“The Great Gatsby” is the name of the novel by the American writer Fitzgerald. The book is actually very popular among readers - and has always been popular. So why? I really want to figure this out. This novel was published on April 10, 1925, in the century that is commonly called the “Age of Jazz.”
"The Great Gatsby" is somewhat sentimental love story, in some ways a detective story, and the denouement in the novel is tragic. Quite interesting in places strange images of that era constantly flash on the pages of the novel, immersing the reader in that time. Very stormy, but at the same time unforgettable. There was not much time left before the “Great Depression” in the United States, when rich young people simply shot themselves because they found themselves bankrupt.
But in the 1920s, the US economy grew rapidly because the US is the only country in a world that suffered neither from the consequences of the First World War nor from the consequences of the Second World War. For some reason, Russia always suffered the most, then the USSR. Many biographers of Fitzgerald write that his wife, the prototype of the heroine of the novel Tender is the Night, fell ill with a severe form of mental illness during this period. The writer himself was endlessly worried about this, and he himself often went to the hospital with tuberculosis.
It is worth keeping in mind that Fitzgerald also had internal contradictions, because at one time he really wanted to go to the front of the First World War to defend democracy, but did not get there. Disappointment in life, the illness of his wife, gave the novel a tragic overtone. It is worth noting that the word “jazz” has nothing to do with fun (more often) musical direction that period. In the understanding of Fitzgerald's biographers, “jazz” means some kind of philosophical depth, some kind of nervous tension reigning in the atmosphere of that time, even to the point of tragedy, some kind of premonition of impending discord. Fitzgerald himself emphasized this: “When they talk about jazz, they mean, first of all, the situation in big cities, when the front line is approaching them... and therefore, let’s live while we’re alive, have fun, and tomorrow death will come for us.” In "Echoes of the Jazz Age," Fitzgerald wrote: "The events of 1919 made us more likely to become cynics than revolutionaries... it was characteristic of the Jazz Age that we were not at all interested in politics."
The novel begins with the story of Nick Carraway, who is advised by his father not to judge other people poorly unless they have the same character traits or material advantages as him. “If you want to judge someone, remember that they do not have the same advantages as you” - Fitzgerald. So, Jay Gatsby... he's quite rich. But not as rich as Jay would like.
The image of Jay may have been influenced by Hemingway’s story “The Young Rich Man,” which, naturally, Fitzgerald read. But even without this, he acquired some kind of fame among readers. It is worth noting that a “very rich man” is a socio-psychological type, influencing an entire, and perhaps more than one, generation. But why can there be an interest in very rich people among people who may have never encountered them in life?
Probably, Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” cannot be called satirical or somehow accusatory - otherwise the writer would have brought to the reader’s attention some real or fictitious “vices” of the society in which he was so interested. But, it is likely that Fitzgerald became interested in precisely this layer of people who were far from art, because, most likely, he internally foresaw their collapse in 1929.
Perhaps this will excuse the writer, who, being a creative person himself, brought to the stage not an artist, nor a writer, nor an artist, but simply a “very rich man.” By the way, perhaps Fitzgerald somehow wanted to prevent a collapse - he wanted society to take a closer look at the experience of the USSR, and to change the situation in the economy in a peaceful, non-revolutionary way. Nick begins his story with memories, not only of himself, but also of his family. But he adds: “Gatsby justified himself in the end. It wasn’t him, but what was weighing on him—that poisonous dust that rose up around his dream—that’s what made me temporarily lose interest in people’s fleeting sorrows and rushed joys.”
Nick graduated from Yale University in 1915, got a dog, and settled in West Egg. Opposite, as you know, Gatsby's estate was located. His relatives, husband and wife Tom and Daisy Buchanan, returned to America from France. Young people - Tom, Daisy, Daisy's friend and Nick meet in an informal setting, and Tom, in response to Daisy's question “who is Gatsby,” wanted to introduce him to her as his closest neighbor. The mysterious Gatsby continued to worry Nick for some reason. The incident when he saw Gatsby on the balcony at night alarmed him, but he immediately forgot about it. But between Nick and Gatsby himself, friendly relations subsequently developed when they both realized that they were once comrades in the regiment. Gatsby decides to reveal to Nick the secret of his inner and outer world as much as possible.
