Narrative and Character Analysis 

Title of the Book: The Great Gatsby

Author of the Book: F. scott Fitzgerald

Type of Work: Novel

Book Genre: Modernist novel, Jazz Age, novel of manners

Time and Place written: 1923-1924, America and France

Date of first Publication: 1925

Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons

Main character: Jay Gatsby

Secondary characters: Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson, Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker

Background of the Book

The Great Gatsby is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novel-a book that offers damning and insightful views of the American nouveau riche in the 1920's. The Great Gatsby is an American classic and a wonderfully evocative work. Like much of Fitzgerald's prose, it is neat and well-crafted. Fitzgerald seems to have had a brilliant understating of lives that are corrupted by greed and incredibly sad and unfulfilled. The novel is a product of it's generation-with one of American Literature's most powerful characters in the figure of Jay Gatsby, who is urbane and world-weary.

A Brief Life of Fitzgerald

The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature, Princeton,  zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. During 1911-1913 he attended the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in New Jersey, where he met Father  Sigourney Fay, who encouraged his ambitions for personal distinction and achievement. As a member of the Princeton Class of 1917, Fitzgerald neglected his studies for his literary apprenticeship. He wrote the scripts and lyrics for the Princeton Triangle Club musicals and was a contributor to the Princeton Tiger humor magazine and the Nassau Literary Magazine. Now, we've all heard about F. Scott Fitzgerald. He's most well-known fot "The Great Gatsby" which is marked a striking advance in Fitzgerald's technique, utilizing a complex structure and a controlled narrative point of view. But you may have read some of his other earlier novels as well: This Side of Paradise (1920), Flappers and Philosophers (1920), The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), and Tales of the Jazz Age (1922). Fitzgerald died at age 44, before he could complete The Love of the Last Tycoon. His manuscript, which included extensive notes for the unwritten part of the novel's story, was edited by his friend, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, and published in 1941 as The Last Tycoon. In 1994 the book was reissued under the original title The Love of the Last Tycoon, which is now agreed to have been Fitzgerald's preferred title. Cause of his death: heart attack.

   F. Scott Fitzgerald, Photographed by Carl van Vechten in 1937

Brief Summary of the Plot of the novel "The Great Gatsby"

The Beginning
The novel's events are filtered through the consciousness of it's narrator, Nick Carraway, a young Yale graduate, who is both a part of and separate from the world he describes. Upon moving to New York, he rents a house next door to the mansion of an eccentric millionaire (Jay Gatsby). Every Saturday, Gatsby throws a party at his mansion and all the great and the good of the young fashionable world come to marvel at his extravagance (as well as swap gossipy stories about their host who-it is suggested - has a murky past).


The Middle
Despite his high-living, Gatsby is dissatisfied; and Nick finds out why. Long ago, Gatsby fell in love with a young girl, Daisy. Although she has always loved Gatsby, she is currently married to Tom Buchanan. Gatsby asks Nick to help him meet Daisy once more, and Nick finally agrees- arranging tea for Daisy at his house.
The two ex-lovers meet and soon rekindle their affair. Soon, Tom begins to suspect and challenges the two of them- also revealing something that the reader had already begun to suspect: that Gatsby's fortune was made through illegal gambling and bootlegging. Gatsby and Daisy drive back to New York. In the wake of the emotional confrontation, Daisy hits and kills a woman. Gatsby feels that his life would be nothing without Daisy, so he determines to take the blame.


The End 
George Wilson- who discovers that the car that killed his wife belongs to Gatsby--comes to Gatsby's house and shoots him. Nick arranges a funeral for his friend, and then decides to leave New York--saddened by fatal events and disgusted by the easy way lived their lives.

Time Period-Historical Context

Set in the prosperous Long Island in 1922, The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within it's compelling literary narrative. That era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, the flapper culture, and bootlegging and other criminal activity, is plausibly depicted in Fitzgerald's novel. Fitzgerald utilizes these societal developments of the 1920's to build Gatsby's stories from simple details like automobiles to broader themes like Fitzgerald's discreet allusions to the organized crime culture which was the source of  Gatsby;s fortune. Fitzgerald educates his readers about the garish society of the Roaring Twenties by placing a timeless, relatable plotline within the historical context of the era.

Themes of the novel

The decline of the American dream, the spirit of the 1920's, the difference between social classes, the role of symbols in the human conception of meaning, the role of the past in dreams of the future are the main themes of this novel.

Personal Opinion

After reading this book i realized how much i liked it and i would totally recommend it. The most important and interesting for me was the differences between the characters. Fitzgerald's choice of narrator also makes it a great story. This is a story that, in its telling, resembles real life. We don't see the justification that the other characters use for their actions. We only see their actions. That makes it the kind of the story that stays in your mind for a long time.

I have chosen Daisy, because after reading the book i was surprised about the difference in my feelings and ideas about her. In the beginning i saw a woman which was living with wealth but she was still in love with Gatsby which made me feel that she has some feelings but then after her choices i realized who she really was. Nonetheless, she is a character which stimulated my imagination about the way she would look like and after all she is a character which inspired today's fashion designers.

Ralph Lauren collection 2012

Character analysis

Character Name: Daisy Buchanan

Age: 25-30

Tone of Voice: Common but sometimes also a little bit strong in a way that she shows that she belongs to the Upper Class family.

Character: sophisticated and also foolish i could say after the discussion she had with her daughter explaining her that she has to be ignorant and get married to a rich man because money is all that matters.

Describe her Styling: dressed up always in white dresses which represent purity and innocence. A very beautiful and attractive woman, the most beautiful in the family with big eyes blond hair, showing every time the wealthy she has.

Mia Farrow (Daisy). The Great Gatsby (1974) Film, as adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel published 1925

How is your character different from you?

Daisy Buchanan is different from me because she cares only about money and she doesn't even appreciate the things she has such as her husband and daughter. That is why she could never find her truly love and be actually happy.

How is your character similar to you?

Daisy Buchanan is similar to me because she also cares about her image. She believes that a woman's image is very important. Of course in a different perspective because she was trying to show something different of what she really is taking advantage of her beauty in order to achieve her goals.