Nick Narrator VIdeo

For more Nick Caraway quotes about him being a reliable narrator (goes into a lot more detail than the video) and quotes about other topics like his relationships with Gatsby and women

WHo live is a house like this, and why does it matter

Fitzgerald's most famous novel 'The Great Gatsby' has been admired for many years for its beautifully woven prose and subtle criticisms of society, the corruption of values, the inequality between gender ad famously the futility of 'The American Dream.'  I didn't get any of that when I first read it, I thought it was a boring love story, but after reading through it a couple of times I began picking up on the hints Fitzgerald was dropping.  So today I'd like to share with you one of the techniques Fitzgerald uses to add layers of meaning to his story, his use of setting or more specifically houses.

Fitzgerald uses a techniques called synecdoche, using a part of an object or person to represent the whole.  This is just a fancy way of saying that when he talks about the houses, what he is really talking about the people that live there. Now every time you read about the character's houses, you can actually learn a little more about them.

For example lets look at Gatsby's house.  His house is large and expensive, this tell you is rich, but it is also brand new, because Gatsby only just earned his money.  Not only is it new but it is trying to look old, it was built to look like and old French manor house just like Gatsby is pretending to come from old money with all the tradition and culture that comes along with it.

You can look for more subtle hints too, his house used to be owned by a brewer, who dreamed of thatching all the nearby cottages and after his dream died, so did he.  Remind you of anyone, made money through alcohol, unrealistic dream, died after he failed to achieve it.  Fitzgerald uses the house not just to represent Gatsby, but people like Gatsby  and so makes a broader criticisms of 'The American Dream.'

It not just houses either, Tom's lawn hints at elements of his character.  It is described with a host of dynamic verbs, the lawn ran and jumped and climbed up towards his house.  This reinforces the restlessness Tom feels, his inability to stay still, to settle down.  This is because he is bored, he has all the money he could ever use, and the nice house and lawn to prove it but he has no purpose to his life and so he keeps drifting around trying to find something that satisfies him.  Another veiled criticism of 'The American Dream' here while other characters will look at Tom's house and think of how happy they would be if they ad that much money, Nick sees upper class life for what it really is.  A bit dull.

Jordan doesn't have a home really, her only family is her one aunt and the rest of the time she drifts around staying with different people and in different hotels.  This represents her independence as unlike Daisy and Myrtle who both live in their husband's houses she is free to roam wherever she pleases.

So next time you read The Great Gatsby quotes remember to look a little more deeply at everything, small details like what someone's lawn looks like or who used to live in a characters house can be the key to unlocking the major themes of the book.

The Death of The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

The American dream is such a major theme in The Great Gatsby that whether you are studying it was just reading it for fun you must be wondering what Fitzgerald is trying to say about. Some people argue the book of the criticism of the American dream, some people think Fitzgerald is trying to say the American dream is dead, others think the criticism is solely of Gatsby who paid the price of living too long with a single dream. Let's have a look at some quotes from the Great Gatsby.

Gaby's dream is the most prominent of the book. It is all encompassing, it has taken over his life completely. He thought he loved Daisy, but when he finally met her after all these years he found that he still wanted more. He wanted her to say that she never loved another man. He couldn't be happy with what he had, he has to be perfect. He is an example of people who abuse the American dream.

Character's like Myrtle and Wilson look up and Daisy and Tom.  They want what they have, they think that they have achieved the American Dream.  The reader knows different thought, we can see  exactly how happy Daisy and Tom are.  Behind the façade of perfection they present, their perfect marriage, in their lovely house with their beautiful daughter, they are both bored and unhappy.  With no job and no purpose in life they have grown 'restless.' Both of them have affairs and neither seems to care about there child.  Fitzgerald is trying to say that life isn't what you imagine at the top.

Fitzgerald makes it clear that money can't buy you happiness by the same time he shows us that the lower class is obsessed with money. As Nick said life is more successfully looked at a single window and all the lower class characters looking at Gatsby and Tom's big houses and expensive cars and imagine them to be living the dream.

The photograph that Gatsby's father carries around with him becomes the symbol of this obsession of the lower classes.  Instead of carrying a picture of his son he carries a a picture of his house, a symbol of his wealth, and what proves he is a success.  Just as Gatsby was lured by Dan Cody's expensive yacht, so the next generation will look at this photo and think that if they work hard enough they can come from nothing like Gatsby and be as happy as him.  The sad fact is we know Gatsby was never happy and when he died no one came to his funeral .