Gatsby invites Nick to his villa. “At the beginning of the eighth, I, dressed in a white flannel suit, entered Gatsby’s villa, but felt uncomfortable among many strangers,” Nick described the beginning of the evening. One of Nick's acquaintances meets Jordan Baker at the evening and spends a lot of time with her. The mystery of Gatsby and what he surrounded himself with - pop singers, dancers, emigrants from Russia - all this spurs the interest of both Jordan and Nika, who really liked each other that evening.
Gatsby's mansion was full of events every day - many guests, magnificent dinners, new women, all this attracted attention to him and created the effect of mystery. But an alarming note began to creep into some of the remarks of visitors to the mansion. “He’s a bootlegger,” the ladies whispered, drinking his cocktails and smelling his flowers.” It must be said that a bootlegger is “an underground liquor dealer during Prohibition in the United States in the 1920s.” But in a broader sense, these people traded everything from music records, to flowers, or perhaps even cars. The origin of Gatsby's fortune and his motives for the society that loved to visit him remained unclear.
It is probably worth noting that the main characters of the novel are 30 years old at the time of the story. All relationships unfold between young people of their time. And, probably, the main circumstance in the novel is the mysterious romance between Daisy and Gatsby himself. It turned out that they already had a relationship long before meeting at Gatsby's mansion. Perhaps his love for Daisy partly explained all of Gatsby's actions. Gatsby probably tried to take Daisy away from Tom, but a tragic incident - when the lovers, leaving the Plaza Hotel, knocked a woman to death on the road, prevented Gatsby's dreams from coming true. Probably, or tragic accident, or a fatal mistake - the husband of the deceased kills Gatsby at the end by the pool. And the fact that the main characters who knew Gatsby go in different directions is an indicator of the impossibility of their relationship in the future.
Gatsby seemed to me not so much as indecisive, but rather really mysterious, and loving to boast a little. There is a hint of this in the book in the scene in which he shows Nick the order “from little Montenegro,” although it is likely that the award received on the front of the First World War was then for young man all his personal happiness. In my opinion, this is a story about the impossible - that Gatsby and Daisy would never have been together, and that Nick and Jordan would ultimately be disappointed in their relationship. Tom and Daisy were still irresponsible people. As the author characterizes them, “careless.” If Daisy had loved Gatsby, she would have married him when he was poor.
But time has passed. Gatsby, on the basis of his fame, may have traded somewhere and made a fortune for himself, and created some kind of mysterious legend about himself, managed to attract society, and Daisy ran after him only because he is not only rich, but also has some kind of glory. Then she no longer needed Tom. By the way, we are not talking about relationships with age differences here. Here we are talking about relationships of exactly the same age - people who are 30. Moreover, everyone. Probably one word characterizes Daisy: “irresponsibility.” Even in relation to her daughter, whom she most likely did not care about. But it must be said that the relationship between Nick and Jordan also could not stand the pressure of events and began to crack. Probably, the greatness and motive of Gatsby’s actions is that in some way he tried to attract the attention of his beloved, Daisy. But, apparently, the young man did not know any other way to conquer a woman’s heart, such as fictitious or real wealth. In fact, this is the main tragedy of Gatsby. And, perhaps, young people in many ways - trying to conquer a woman, they display all their wealth in front of her (somewhat reminiscent of the image of Zlatogor from the opera " Queen of Spades"Tchaikovsky). But this is not always a fact. Probably, if Gatsby knew how to attract Daisy’s attention, he would have fought her off from Tom even then. But this is basically sad.
