Conclusion

Through the analysis of these major main characters in the novel The Great Gatsby, we find that the fundamental theme of this novel isn't so much about specifics of people and classes but rather about the desires, dreams, fantasies and utopias that we all strive to attain and achieve in life but that in reality are just fabricated happiness through wealth, materialism, and idolatry.. The truth in that no matter how hard and how hard people look to their green light and how much effort is put into achieving an ideal, at the end of the day chasing that green light isn't chasing something very meaningful at all. We as people over exaggerate and make ideals bigger than what they are, leading to an endless chase for a dream that we will never reach.

Jay Gatsby and the Green Light

"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 then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

This quote from The Great Gatsby beautifully encompasses Gatsby's deception of a perfect, attainable dream, and by extension a truth in every person's quest for a utopian dream.

Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby, the title character of The Great Gatsby, is the epicenter of the novel. Jay Gatsby is part of all the main conflicts in this novel, and is the focus point of the major themes. Originally named James "Jimmy" Gatz, our young protagonist changed his name and dropped out of college to pursue business and wealth. After being an apprentice of Dan Cody for several years until his death, Gatsby acquired the knowledge, skills, and connections to use criminal activity as a means to attain immense wealth. In 1917 Gatsby falls in love with the beautiful and young Daisy Fay, during his military training. Daisy becomes the love of Gatsby's life, and henceforth sets all of the conflicts in the novel into motion. After achieving the rank of Major during the first World War and returning home to study at Trinity College, Oxford, Gatsby finds that the love of his life, Daisy, has married Tom Buchanon, our self centered, hypocritical, and aristocratically powerful antagonist. Gatsby's goal in life becomes to attain immense wealth and status in hopes of winning over Daisy from Tom, and our conflicts in the novel arise. Our perception of Gatsby changes quite a bit throughout the novel. At first Gatsby is introduced as a rather shady but interesting figure who is enormously wealthy and throws major parties every weekend at his mansion, next to Nick's home. Once we meet this Gatsby through our narrator and come to know of the entire situation that the novel encompasses, we see that Gatsby truly is just a man striving to make a misguided dream reality, and although he holds great personality traits and is a good fellow at heart raised in a poor but morally and ethically healthy family, he ultimately possesses a flaw that leads to his tragic death, which is his ignorance or stubbornness in differentiating dreams from reality. An interesting and symbolic addition to Gatsby's stubborn love for Daisy is the green light which Gatsby always looks to across the bay, which in fact is the green light on the pier to Daisy's and Tom's home. This light ( which is ironically only visible at night, just like a dream is only tangible during sleep) is symbolic of Gatsby's dream and how he is always striving to attain it yet it is not truly worth as much as he manifests it to be. Daisy is not as perfect as Gatsby has come to glorify her to be. This green light and Gatsby's interest in it by extension is symbolic of American society striving to attain the American Dream which truly ends up being a hollow promise of perfection that we have fabricated, and that is overvalued and mutilated from it's originality.

The American Dream Revealed

Daisy Buchanan in Society

Daisy relates to society through the novel in many ways. Daisy can be seen either literally, as the wealthy, prominent young woman who as outlined before is immoral, beautiful, and rather snobbish. Daisy however also philosophically resembles innocence, purity, and perfection during her early life, much like the original American dream. also like the American dream, she loses value and becomes tarnished or her purpose mislead over time. She loses her purpose and becomes just a bored housewife and show off wife for Tom. Also, Daisy represents upper class women in this exclusive group of super wealthy families during these prosperous times. I always associate a recurring thought with Daisy. Shakespeare's famous line; "Frailty, thy name is woman!", is rather appropriate to describe Daisy. Daisy is a frail character who is easily led into evil and physically and morally weak, and reflects on women of her stature. Therefore, she literally represents women of "East Egg" society during the 20's as well as philosophically the tainted or empty American dream, as her name implies. A daisy flower is pure, white, and perfect when it is blooming at a young age much like the American Dream was extravagant and beautiful in the beginning when it manifests thought, but the flower blooms and becomes tainted, withered, and eventually dies, also like the American Dream once people are faced with the reality of an empty or misguided promise. It is important to note that Daisy is Gatsby's ultimate dream, he lives his entire life trying to create the means necessary to impress her and eventually win her over from Tom Buchanan. This relationship represents society trying to attain the American Dream, as people live out their lives and kill themselves working to attain this dream yet once they come to understand that the perfection or glory they have striven for is just manifested thought, the American Dream is devalued to its original manifestation; just a dream.

