Critical Studies: The Great Gatsby

by Kathleen Parkinson

Kathleen Parkinson places this brilliant and bitter satire on the moral failure of the Jazz Age firmly in the context of Scott Fitzgerald's life and times. She explores the intricate patterns of the novel, its chronology, locations, imagery and use of colour, and how these contribute to a seamless interplay of social comedy and symbolic landscape. She devotes a perceptive chapter to Fitzgerald's controversial portrayal of women and goes on to discuss how the central characters, Gatsby and Nick Carraway, embody and confront the dualism inherent in the American dream.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Literary Criticism, Essays, Classic Literature, School, Literature

142 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 5, 1985

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Great Gatsby" is one of the greatest works of 1920's literature. It also serves as one of the best windows into the wasteful lives of the diletantes who amassed great wealth in that decade before the bills for unregulated greed became due. Fitzgerald was a young Army officer in World War I who met a teenaged beauty, Zelda Sayre, while training in the South. They were engaged after the war but Zelda called it off because Fitzgerald was not wealthy enough to provide her with the life of leisure she needed. They were finally married after Fitzgerald met his first success as a novelist at age 24. Fitzgerald's ambition to become a recognized author was driven at least in part in an effort to satisfy Zelda's financial needs. Gatsby, also a young officer in training in Kentucky during the War, met a young woman named Daisy who could not marry him at the time because he was not wealthy enough to provide for her needs. He asked her to wait for him until after the War, but she instead married wealthy Tom Buchanan.

What made Gatsby great was his ability to set goals that others would find unattainable, and to optimistically drive himself to accomplish them. He determined to make himself wealthy enough to win the love of Daisy Buchanan. We do not read of specifics in the novel, but we know that Gatsby becomes very wealthy after the War. He becomes a kind of mystery man who is the object of endless speculation about his source of wealth. Some people became very wealthy in the booze trade during 1920's prohibition, including Al Capone and other gangsters. Gatsby has a business associate either in the mob or with mob ties, and it is probable Gatsby became wealthy by rum running.

His wealth has given him everything except Daisy. Trying to make up for lost time, Gatsby buys a mansion in West Egg. He can see the green light at the end of the Buchanan estate's dock from his home directly across the bay. Luckily, a young Ivy League graduate freshly out of WWI uniform, Nick Carroway, rents a modest house next door to Gatsby. Nick, like Fitzgerald before him, is a midwesterner transplanted to the Big Apple; he happens to be Daisy's cousin. Gatsby, who strikes up an apparent genuine friendship with Nick, nevertheless uses him to make an introduction to his former sweetheart. Daisy and Gatsby start an affair while her husband Tom continues his not-so-secret extramarital relationship with Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George, a down-and-out mechanic.

Fitzgerald produces a work which is devoted to exposing the emptiness and hypocrisy in the lives of the beautiful people of the "Jazz Age." He makes you wonder why Gatsby was so obsessed with Daisy. She has everything: beauty, money, homes, a jealous-wealthy husband, a beautiful daughter, but she is a pampered, spoiled woman. Her superficial outlook on life includes the lack of outward affection even to her child. Nick, trying to get established in the bond business on Wall Street, becomes disillusioned and moves back home after witnessing his friend's ruin. Myrtle, no doubt hoping against hope for her association with Tom Buchanan to elevate her from the Wilson hovel to a classy life, meets a sudden and tragic end.

And then there is Gatsby, who finds that great wealth buys great possessions, but cannot buy his former life with Daisy back. Fitzgerald is not content in leaving Gatsby ultimately holding the empty bag of unrequited love. He arranges for his public humiliation by Tom, who denounces Gatsby as a common bootlegger in front of their friends. In a way, Gatsby is a forerunner of Al Pacino's character, Tony Montana, in the 1983 movie "Scarface." Montana clawed his way from common origins by drug dealing, the modern version of bootlegging. Tony believed you needed lots of money to be respectable; money got power; and power got girls.

We find that Gatsby likewise got more respectability in society than Tony Montana, possibly because he is a WASP. But he was still tainted as new wealth, as Buchanan reminds all of their friends, and he doesn't get to keep the girl in the end. Finally, Fitzgerald makes Gatsby the victim of his own emotions, placing him in line for his own physical destruction because he cannot reveal a crime committed by the woman who no longer loves him.

The book's characters are sharply drawn and the story has enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested to the end. This is a highly enjoyable read.

By the way, the edition shown with this review was not the one I read. Nothing against Kathleen Parkinson's study guide, but I read the edition with the original cover art reproduced; however,
I couldn't access its through Goodreads when I did this review.

[Candace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad book, but teaches a good life lesson I guess.

[Sam Penn · Rating 4 out of 5]

urgh. english.

[Meredith Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Gatsby was an exciting and endearing book to read. Fitzgerald's novel follows the love story between a rich woman and poor soldier in the 1920's. The book drew me in with the first sentence and I could not put it down. Gatsby is one of the most romantic characters that I have read. I read the book because it is Fitzgerald's most famous piece of writing and it lives up to the expectation of "Best 20th-Century American Novel." This novel went above and beyond what I expected!