But it is likely that events would have developed differently if it had not been for fatal accident- Myrtle's death in an accident caused by Gatsby. Perhaps Fitzgerald wanted to emphasize the aimlessness of the existence of the generation of thirty-year-olds. For them, life meant fun, but until the moment when a fateful combination of circumstances forced them to think about those human values, which they should have carried within themselves.
Text: Olga Sysueva
Francis Fitzgerald is a famous American writer. Virtually all of the author’s works are written about the “jazz era.” The writer himself coined this term; it means the happy decade in the life of America between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Great Depression, when the younger generation rebelled against traditional culture. It was replaced by frantic and temperamental black music, which was given the name “jazz”. It was about her that he wrote the legendary novel The Great Gatsby.
The author began writing The Great Gatsby in 1925 in France. Before the novel's release, it was released short story"Winter Dreams" According to the author, it is like a sketch of a future book. The writer worked painstakingly on this work, changing and finalizing chapters. Initially, the narration of the story came from Gatsby himself, but then the writer changed the narrator, since the image of Gatsby was somehow vague and incomprehensible. Fitzgerald liked the cover of the first edition so much that he even introduced an element of the cover into the work ( big eyes on an advertising poster in the Valley of Slag).
In his novel, Fitzgerald reflected the case of the major New York broker Fuller-McGee. He declared bankruptcy while his company was illegally using its auctioneers' money. The writer lived in a neighboring villa from Fuller, this can explain his interest in this case, which was actively discussed by all New York newspapers. There are certainly some similarities between Fuller and Gatsby.
The title of the book also has its own special history. Its author changed about 6 times. It is believed that Fitzgerald called Gatsby “great” in order to show her irony regarding the fate of this hero.
Genre, direction
The work is written in the “novel” genre. The author in this work is characterized by the direction of realism. Some critics call his novel a chronicle of jazz. Fitzgerald was able to accurately convey life at that time. Adding music, colors, mixing secrets and omissions, sprinkling it all with deep feeling and slight despair, Francis Fitzgerald is preparing a truly magnificent masterpiece. He leads us through the labyrinth life path Gatsby, intertwining him with the destinies of other people. And only towards the middle of the novel the writer reveals to us the real reason all the actions of the main character.
Not in this story pure love, as, for example, in 19th century novels. This work is like a hammer to readers' rose-colored glasses. The author subtly and clearly depicts the world as it is when people behave selfishly.
The essence
The author himself said that the main idea of the work is to show the injustice of the fate of a poor young man who cannot marry the girl he dreams of. Fitzgerald claimed that a similar topic constantly swirls in his head, since he himself was in this position.
Once upon a time, a young, unknown, ambitious young man dared to ask for the hand of the daughter of a large businessman and the owner of a decent fortune. Of course, the girl herself refused with a laugh, because she moved in social circles where it was vital to be rich. But she abandoned the mocking hope: the groom had to earn a million, and then she could become his wife. And then Fitzgerald began to write. His works were not successful at first, but one novel turned his fate around: popularity brought him wealth. Zelda, Scott's beloved, had to give in, but she herself already wanted it. Her acquaintance became a celebrity and was admitted to the best houses of the sophisticated bourgeoisie. So, the writer achieved his goal, but always remembered at what cost.
The main characters and their characteristics
- The main character is Nick Carraway. It is on his behalf that the story is told. It is through him that we recognize at first glance the confusing, but in fact simple story Gatsby's life. In fact, it is impossible to say anything specific about this character. In the books, he is our guide along the road of Gatsby's destiny. He encounters other heroes who tell us more and more details about the “Great One”. We know a little about his family, we know enough about his feelings for Jordan Baker and his feelings for Jay Gatsby himself. Our narrator is not devoid of wisdom and a subtle understanding of reality. He is a modest and active person.