What can we draw from this then, does Fitzgerald think the American dream is dead. On the contrary I believe that he thinks it will continue perpetually, the people always look at the rich and wish they could be like them. And so the book is not telling you the American dream is dead is telling you that it will always live on and be wary of its promises.

Does Gatsby Really Love Daisy In The Great Gatsby

If you have read Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' you may have thought it was a love story.  To some it is, but to most who study it in school or read it with an analytical eye start to wonder about the romance that dominates the narrative.  Does Gatsby really love Daisy, or more specifically does e love her as a person, or just as a status symbol.  There are valid arguments to be made on both sides.

Lets start with the basics, does Gatsby love Daisy at all, in any respect, whether for personality looks or status.  It seem obvious but you still have to prove it so lets look at some Great Gatsby quotes.

Well for a start there is Gatsby bought the house so Daisy would be just across the bay, and the casual way he remembers that the last time they saw each other was five years last November. Even the weather thinks Gatsby is in love with Daisy, when they meet again for the first time in years the room is filled with twinkle bells of sunshine.

So is it clear that he loved something about her but we still don't know what.  One of the most easily believable options is he wants her as a trophy wife.  The perfect women to complete his perfect image.  He says that fact that 'many men had loved her increased her value in his eyes' which makes you think that he doesn't care about the girl but about her image, what people think of her and therefore her husband.  He also spends a lot of time talking about how beautiful her house is, again hinting that what he loves about her is her status as the richest and most desirable girl, rather than anything about her personality.

A third option is also on the table and it's one that I personally agree with.  Gatsby doesn't love her as a person, and doesn't just want her to look good on his arm, although that is a fringe benefit. He wants her just for the challenge of getting her, the thrill of the chase.  Gatsby is obsessed with the American Dream, of making himself perfect through nothing but the sweat of his own brow.  Daisy rejected him for being poor in his youth so now he has to prove how much he has climbed the social ladder by winning her love.  I like this idea the most because it makes sense of his ridicules need for her to say she never loved Tom, if he loves her, as a person or a status symbol he would quit while he was ahead, but he can't.  .

In conclusion, Gatsby definitely loves something about Daisy, that much is clear but whether it is her as a person, her as the perfect wife,were just the fact she's the next to do on his to-do list is up for debate. Personally, I think intentions were good, I think he really thought he did love her but when the moment came he found she tumbled short of an expectations and the only thing he knew how to do was carry on trying to live the dream.

Can you trust the narrator?

Reading the Great Gatsby? Well if you have heard a lot of Nicks opinions then, I know this because the book is almost entirely his opinion but the real question is what's your opinion of him?

This is especially important if you are planning to write any essays or papers on the book because whether or not you trust Nick will affect you opinion of almost everything else in the novel.

Okay lets give the guy a chance and say he's honest, he certainly thinks he is infact he thinks hes one of the only honest people he has ever met.  But if that logic is kind of circular, he is honest because he says he is...and we can trust him because he is honest.  We're going to need more evidence, lets look at some Gatsby quotes.

So he calls himself honest is he just saying that to look good.  Well probably not he tells us lots of things that don't him look so good, he mentions his war dodging ancestor, he admits he is boastful about himself, he even calls himself and his father a snob.  So it looks like he is giving us a fair picture about himself, not just all the good bit, and this probably means he will tell the truth about everyone else too.

Looking good so far Nick.  But wait everything is not as it seems.  Under the influence of alcohol everything becomes dim and hazy, including an alarming scene where suddenly Nick is in Mr McKee's bedroom with a semi-naked Mr McKee then just as quick he is in a train station getting the 4am train home, what happened there Nick.  ?

There is also the problem with his “partial” view.  This quote came from his partial view of Gatsby's garden but houses are often used as symbols in the book to represent people and this could point to Nick's inability to judge Gatsby.  

Other characters in the book call Gatsby an ordinary man or a bootlegger but Nick always sees him as some romantic hero.  Is it possible that he has got to close to Gatsby to be able to judge him with the same analytical eye he uses on the other characters.

So with all this information what can we conclude.  Well my own opinion is Nick is a great narrator perfectly placed to see all the main events and quiet enough that people say things they really shouldn't in front of him.  But, and its a big but, when it comes to Gatsby I take what ever he says with a pinch of salt.