - “Gatsby lives in the world of romantic energies and colours, a world shaped as a conspiracy between himself and the writer who has been creating him”
Fitter
1998 - “The spectral underclass […] wreaks the novel’s horrific climax, emerging as the apocalyptic assassin of the ideologically saturated ‘ideal’ order”
PBS Biographys
“F Scott Fitzgerald’s life is a tragic example of both sides of the American Dream - the joys of young love, wealth and success, and the tragedies associated with excess and failure”
Dyson
“Gatsby is the apotheosis of his rootless society”
“[Gatsby is set] apart from the cynically armoured midgets whom he epitomizes”