- Jay Gatsby– an enterprising and successful man, he is approximately 30 years old (like Nick). For our narrator, as for other guests, he was a man whose past and present are shrouded in secrecy. All his wealth was in full view of everyone, but his soul and his whole essence were hidden from human eyes. His main feature is determination. All his life he loved one person, was devoted only to him, and everything he did was in order to win his favor.
- Daisy (Daisy) Buchanan is Nick's second cousin and is about 23 years old. From a rich family. She is one of those people who needs someone to guide her through life. Her husband became such a person for her. Daisy was a smart girl. In her youth she loved Gatsby very much, but when he left, she began dating Thomas. She didn't love him, but her parents approved of the marriage and disapproved of her relationship with Gatsby. Even at the end of the book, she still stays with her husband because he is more reliable to her than Gatsby. She had already gotten used to living with him.
- Thomas "Tom" Buchanan- a very unpleasant guy. Good-natured in appearance, but in fact a very slippery person. He treats his wife with disrespect. He cheats without hiding it. For him, women are only creatures who must give birth and raise children. Does whatever he wants. A dangerous and cunning hero.
- This work covers many topics, but the main theme is, of course, unequal position of people in society. Jay Gatsby and Daisy loved each other. She was the daughter of a wealthy man, he was a poor guy. They couldn't be together. Everything was against it. The author talks about the problem of reprehensible attitudes between rich and poor. A person measures those around him by the size of his wallet, which leads to mistakes that are costly to a society that lives by false values.
- No less important issue, touched upon here is life in illusions. Jay Gatsby, having parted with Daisy, did not stop thinking that someday he would come to her, he would have a fortune behind him, and she, realizing that he still loved her, would return to him. But this is an illusion and nothing more. An unfinished goal that grew into a strong desire to prove to her that he was worthy of her hand. On the one hand, this is very good. Gatsby succeeded and became rich. On the other hand, he never built his life; in his soul he still remained someone whom society considered an outcast and a poor man. He lived only for his beloved, and, in the end, having come to her, he forgot that time changes people.
- Also rises theme of friendship and family. Gatsby hid and didn’t really tell anything about himself, but, as it turns out in the end, he had loving father, who knew his whole story inside and out. He had Nick, who treated him with respect, while the “great” one was rejected by everyone and everything. But even these real ties cannot help a person realize his own importance and need. He is chasing phantom feelings that let him down, because they have been gone for a long time. Unfortunately, we can rarely correctly assess the importance of those devoted and unnoticed people who are next to us, wherever we are.
- Also in focus is the problem of habit and fear of giving it up. Daisy is a slave to her cowardice and routine. She is afraid to break off an unnecessary connection for the sake of real feeling. For the sake of a comfort zone, a woman renounces happiness and betrays her dream.
Topics and issues
Meaning
The idea of the work is that life is not a fairy tale, but a tragedy, even if music sounds around you and the fishy splash of palms is heard. You may face a huge number of trials and, unfortunately, this does not mean that in the end you will be lucky and everything will suddenly become justified. Jay Gatsby lived hard life, he was a little secretive, but he kept love and hope in his heart that sooner or later he would be happy with Daisy. But, as we can see, everything is different. She was afraid to leave her husband and child for the sake of an old love. Gatsby dies in all alone. Daisy didn't even come to his funeral. This means that even when it seems to you that you deserve happiness after going through many difficulties, this does not at all mean that some ephemeral force like justice should bring a reward in its teeth. Luck is also capricious and unpredictable like love: the heroine chose a vicious and rude man, not a devoted and loving one.
The author also wanted to show the personal life of his country, how close relationships between people develop in the era of rampant capitalism. Through the protagonist's drama we see how a man becomes just a producer material assets and the owner of all sorts of benefits. He is valued in monetary terms, so he is forced to pursue financial solvency without sparing himself. This is how his time passes. This is how Gatsby missed his happiness, thinking that he would still have time to earn money and appear as a king, but, alas, the flow of life is indifferent to people and their efforts. Success came to the man, but it did not help him turn back time.
