The Great Gatsby Critical Analysis Plot

After World War I, America celebrated with many forbidden pleasures like alcohol, naming this time period The Roaring 20’s. The Great Gatsby is a story based around the millionaire Jay Gatsby in Long Island, New York. F. Scott Fitzgerald follows the many characters in the book and shows that chasing your dreams may only lead to life or death consequences. The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a man who moved to New York from the Midwest into an average home adjacent to Gatsby’s massive mansion.

Carraway becomes an inquisitive and prying character after he was invited to Gatsby's mansion for a party. This leaves me to wonder why he was invited and what conflicts will occur.​ Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to reflect on his life, create characters he can relate with, and exemplify events that readers can relate to.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a short story writer and novelist born on September 24th, 1896 in St. Paul, MN. Fitzgerald went to a prestigious catholic preparatory school and later went to Princeton University.

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At Princeton, he dedicated himself to being a writer, however his writing came at the expense of his coursework. He was then placed on academic probation, dropped out of school, and found himself joining the army. The war ended in 1918 before the writer was deployed. In the later years after completing his famous novel “The Great Gatsby,” the writer suffered from alcoholism and depression. He made great success for his efforts but thought of himself as a failure as his success didn't show until after he passed away in 1940.

The writer wrote his stories based on what was happening during a specific time period as well as relationships. Fitzgerald's alcoholism was shown in his famous third book through the character Nick Caraway. In the story, Nick ends up in rehab for his drinking problem. In rehab, Nick had trouble explaining his emotions, so he wrote about them. This is similar to Fitzgerald’s depression because when one has depression it is often times hard to express your feelings.

One of the main characters in his book is, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby could be described as a perseverant and self made character. This can be seen when Jay gets aggressive and forces himself to think daisy loves him. Specifically from the book, “Your wife doesn't love you, She's never loved you. She loves me.” Overall, Jay Gatsby is a round and dynamic character. I believe this because we kept learning more about him throughout the story, and he continued to change emotionally. Compared to other characters Gatsby has many similarities and differences. He was similar to characters like Tom and Daisy who were made of wealth. But also different from Tom because they end up going against each other in a battle for daisy.

The battle for daisy became a story of love and friendship, becoming deadly and full of misery. It starts off by foreshadowing using the greenlight at the end of Daisy's dock being reached for by Gatsby representing his hopes and dreams for the two of them. His hope for a relationship leads to the main conflict. The main conflict in this story was that Gatsby wanted Daisy, but Tom and Daisy were already a couple. This causes Jay to get so caught up in his love for her and trying to convince Tom that she loves him and not Tom. This causes them to get in a huge argument at which they both decide to drive back home. So they get in their cars and angrily drive off. Only Daisy went with Gatsby and ended up driving. On their way home they passed the gas station that George Wilson owns. When passing by, it seemed that Myrtle and George got into the argument and Myrtle fled out of the house in a plea for help. Only to be hit by Daisy when she jumped in front of the car in an attempt to stop them.Tom followed closely behind and found Myrtle laying there and told Wilson that Gatsby was driving the vehicle. This led to Wilson getting revenge and the death of Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby critical analysis shows that Fitzgerald, through the power of his book, The Great Gatsby, reflected on his life, created characters he could relate to, and created stories that readers could relate to. ​I found it interesting that F. Scott Fitzgerald could create such an interesting plot line and yet still relate aspects of the book to his life and emotions. I also found it to be astonishing how well he could paint a picture through his words. In my opinion I found this book to be intriguing due to the way he gave each and every character a role in the story. Although the story ended on a sad and depressing resolution, I enjoyed how dynamic the book was. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”