Class Conflict in F. Scott Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby by
Jay Gatsby, a millionaire from the Midwest, is renowned for the parties he throws at his Long Island home. His many guests, however, know nothing about him. As Nick befriends Gatsby, he discovers that Gatsby and Daisy had been in love, but that Daisy did not wait for him to return from the war and married another. Fitzgerald's magnum opus portrays a society in the midst of a cultural and social revolution, with issues of class, social position, and gender taking center stage. This compelling volume analyzes themes of class conflict in The Great Gatsby, delving into the author's life and experiences of upper-class culture. A series of essays investigates topics such as class snobbery and education, the universality of class divisions, and two visions of the American Dream in conflict as they relate to the novel. Modern perspectives on class allow the reader to link events in the text to the issues of today.
F. Scott Fitzgerald by
By assembling a wide-ranging collection of extracts from essays, reviews and articles, the study guides in this series provide students with ready access to the most important secondary writings of one or more texts by a given writer.
Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby by
Reader's Guides provide a comprehensive starting point for any advanced student, giving an overview of the context, criticism and influence of key works. Each guide also offers students fresh critical insights and provides a practical introduction to close reading and to analysing literary language and form. They provide up-to-date, authoritative but accessible guides to the most commonly studied classic texts. The Great Gatsby (1925) is a classic of modern American literature and is often seen as the quintessential novel of 'the jazz age'. This is the ideal guide to the text, setting The Great Gatsby in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, offering analyses of its themes, style and structure, providing exemplary close readings, presenting an up-to-date account of its critical reception and examining its afterlife in literature, film and popular culture. It includes points for discussion, suggestions for further study and an annotated guide to relevant reading. Reader's Guides provide a comprehensive starting point for any advanced student, giving an overview of the context, criticism and influence of key works. Each guide also offers students fresh critical insights and provides a practical introduction to close reading and to analysing literary language and form. They provide up-to-date, authoritative but accessible guides to the most commonly studied classic texts. The Great Gatsby (1925) is a classic of modern American literature and is often seen as the quintessential novel of 'the jazz age'. This is the ideal guide to the text, setting The Great Gatsby in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, offering analyses of its themes, style and structure, providing exemplary close readings, presenting an up-to-date account of its critical reception and examining its afterlife in literature, film and popular culture. It includes points for discussion, suggestions for further study and an annotated guide to relevant reading.
Gatsby by
In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald produced his third novel, a slim work for which he had high expectations. Despite such hopes, the novel received mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Over the decades, however, the reputation of The Great Gatsby has grown and millions of copies have been sold. One of the bestselling novels of all time, it is also considered one of the most significant achievements in twentieth-century fiction. But what makes Gatsby great? Why do we still care about this book more than eighty-five years after it was published? And how does Gatsby help us make sense of our own lives and times? In Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel, Bob Batchelor explores the birth, life, and enduring influence of The Great Gatsby--from the book's publication in 1925 through today's headlines filled with celebrity intrigue, corporate greed, and a roller-coaster economy. A cultural historian, Batchelor explains why and how the novel has become part of the fiber of the American ethos and an important tool in helping readers to better comprehend their lives and the broader world around them. A "biography" of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, this book examines The Great Gatsby's evolution from a nearly-forgotten 1920s time capsule to a revered cultural touchstone. Batchelor explores how this embodiment of the American Dream has become an iconic part of our national folklore, how the central themes and ideas emerging from the book--from the fulfillment of the American Dream to the role of wealth in society--resonate with contemporary readers who struggle with similar uncertainties today. By exploring the timeless elements of reinvention, romanticism, and relentless pursuit of the unattainable, Batchelor confirms the novel's status as "The Great American Novel" and, more importantly, explains to students, scholars, and fans alike what makes Gatsby so great.