Criticism
Roman received good reviews V printed publications, but, nevertheless, the book did not sell out as quickly as the writer would have liked. Critics of the time were also not particularly willing to speak at all about his work.
They responded positively to the novel famous writer Ernest Hemingway and Edith Wharton, who wrote more than 20 novels in her lifetime. Only since 1945 has Francis Fitzgerald's popularity increased. During the writer’s lifetime, reviewers were very biased towards his work and only after his death changed their point of view.
There is still no consensus on the importance, personality, or even genius of his novel. Each of the critics perceives and evaluates The Great Gatsby in their own way.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!From this review you will learn:
- Author and character - who wins whom?
- Who is he, Mr. Gatsby?
- The collapse of the American dream
- What lessons can be learned from this book?
Author and character - who wins?
The story of the rise and fall of a young millionaire, permeated with unbearable mental anguish, could only be written by an unhappy person. Francis Scott Fitzgerald was like that. Both of them - both the writer and his character - realized the American dream, caught luck by the tail and quickly became rich. Both lost everything because of love.Fitzgerald's novel This Side of Paradise brought the young one to no one famous writer resounding success and introduced golden talented youth into the world. Together with his wife Zelda, he plunged into bohemian life with drinking parties, crazy antics, hysterics and passionate reconciliations. Contemporaries watched with bated breath, what else would this outrageous couple do? And they were happy to try: they rode on the roof of a taxi, took off their clothes right in the middle of a performance in the theater, swam in fountains and drank and drank... But the test copper pipes Unfortunately, not everyone passes. After years of a merry life, the carriage turned into a pumpkin, the beautiful wife into a madwoman with a dull look, and Fitz himself into a drunken old man.
Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Since then, the writer’s life has gone downhill: he began to suffer a severe crisis, aggravated by endless binges. He died at 44 and in the end compared himself to a broken plate. A worthy end to life, nothing to say.
Who is he, Mr. Gatsby?
All the “alien and laughing rabble” who drank and ate at his luxurious parties saw him as “a well-dressed whip, in his early thirties.” Since Jay's past and present were surrounded by mystery (no one knew who he was, they only saw that he was fabulously rich), rumors swirled around his person like a swarm of annoying insects. And only two close people - friend Nick, on whose behalf the story is told, and little Daisy - he opened up with all his soul, as he is. James Getz was the son of poor farmers who never managed to get rich.“ Confusion constantly reigned in his soul. The most daring and absurd fantasies overcame him when he went to bed. Under the ticking of the clock on the washbasin, in the moonlight, which soaked the crumpled clothes on the floor with blue moisture, a dazzlingly bright world unfolded before him” .
Oh, this thirst for life, this premonition amazing fate, prepared only for you! An unhappy love for Daisy, a girl from a rich family who was predicted, of course, to have a completely different groom, added fuel to the fire. Love did not work out, and James promised himself to achieve wealth and fame at any cost.
Poster for the film "The Great Gatsby"
He has reached. Many years later he found Daisy, already being Jay Gatsby, eccentric millionaire. By that time, having successfully mourned the separation, she no less happily married a rich man, without violating family tradition. And, of course, according to the laws of the genre, they met. Gatsby's only desire was to throw everything at her feet - but she refused. I was scared. I chose a well-fed one quiet life with a familiar, albeit wandering, husband, rather than the love of her youth. And anyway, who is he? He probably made his millions dishonestly - that's what the neighbors say!
The ending of this story is tragic. Jay Gatsby was shot in his own swimming pool by the husband of his husband's mistress Daisy - such an unexpected twist. No one came to the funeral of this rich, but so lonely man. Daisy left and quickly forgot about him - she didn’t even send flowers to the funeral.