[👑 💀 · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the absence of a Norton Critical Edition for The Great Gatsby, Parkinson’s book works a suitable substitute. This critical overview provides numerous comprehensive-yet-digestible analyses of Gatsby’s setting, themes, characters, symbols, techniques, and more. It will serve any English teacher or professor looking to approach Gatsby for the first time in the classroom.

[Sheila Melo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very simple review of themes and critical analyses of the Great Gatsby. This is a good introduction to the novel and gives a foundation for further examination of the novel.

[Oriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."

Synopsis: "Nobody throws a party like Jay Gatsby whose Long Island mansion buzzes day and night with riotous crowds of bright young things. But Gatsby is always alone in the crowd, silently longing for the one thing he cannot have. And eventually this yearning will destroy him."

An interesting read that contains a lot of details, including metaphors and foreshadowing, and requests plenty of attention from the reader in order to fully understand its inspiring riches. Another classic full of unforgettable quotes and descriptions of human emotions. The was Fitzgerald paints pictures with words certainly stimulates reader's imagination. I felt like I lived in the 20s and knew every detail about how people behaved and looked back then, as well as understand the expectations of the society at the time.

I give a green light to this book.

[C.K. Moises · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein wirklich grandioses Buch. Vor allem die maschinelle Schreibweise hat mir super gefallen.

Auch wenn mir Nick an manchen Stellen etwas zu blass vorgekommen ist, hat er mir als Sichtweise gut gefallen. Die ganze Geschichte war stimmig und fing, aus meiner Sicht, die 20 er Jahre super ein. Mit ihrer Ekstase und der Depression nur kurz darauf.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

99 years after first publication, this remains a, what, maybe a warning, or requiem, to the American pursuit of happiness. It's more, but read and discover that for yourself. Second time through, and I can better appreciate the spaces, the silences between words. Sometimes, active reading through inference and deduction is the most rewarding

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this Jazz Age story (written during the Jazz Age itself) of lost love, found romance, money, wealth and popularity (the 1920's American Dream) very entertaining and really enjoyed reading it!

[Rio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book if you want to escape long stories.
Quite straight forward and gets you at the end.
Story of friendship ,money ,love and the truth of people.
Great read 🖤

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reviews that I see on this book's page are all for the novel, not this book, which is a study guide.

I'm sure I read the novel in high school like everyone else, but I have no memory of that at all. I read it again just recently, and was underwhelmed. I thought since so many people think this novel is so important, maybe I was missing something. The study guide really did help my enjoyment and understanding of the novel. I would recommend it to anyone who thought the novel really wasn't all that. This book could change your mind.

[Christina, Join Me on Storygraph! · Rating 4 out of 5]

A summer re-read just for enjoyment of the story. I picked up on some of the symbolism of which I was aware (the green light on the dock, for example) and maybe caught some I don't remember learning about, but still feel the need to consult sparknotes.

This was really slow going, and I started to wonder why it was on my keeper shelf for so long, but I was able to really devote some time to it about halfway through and my enjoyment picked up as well.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

This critical analysis approached The Great Gatsby from several different angles and enhanced my reading of Fitzgerald's classic. I especially liked Parkinson's read of the interplay between the real world and the imagined world. It was also kind of fun when she added parenthetical clarifications about what the World Series is. I'm not a baseball person, but living in the U.S. my whole life, I forget that general baseball knowledge is unavoidable here and basically nonexistent elsewhere.

[roni · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I hear if you read The Great Gatsby for school you are destined to hate it, and if you read it for your own personal betterment, you will love it. I read it for as a high school junior and found it mediocre. Maybe, there is hope for me to discover it is actually the greatest triumph of English literature...but unless I deign to pick it up again it will remain an ok book in my eyes.

[Laura Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advanced guide to the novel, I read it for studying "The Great Gatsby" for A-Level English Aspects of Narrative, and it is a good way to both pick up some good points for an essay, as well as some advanced stuff to get a fuller idea of the novel, and the style is a good one to try to ape, in an abridged form, in exams.

[Susie Adli]

I find it quite interesting to read and relate to the artificial life some people live nowadays.Like the partygoers,we are lifegoers ,unaware of the shortness of life and fail to reach the core of it.

[Cho · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Gatsby was an exciting and interesting book. It shows the sweet love story between a rich woman and a poor soldier. The book was full of romantic scenes. This novel was better than what I expected. By the way, the movie was also sweet :)

[Ashley]

One of my fav books of all times- and one of the best 20th century novels.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, but I had to read it in High School, so of course, I didn't want to. I should read this again, because it is a really good book.

[Nickky Faustine de Guzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first parts bored me, the climax didn't got me however, i liked the overall impression of the book.

[Victor Rodriguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected more considering the hype.
Meh!

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Haunting, but not especially challenging.

[Pam Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this book a lot, have read it before and seen the movie starring Robert Redford!

[Roger Corea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply a great classic!

[Jayanil Enriquez]

Classics.

[Cynthia Tenicela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring!

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel this book is way over rated. However, once i read THIS SIDE OF PARADISE i developed a better understanding of Fitzgerald and was able to "like" the GREAT GATSBY a little more.

[Shefali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second Read: This will always give different insights with every read into the life and mind of Gatsby.

[Murtahin]

such a complex stupid drama man... i wasted my valuable time...