The Great Gatsby by 
The Great Gatsby by
This title contains in-depth critical discussions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel. Representing a variety of critical approaches and edited by one of the leading critics on 20th Century American literature, this collection focuses on one of the most widely taught works of American literature. The critical viewpoints presented in the volume cover a wide array of topics from issues of race in the novel to individual character studies. The Editor's Introduction explores the deceptive simplicity of the plot and the complex underpinnings of what makes the novel a true masterpiece. This volume of criticism begins simply enough with essays that provide the reader with cultural, historical, comparative, and critical contexts for understanding ""Gatsby"". Several essays consider the cultural and historical contexts of Fitzgerald's work while critical comparisons link the novel to the poetry of Keats and the novels ""Daisy Miller"" and ""Passing"". The section of contextual readings is followed by a selection of critical overviews, including Robert Roulston and Helen H. Roulston's consideration of Gatsby as a type of culmination of Fitzgerald's writings and Ruth Prigozy's comprehensive introduction to the Oxford World Classic edition of ""Gatsby"". The critical overviews are followed by a series of critical readings that focus on narrative style, color symbolism, and character analysis among other topics. Spanning nearly 40 years of critical study, the selection of essays contained in this volume provide the ideal introduction for any one seeking an introduction to this American classic. Each essay is 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of ""Works Cited,"" along with endnotes.
The Great Gatsby by
Series Editor: Robert Lecker, McGill University.Written in an easy-to-read, accessible style by teachers with years of classroom experience, MASTERWORK STUDIES are guides to the literary works most frequently studied in high school. Presenting ideas that spark imaginations, these books help students to gain background knowledge on great literature useful for papers and exams. The goal of each study is to encourage creative thinking by presenting engaging information about each work and its author. This approach allows students to arrive at sound analyses of their own, based on in-depth studies of popular literature. Each volume: illuminates themes and concepts of a classic text; uses clear, conversational language; is an accessible, manageable length from 140 to 170 pages; includes a chronology of the authors life and era; provides an overview of the historical context; offers a summary of its critical reception; and lists primary and secondary sources and index.
The Great Gatsby Notes by "The narrator, Nick Carraway, rents a cottage in West Egg, Long Island, next door to the mansion of Jay Gatsby and across the water from the home of Tom Buchanan and his wife Daisy, Carraway's cousin. Gatsby's mansion is the scene of extravagant nightly parties, attended by many people who are uninvited and do not know their host. Carraway, both cynical and curious about Gatsby, soon becomes his confidant. He learns that Gatsby had met Daisy while he was in the army during World War I, and that they had fallen in love and planned to marry. Daisy, however, had grown impatient for him to return and had married Tom, a rich though boring man from Yale. Having risen from his lowly origins as Jimmy Gatz through dubious business deals, Gatsby is obsessed with winning Daisy back. He persuades Carraway to arrange a meeting between them, and Daisy, after initial resistance, succumbs to her former lover's generous attentions, impressed by his newly acquired wealth.
Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Carraway and Carraway's girlfriend, Jordan Baker, spend a day together in New York. Tom, who himself has had a longstanding affair with Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a Long Island garage owner, becomes aware of Daisy's attentions to Gatsby. Gatsby tries to convince Daisy to leave Tom. Tom, in turn, tries to discredit Gatsby by revealing that he has made his money from bootlegging. Gatsby and Daisy leave in Tom's automobile, with Daisy driving. Myrtle Wilson, recognizing the car as it passes her husband's garage, runs out into the street and is hit and killed by Daisy, who drives on. Taking revenge on Gatsby, Tom tells Wilson it was Gatsby who killed his wife, and Gatsby, attempting to protect Daisy, lets the blame fall on himself. Wilson murders Gatsby and then commits suicide. Carraway is left to arrange Gatsby's funeral, which hardly anyone attends, and Tom and Daisy retreat ‘back into their money, or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together’."
"Fitzgerald coined the term "Jazz Age" to refer to the period more commonly known as the Roaring Twenties. Jazz is an American style of music marked by its complex and exuberant mix of rhythms and tonalities. The Great Gatsby portrays a similarly complex mix of emotions and themes that reflect the turbulence of the times. Fresh off the nightmare of World War I, Americans were enjoying the fruits of an economic boom and a renewed sense of possibility. But in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald's stresses the darker side of the Roaring Twenties, its undercurrent of corruption and its desperate, empty decadence."