The collapse of the American dream
It would seem that Jay Gatsby, like no one else, made the Great American Dream come true. He made himself, got rich, became influential and successful. Yo baby, isn't this happiness, what more could you ask for? But, apparently, Jay Gatsby was some kind of wrong American: he did not need any wealth without the woman he loved. They didn't make him happy. Everything he strived for turned out to be dust, wind on the empty roads of life. This is the true tragedy of Gatsby. Another tenet of the American dream is equal opportunity to achieve success. Yes, a person from a poor family became rich and influential, but did he enter the narrow world of the elite? A true aristocrat by birthright, a rich man in the nth generation - Daisy's husband - treats people like Jay with contempt. So what kind of equality can we talk about?What lessons can be learned from this book?
1. Don't lose your head. Honestly, it’s hard to believe that a real successful businessman, who built his life himself and achieved dazzling heights, is so dependent on his beloved. No, we understand, love is evil and all that. But still, people at a certain age (and Jay Gatsby was over 30) begin to think not only with their hearts, but also with their heads. In this situation, the most prudent was, oddly enough, Daisy, who calculated the situation and came out of it with the least losses. 2. Don't lose hope. Why, then, is Gatsby called the Great? “ If you measure a personality by its ability to express itself, then there was truly something magnificent in this person, some kind of heightened sensitivity to all the promises of life... It was a rare gift of hope, a romantic passion that I have never met in anyone else and probably never will meet” , writes the author. Even after losing Daisy, Jay continued to hope - until the last, until the very minute when he was killed. I am sure that if he had survived, this hope would have lived in him for a long time and inspired him to further exploits in the name. 3. Understand people. Daisy, whom Gatsby idolized and considered wonderful person, a sensitive nature, turned out to be a beautiful dummy with feelings “at the bottom”. And in Nick, whom most of his guests considered something like furniture, he discovered a true friend - perhaps the only one who understood his nature. The Great, Great Gatsby. Have you read the book or watched the movie? Please like, repost and tell us about your impressions!Nick Carraway was from a wealthy and respectable family that lived in one of the towns in the Midwest. In 1915, he graduated from Yale University, then fought in Europe. Returning to his town after the war, he could not settle in it and went to New York to study the credit business. He settled in the suburbs and rented a house for eighty dollars a month. His second cousin Daisy, lives in the more convenient area of East Egge, she is married to the wealthy Tom Buchanan. Tom studied at Yale with Nick, and even then he did not like Tom's behavior. Tom cheated on his wife and did not consider it necessary to hide from Nick his relationship with Myrtle Wilson, whose husband owned a car repair station and gas station. Daisy, knowing about her husband’s infidelities, suffered; Nick thought that she needed to run away from him.
Guests gather at Nick's neighbor's villa in the evenings, and his car turns into a regular bus, transporting a huge number of people. And on Monday, eight servants and two gardeners spend the whole day cleaning the villa.
One day, Nick is sent an official invitation to the party of Gatsby, Nick's neighbor. Usually they did not wait for an invitation to him, but came on their own. There were rumors that Gatsby killed a man, others said that during the war he served the Germans, and some even said that he was the brother of the devil. Nick meets Gatsby by chance, they started talking, and it turned out that they served in the same regiment, and a little later it turned out that he was the owner of the house and his name was Gatsby. After several meetings, Gatsby asks Nick to provide him with a favor, which Jordan Baker will outline, Nick met her at his sister's. He was asked to invite Daisy to visit him, and Gatsby, supposedly visiting Nick on business, was able to see her. Jordan said that in the fall of 1917, Daisy and the still young Lieutenant Gatsby loved each other. He was sent to Europe, and she married Tom Buchanan. Before the wedding, Daisy gets drunk and throws a pearl necklace - a gift from the groom worth three hundred and fifty thousand dollars - into the trash. Holding a letter in one hand and a bottle of alcohol in the other, the girl asked not to marry her, but she was brought to her senses, put on a necklace and the wedding took place.
