The Great Gatsby Flashcards
Fitzgerald explores how during the…
“roaring 20s” society believed in limitless possibilities; any individual can transcend class distinction. It is a novel that comments on the deteriorating social values and behaviours that symbolised the post war period.
Wealth was…
Greatly valued as part of the commodity materialistic culture, which leaves Gatsby feeling unworthy of Daisy socially. Gatsby becomes consumed with the idea of recreating himself, time and the notion of ideal love
Colour symbolisim
Blue: hopes and dreams - Gatsby garden described to have a “blue lawn”
Yellow and gold - destructive nature of wealth and materialism: Gatsby wore “Gold coloured tie” first meeting with Daisy after 5 years.
“Green light” mixture of two colours to symbolise Gatsby’s hope and love for Daisy is inextricably intertwined with the wealth and materialism of the Jazz age.
Fitzgerald how life driven by such hope is..
Untenable in modern America. The structure of the novel also suggests the hoplessness of Gatsby recreating his self-image to pursue love. The idea that “Gatsby turned out alright at the end…” emphasises Fitzgerald’s use of structure to foreshadow the failure of the American dream and the unattainability of his desired love for Daisy.
Further more accentuated the ultimate futility
“So we beat on, boats against currents borne back ceaselessly into the past” alliteration and metaphor
Fitzgerald argues the basis of marriage…
was essentially practical and took into consideration matters of class and finance. Fitzgerald undercuts the notion of ideal love, how it is ultimately futile and a fallacy in the Godless society of the 1920s
The importance of wealth is established through…
The motif of clothing through the characters. Daisy cries “It makes me sad that I’ve never seen such - such beautiful shirts before” The motif of returns again through Myrtle, as she says George “wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” as he had to borrow clothes for the wedding. Highlights the desire and importance for wealth and materialism outweighs the notion of ideal love.
Wealth was a motive in love and marriage
accentuated through Daisy’s struggle to either marry for love or wealth “Next day at 5 o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver” this accentuates, when it comes down to it, wealth and materialism and the image associated with it, is fur more important than ideal love.
Weakening of religious certainties
The economy was experiencing growth and wealth as a society emerged from war time, crisis of faith due to the rise of modernism, suggest they live in a Godless wasteland through the symbol of the eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg looking down at the valley of ashes.
