Adventures at Post Oak High

Since The Great Gatsby is such a complicated novel, even though it is quite short, it is a little challenging to pinpoint one exact theme for the book. But out of all that we chose, "Death of the American Dream" is the most prominent. Firstly, and most prominently, are the last two paragraphs of the entire book. They read: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.  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- to−morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . and one fine morning... So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Since these are the closing paragraphs of the e...

After finishing The Great Gatsby, I can safely say it is one of the greatest novels I have ever read, likely the greatest. Part of what makes it great is it's complicated conflict. You really can't pinpoint exactly one central conflict for the novel. Here we have a man struggling with himself, constantly asking the question "is this really who I am?" Sure, he has riches and parties, but inside he is a lonely person, searching for freedom in Daisy. However, a byproduct of living in West Egg is complicated interpersonal relationships, as seen when Gatsby is blamed for the hit-and-run killing of a young woman named Wilson (the "death car", as the newspapers called it, didn't stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around the next bend.") and subsequently killed for it (even though it was actually Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby's unattainable goal, who was driving the vehicle. So here, we have man...

In Chapter 6 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, we learn the supposed backstory of the novel 's title character. Supposedly born James Gatz as a farm boy in North Dakota, Gatsby attended St. Olaf in Minnesota. However, he was tired of the work he had to undertake as a janitor, "dismayed at the ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny". So, he went back to Lake Superior, where he had been wandering aimlessly before he went off to college. That is when he saw Dan Cody on his yacht, and Gatz met him in the water to warn about a torrential wind that was coming soon. Now known as Jay Gatsby, he accompanied Cody on trips to the West Indies and the Barbary Coast. When he was denied Cody's inheritance, Gatsby sought to reinvent himself. In this particular passage of the novel, it seems that Fitzgerald is commenting on the supposed vigor of the American dream, how anybody can reinvent themselves if they really want to. He also seems to be making a s...

Well, the short answer to this question is no. I would assume Fitzgerald did this on purpose, but Nick is judging Gatsby in particular, as well as other characters. Throughout the party scene, Nick makes comments about Gatsby, primarily good. I mean, does this not sound like judgement? He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. So, yeah...not to mention that Caraway manages to judge Tom, Daisy, and the poor fellow who crashed his fashionable automobile in a fit of drunkenness. Nick is definitely going to not reserve his judgement throughout the novel. And, for better or for worse, the characters and the world of East and West Egg are going to be revealed through his eyes.