Gatsby and Daisy met, she saw his house. The partying stopped, Gatsby changed servants, and Daisy began to appear more often with him; he also met Tom, who was interested in knowing where he gets all the money from.
After lunch with Tom and Daisy, Nick, Jordan and Gatsby all go to New York to unwind and it becomes clear to everyone that Tom and Gatsby have entered into a duel for Daisy. Tom, Nick and Jordan are driving Gatsby's Rolls-Royce, and he and Desi are driving Tom's Ford. Tom stops by a gas station to see Wilson, and he tells him that he is going to leave with his wife forever, because he suspects that there is a love affair between her and Tom. Tom understands that he may be left without a wife and without a mistress. In New York, Gatsby told Tom that Daisy never loved him and doesn’t love him now, she was tired of waiting for everything to work out for him and for him to have money. In response, Tom names Gatsby's source of income - huge smuggling. Daisy is shocked by what she heard and wants to stay with Tom. Tom realizes that he has won and tells his wife to go with her in Gatsby's car, and everyone else follows them in the Ford. Arriving at a gas station, they saw a crowd of people and Myrtle, who had been knocked down, her husband locked her at home, and she saw Tom and Jordan from the window, mistaking her for Daisy. As they drove back, Myrtle freed herself and ran to the car. There were practically no witnesses to the collision; as it turned out, Daisy was driving the car. Until the morning, Gatsby sat under Daisy's windows in order to help her in difficult times. Looking out the window, Nick saw the spouses sitting next to them and they were one, but he did not want to take away Gatsby’s hope.
At four in the morning, Nick heard the sound of a car approaching. It was Gatsby who arrived in a taxi, Nick didn’t want to leave him alone, and Gatsby wanted to talk about Daisy. This morning he learned from Gatsby his love story.
Gatsby's real name is James Getz. He changed his name at age seventeen after he first saw Dan Cody's yacht and warned him that a storm was coming. The boy's parents were farmers. He himself invented Jay Gatsby and remained true to his invention. Gatsby knew women early and was spoiled by them, then he began to despise them. He wanted to believe that the world was under the protection of the fairy, and she was reliably protecting him. When he looked at the high sides of Cody's yacht, it seemed to him that it embodied everything that was beautiful in the world. Dan Cody got rich on silver, which was mined in the mines of Nevada, then he made transactions with oil. Cody took the young man on a yacht, at first he worked as a steward, then as a chief mate, as a captain, they sailed for five years, but then Dan died. Dan left him an inheritance - twenty-five thousand dollars, but he was unable to receive it due to legal problems. But Gatsby had the experience that Dan gave him. Daisy was the first girl from the society and at the first meeting, it seemed to him that he needed her. He began to often visit her house in the company of officers. Then he began to appear himself. He had nothing but a military uniform, which he considered his cloak of invisibility; take this cloak off him and he would remain only a young man of unknown origin. Military career he was successful, at the end of the war he had already risen to the rank of major and wanted to go home, but due to some misunderstanding he ended up in Oxford, and he had the opportunity to study there for free. Desi sent him a letter in which she wrote that she already wanted to arrange her life, and she no longer had the strength to wait for Gatsby, and then Tom appeared in her life. Gatsby received this letter while studying at Oxford.
After the conversation, they say goodbye and Nick, leaving, shouted to him that everyone around him is insignificant.
Distraught with grief, Wilson came to him in order to find out whose car ran over his wife. From Tom he learns that the car belongs to Gatsby. He comes to Gatsby, kills him, and then shoots himself. At Gatsby's funeral, Nick, Gatsby's father and one of the many guests who came in droves to his parties, was present. Nick called Daisy, but was told that the family had left and did not leave an address. Tom and Daisy were careless, why they were still together was known only to themselves, they broke and destroyed everything on their way, and someone else had to clean up after them.
Please note that this is only summary literary work"The Great Gatsby". Many things are missing from this summary. important points and quotes.
