The Great Gatsby Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is deemed to be a true classic that will never be forgotten. The Novel is a timeless masterpiece that any era throughout history can relate to. “Though written in the 1920’s The Great Gatsby stands as... one of the masterpieces of the twentieth century American literature .” The book has “transcended its own age and turned into a timeless classic.” The novel may have been written to justify society at that time, however the entire storyline can be related to anyone that reads it.

William Faulkner is an author who wrote a famous Nobel Prize acceptance speech. “He writes not of love but lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion” (Faulkner). Here Faulkner speaks of issues that also pertain to that of The Great Gatsby. Gatsby desired Daisy throughout the entire story. Everything he did and thought had been decided upon by his undying lust. When Daisy married Tom, Gatsby lost his chance with her. Then Gatsby won a glance at happiness with Daisy when she fell in love with him. There was no hope though, his poor youth kept him from being an aristocrat. Daisy only wanted to be with an aristocrat. An aristocrat is someone who is a member of a ruling class (Dictionary). Finally when Faulkner said “without pity or compassion” this relates to The Great Gatsby in how Tom and Daisy packed up and moved far away without even showing their faces at Gatsby’s funeral (Faulkner). It was also very selfish of her, she only worried about how she felt and what would make her happy.

The Plot of the novel, is based on the fact that the newly rich, (those who were not born into money, but have received it over time), will never have the power of those who were born in to family wealth. The woman that Gatsby is in love with, Daisy, is married to Tom, a man of higher power than Gatsby. Living in East Egg, the couple looked down on those in West Egg. West Egg was the area where those who had just acquired their new money lived. The people in East Egg saw themselves as better then the West Egg because they actually worked for their money instead of being lazy. East Egg was the place where all the spoiled rich kids lived basically.

Daisy, Gatsby’s love interest, deserted him after their past relationship and married Tom while Gatsby was at war. Gatsby’s newly obtained money was still not good enough for Daisy. This type of scenario is still typical today in society. Much of the world today is based on materialism and the worth of one’s fortune is more valuable than their own happiness. When we die, it won’t matter what we owned or how much money was in our bank accounts. All that will matter is how we changed other peoples lives and affected them. Daisy broke Gatsby’s heart by marrying Tom and that crushed Gatsby. He was extremely upset but all Daisy worried about was that she was rich and happy now. Present day is exactly the same way, all these young women in their 20's are marrying these 50-60 year old millionaires just so that they will inherit their money when the men die.

For the most part the characters, their problems they face, and how they act in The Great Gatsby relate to any of those who lived throughout history. Gatsby for instance was a character who did anything he could to impress a girl that he desires. People of the past present and future will urge to impress someone they want. Teenage boys are constantly trying to impress girls so that they can win them over. Gatsby worked very hard trying to win Daisy over and that just wasn’t good enough for her.

Ever since there has been social classes there has always been people trying to form a relationship or marriage with someone just for their social upbringing. In The Great Gatsby Daisy does just that by marrying Tom then denying Gatsby the chance since he is not an Aristocrat.

All the way back to King Henry VIII and beyond there has been infidelity. He had 6 different wives, which all died or were killed. Tom is quite the sinner in this way. He kept a steady mistress where ever he was during his marriage. Also tying in with Daisy she played it off as if she did not know Tom was cheating on her to keep her social status. He would have random girlfriends while he was with Daisy just so that he would seem in power and everyone would seem him as such an awesome guy. Present day is just the same way, the world makes it seem that you must have a girlfriend or boyfriend in order to be happy or popular.

There are two major themes throughout The Great Gatsby. The first theme is the decline of the American dream in the 1920’s. The American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. In the 1920’s depicted in the novel, however, easy money and related social values corrupted this dream.