Great Gatsby...

[Chips_Ahoy]

Do you think the Great Gatsby follows this theme, if not, how, if so, how?
"Wealth as a numbing dehumanizing force can destrory the heart"
---------
Kenz

[gatsbysghost]

How well do you think you can prove it? In the case of Tom and Daisy, it is easily seen. At the end of the novel, they are described as (rough paraphrase) dangerous people, who as soon as the episode was over floated back into their world and money. They did this only after they had destroyed the lives of three people.

However, when it comes to Gatsby, his wealth was an afterthought. It played no role in his character except to show how obsessed he was with his dream, Daisy. He is extremely wealthy yet he is the most humane of all the characters in the story with the exception of Nick. At the end of the book, in his conversation with Nick, you know that he is planning to take the fall for Daisy. If wealth had corrupted him as wholly as Tom and Daisy, he wouldn't be willing to offer himself up as a sacrifce for Daisy.

You might have more success finding passages from the book if you dealt with the theme being about the American Dream. I believe that it is the real dehumanizing factor in this story.

[imthefoolonthehill]

*wonders if gatsby's goast realizes the obvious fact that he did someone else's homework*

[gatsbysghost]

makes no difference. they will no doubt copy that response verbatim. therefore they will be held at a higher standard than before, ultimately leading to poorer grades and their own demise. mwhahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahhaa.

[Bittersweet]

I read Gatsby long time ago, in a Novel class actually i wrote essay dealt with Imagery in this particular novel. I learned lots of things.

He wasted his life chasing his dream (another's man wife) lol
He was in love with a woman that is HOLLOW..empty and love money and she didnt love him (She loved the one who can offer more)
All women in this novel cheat on their husband. not even one was faithful.


It is a sad a book. He was shot in the end. lost his life and lost his vain dream.


I'm in a hurry right now and I just want to thank you for the nice topic..

[snapplepeaches]

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of my favorite novels because it addresses many issues in American culture. One of the biggest issues that it concerns in the American Dream and how it does dehumanize or try to dehumanize people.

I agree with everything that that gatsbysghost said. Wealth makes many of the characters in the novel turn corrupted, the characters are already corrupted or characters have to do illegal means to accomplish the goals. In the novel, even though Gatsby is selling bonds illegally, out of all the characters--Nick, Daisy, Tom, and Jordon--he is human. I believe that Gatsby uses appearance to try to distort everyone's reality because he wants Daisy. He truly loves Daisy--I believe more than Tom ever will. So therefore, I believe that Gatsby is forced into trying to achieve the "American Dream" and win Daisy over because Daisy is in a more exclusive and wealthier class. Gastby has to be a fake somebody because he a real nobody to himself. What Gatsby does not realize is that Daisy never cared for him the way that he cared for her. As gastsbysghost said and I definietly agree, Daisy and Tom split--which does make them look like cowards. Tom isn't an honest man; he is dishonest and his thinking and actions are impetous because he assumes that Gatsby was the one who was driving the car when Mrytle Wilson killed. He could never thought that it was Daisy because he despised Gatsby so much. I believe that Tom was secretly jealous of Gatsby because Gatsby possessed overall humanity--positive emotions. I will not judge Gastby for trying to reconstruct or pick up where he left off in the past. Gatsby's fatal flaw is trying to return to the past which is gone. Daisy was not going to wait long for Gatsby because she needed to marry another suitor. Daisy is selfish because I believe she partly begins being involve with Gatsby because she knows that Tom is having affair with Mrytle. Daisy uses people and her actions show that she does things impetously, too.

Then, there is Nick Carraway...when he returns to his hometown, does he really learn a lesson. We know that Nick is very judgemental of Jay Gatsby, but at the near end of the novel, he says that he is better than all of them--meaning that Gastby is better than all of them because he is taking the fall for Daisy and being concern about her.

Wealth, in many ways, if people let it, can dehumanize them. I believe that it one of the greatest lesson to learn from The Great Gatsby of all.

[Sindhu]

Gatsby's fatal flaw is trying to return to the past which is gone.
I like this thought a lot- the irrecoverable past- if only it wasn't so! :(

[stavrokin]

I believe that Gatsby is forced into trying to achieve the "American Dream" and win Daisy over because Daisy is in a more exclusive and wealthier class.


Was Gatsby aware that his chasing Daisy after so many years was trying to achieve the "American Dream"?

or his action just coincided with the fashion.

in the end of the novel, the most sentimental chapter, leave me impression like this.

[Sindhu]

Daisy as symbolizing the American dream- that's interesting. My reading was that Gatsby was not interested in the American Dream as such- he wanted it only as a means to get Daisy. I find your reading intriguing though- will be thinking it over!

[Dick Diver]

I don't think we can ever know for sure what Gatsby thinks because it is refracted through Nick.

That is the genius of the structure and Fitzgerald honed Gatsby's actual dialogue to make him more elusive.

[stavrokin]

of course, no one can be sure what Gatsby actually thinks if you insists on what is the absolutely correct thinking of Gasby

but it's not the point

all traces come from Nick, the narrator.

the point is what we get from this book.

every great work make some elusive, however it's relative not positive

and some must be positive and other indications could be built on it.

Whether Gasby is a American Dream's follower is most important

otherwise the whole mood of this book will be changed.

[Dick Diver]

Well in that case I think he's just a poor romantic fool sob sob.....

[kelby_lake]

I like this thought a lot- the irrecoverable past- if only it wasn't so! :(

i love that bit because it's true- you can't recreate the past, because it's never quite the same and the frustration of that sometimes is upsetting.

[JBI]

No, I do not think it reflects that theme, well at least not to you, the reader. Ironically you give up any pride in your work by seeking the wealth of information from us, the board members. You like Gatsby seek to better yourself, by stealing a dream out of a book (in this case a message board) and trying to pass it off as the real you. These answers given can act as Gatsby's metal, and his picture at Oxford for your professor, like Nick, to marvel at, before realizing that, come test time, you are, like Gatsby, not really what you pretend, and just riding off a cut-out from a book you read somewhere, and a pastiche of perceptions borrowed from what you believe to resemble the true picture of wealth, or in your case, intelligence.

How is that for answering with simile? Just putting things in perspective.

[_Shannon_]

LOL- it's funny to see the Fitzgerald inspired usernames comeout of the proverbial woodwork to answer :)

Re: the OP- I don't think wealth is objectively good or bad- it's what one chooses to do with wealth which will be good or bad, and effect a human being for good or ill.

[Drkshadow03]

However, when it comes to Gatsby, his wealth was an afterthought. It played no role in his character except to show how obsessed he was with his dream, Daisy. He is extremely wealthy yet he is the most humane of all the characters in the story with the exception of Nick. At the end of the book, in his conversation with Nick, you know that he is planning to take the fall for Daisy. If wealth had corrupted him as wholly as Tom and Daisy, he wouldn't be willing to offer himself up as a sacrifce for Daisy.

But what do you think really attracts him to Daisy in the first place?

Also, how did he make his money? The answer of course being bootlegging with mobsters. We can only imagine the less than humane acts he probably committed in the process. Gatsby in many ways is pretty selfish himself of what he expects from Daisy.

In fact, I think most of the main characters in the book can be described as selfish, including Nick and Gatsby.

[kelby_lake]

gastby's entirely selfless. basically

[kat.]

is he?