Gatsby: A Book Report

T T T

Gatsby: A Book Report

By: alice17

Gatsby: A BOOK REPORT

Gatsby's American dream is about returning to a simpler

time, a period in which he first met Daisy Buchanan during

World War I. But the dream also represents America itself,

and how the war had changed everything. People suddenly had a

lot of money. They had lost their innocence, their morality.

And the pleasures of partying were all anyone seemed to care

about anymore.

The large billboard, with the advertisement for Doctor

T.J. Echleburg, displayed a large pair of eyeglasses. This

image serves as a representation of God watching over the

decline of moral society, of common decency.

There is a great irony in that Gatsby has dreamed of a more

innocent time, all the while he has earned all his money

through crime, and is now cheating with a married woman. His

hypocracy is throwing parties while not attending them. In

other words, using immorality to find Daisy, using indecency

to return to a time of decency.

East Egg is where the "old money" exists, with its laws

and standards. West Egg is "new money", where both classes

converge to further demonstrate the ruinous immorality on

society and America as a whole.

Nick is the only one who seems to notice what Gatsby is

really after, and he does this with admiration and sympathy

for Gatsby. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald does not want us

to miss this point. He writes that Nick yells across the lawn

to Gatsby: "They are a rotten crowd. You're worth the

whole damn bunch put together." This is because Gatsby

represents the hopes and wishes for the true American dream,

which now seems forever lost to all.