The American Dream

An absolutely fantastic video concerning the American Dream shown to me by my English professor! I was rather oblivious to this field of knowledge before having watched this video. I was amazed at the truth behind the American Federal Reserve and how everything "comes together" so to speak. Quite interesting documentary, all credits to the uploader westiesworld4u on youtube. The American Dream

Daisy Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan is the second major main character encountered in the novel. She is Nick Carraway's cousin. Daisy is in many ways the pinnacle of the main theme in this novel; she is the personification of the new American dream. She, in all her glory, represents the wealth and materialism that disillusioned Americans strive for. Jay Gatsby holds Daisy as his ultimate dream or goal, but what he holds is an illusion of perfection. Daisy in relation to Gatsby also represents the level of corruption that the American Dream has developed in terms of the mutation from freedom and opportunity to power, materialism, and wealth as a means to achieve happiness. The fabrication of "happiness" and the instilling of perfection and greatness that Gatsby associates with Daisy is what motivates him to gather so much wealth. We learn throughout the novel that Daisy is shallow, voiceless and selfish; her husband Tom is involved in extramarital affairs and he beats her yet she is always loyal to him simply for the fact that as long as she is married to Tom Buchanan she belongs to upper class East Egg society and enjoys excess in wealth, status, and power. When Daisy introduces us to her young daughter, Pammy, Daisy delivers to us a tragically beautiful statement; "I hope she'll be a fool, that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.". This horrible truth applied to women in the 20's in America and still applies to many societies around the world today. In many ways Daisy is also the embodiment of this statement; she acts as a beautiful fool to maintain her place in society. Daisy has been well spoiled as a child and therefore her moral and ethical standards dip far below those of Nick who was brought up in a modest and respectful family. We witness her murder Myrtle Wilson by running her over in Gatsby's automobile, without a second thought. Daisy is very cold hearted when it comes to morality. She remembers her true love with Gatsby but ends up refusing that love for wealth and power instead.

The Great Gatsby 2012

Looks to be an amazingly done rendition of The Great Gatsby! All credits to the uploader, ClevverMovies on youtube.

 Great Gastby Movie 2012 Trailer

Nick Carraway in Society

When I think of Nick Carraway and how he relates to people in American society I can only imagine that American society varies so drastically from one place to another; being a resident of the very diverse city of Toronto and having traveled to many places around the world, I understand that social and cultural "norms" vary greatly from place to place, more so across such a vast nation. Nick sets out with ambitious goals and his eyes set on his American dream or "green light", and by the end of his quest he sees his dream and his society as something different than what he had envisioned. I believe that Nick Carraway represents the everyman of society, the typical Joe. He seems to me to be a middle class figure with a well rounded education and personality, with whom I can relate to quite well.

Nick Carraway, Continued

He learn that Nick comes from a rather well off or wealthy Midwestern family, who's patriarch arrived in the United States in 1851. Nick attended Yale, which shows some degree of family wealth or status. He moves east to New York after serving with the American Forces during the first World War, planning to begin his career in the "bond" business. Nick sees him self as a well rounded man or "jack of all trades" as some would argue, and holds a good amount of ingenuity, common sense, and experience in life, as opposed to other characters in the novel who've experienced nothing but glorious, excessive wealth their entire lives. Nick evolves quite a bit from beginning to end during the course of this novel; he begins as an ambitious Midwestern man who is no longer interested in seeing the small lonely world of his home after having seen the "outside" world during the war, and looking to enter a society that he believes is powerful, wealthy, and utopian to some degree. By the end of the story, Nick has had enough of his dream society's corrupt and savage nature, and moves back home, leaving all his connections to power and wealth behind, for old-fashion values and morals (and perhaps simplicity) back home. After having read the novel it becomes very apparent that while Nick holds tremendous involvement in the story, his character is always kept rather subliminal, as if he is an invisible entity observing the story from above. Fitzgerald places our narrator exceptionally well to not only take part in the story but also give the themes and overall mood of the story the essence that make this novel one of the greatest pieces in American literature.

Main Characters

We begin this story with Nick Carraway, the narrator, a soft spoken but keen man from a prominent, well off Middle Western family. Nick moves to Long Island, NY, and plans to meet up with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Daisy introduces Nick to her husband Tom Buchanan, and a friend of hers, Jordan Baker, with whom Nick develops a brief romantic relationship throughout the course of the novel. Soon, Nick writes about his fabulously wealthy neighbor, one Mr. Gatsby.
We first see him as an intriguing but mysterious figure, and the center of many varying rumors. Next, Tom Buchanan ends up taking Nick to go with him and meet a woman named Myrtle Wilson, with whom Tom holds an affair. He meets Myrtle and her husband George Wilson, a poor working man who owns an auto garage along the Valley of Ashes. Eventually, Nick meets his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Nick and Gatsby get along well and become friends. Last but not least, we are introduced by Gatsby to one of his business associates, Meyer Wolfsheim. A rather shady figure, he claims to have partaken in the fixing of the 1919 World Series. This briefly summarizes the main characters of the novel and how by they are encountered.

Nick Carraway, our Narrator

The story begins by jumping right into Nick Carraway's thoughts. He tells us that his father once told him; "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." Looking back on this after having read the novel, I've realized that throughout the story Nick maintains this sort of reserved, "slow to judgement" personality, as he encounters all these vastly different characters.

Theme and Purpose

In this blog I will be examining main characters throughout the novel The Great Gatsby. I will search for the characteristics and behaviors that each character possesses and create a character analysis unique to each. I will use this data to relate major characters from The Great Gatsby to the real world, as they relate to specific people, populations, societies, classes, or groups.