Great Gatsby - AO5

Gatsby as America

“Jay Gatsby stands for America itself.” - Trilling

Life, according to Fitzgerald

“life is essentially a cheat” - Fitzgerald

Nick as a narrator

“Nick is an unreliable narrator through denial and reinterpretation.” - Tanner

Daisy

“vulgar and inhumane” - Kazin

Daisy as a victim

“Daisy is a victim of complex needs and desires” - Fryer

The characters in general

“carelessness and absence of loyalties” - Clerk

The Green Light

“The green light offers Gatsby a suitably inaccessible focus for his yearning.” - Tanner

Gatsby and roots

“Gatsby is the apotheosis of his rootless society” - AE Dyson

Gatsby and dreams

“Gatsby stands apart; a dreamer in a city that doesn’t sleep” - Limb

Gatsby and being self-made

“Gatsby is the embodiment of self-made success” - Hodo

Irony of the title

“Gatsby is neither 'great' nor indeed 'Gatsby'“ - Stocks

Daisy and morality

Daisy has a “monstrous moral indifference” - Bewley

Death of American Dream

“The main theme is the withering of the American Dream” - Bewley

Gatsby’s car

“Gatsby's yellow car...the mixture of suavity and slight derangement” - Cowling

Gatsby as a myth

“Gatsby is like a modern-day Icarus, who flies too close the sun.” - Stallman