The novel "The Great Gatsby" was written in 1925. This is the year of industrialization, the development of various technologies and discoveries in the scientific field. On our website you can read a summary of “The Great Gatsby” for reader's diary. This is a difficult period when people expected new war and were in a “suspended” state.
Main characters of the novel
The main character of the work is Jay Gatsby. Or the narrator himself, Nick Carraway, who personally knows Gatsby and leads the story about him. Gatsby is a rich man of 30 years old. Almost nothing is known about his occupation, but they say that he took part in the war and killed a man there.
Gatsby himself is quite secretive, sometimes he doesn’t even show up at his own parties. This is a persistent and purposeful person, noble and romantic. And he also has cherished dream: That someday he will talk to Daisy Buchanan, the girl with whom he has long been in love.
She is 23 years old and comes from a rich family, and she also has a husband who is cheating on her...
Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby" abridged
Frances Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby" summary for the reader's diary:
The action of the work takes place in the 20s of the 20th century, during the era of jazz and the prohibition of alcohol. However, this did not stop smugglers from transporting liters of alcohol into the country.
Nick comes to visit his relative Daisy. He meets Gatsby. And after a friendly conversation with him, he decides to help him - he brings Daisy to Gatsby’s estate, where they talk, and the man confesses his love to her.
Daisy reciprocates the hero's feelings, but her husband says unpleasant things about Gatsby that make her doubt her decision to divorce her husband. On the way, she accidentally hits a girl with a car - her husband's mistress; Gatsby takes the blow upon himself, lying that he was driving.
The girl's enraged husband kills Gatsby. But this happens after Daisy’s betrayal - after all, after the incident, she simply runs away with her husband, without even leaving any message to Gatsby.
Conclusion:
The way Gatsby's dream was conveyed - that green light on the opposite side of the lake, towards which the man's hand was reaching out... this is a very beautiful metaphor, very touching and piercing. And that’s an interesting thought - the real Daisy didn’t even always live up to the image created in Gatsby’s head.
After all, this is a fairly common problem when we fall in love with an image in our head, strive for it, and when we get it, we experience some disappointment and displeasure. But Gatsby was not disappointed, he saw an ideal in her, but she turned out to be superficial, even inhuman. Sad story. And Gatsby was truly great in his own way.
Read also: Remarque worked on writing the novel “Three Comrades” for four years and completed it in 1936. For a reading diary, we recommend reading chapter by chapter. At first it was small piece entitled “Pat”, which after a while was transformed into a full-fledged book about love, the setting for which was post-war Germany.
A short retelling of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
"The Great Gatsby" Fitzgerald summary:
The novel takes place in the early 20s of the 20th century in America.
Nick Carraway, on whose behalf the story is told, settles in a small house in West Egg on Long Island. One day he visits his second cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, who live on the other side, in East Egg. There he meets golfer Jordan Baker.
Tom is an arrogant man with racist views, unfaithful to his wife and has a mistress named Myrtle - the wife of a car repair shop owner in New York - with whom he later introduces Nick. Daisy knows about her husband's infidelity, but tries not to pay attention to it. Daisy herself is a charming, but not very smart woman.
Next to Nick Carraway's house there is a huge estate of the famous rich man Gatsby. On Saturdays, this estate hosts parties where anyone can come. Nick receives an invitation to such a party (as it turns out, he was the only guest with an invitation), meets Jordan Baker there and meets the owner of the villa, Mr. Gatsby.
Gatsby is a man of about thirty, with excellent manners, and is nouveau riche. He is an Oxford graduate, a war veteran who rose from the very bottom of society to his position through his own efforts, but not everyone believes in these facts. Gatsby's personality is considered mysterious.
For some reason, Gatsby especially welcomes Nick and makes friends with him. He talks about himself, which seems strange to Nick. Indeed, everything turned out to be for a reason.
Jordan Baker, at Gatsby's request, tells Nick the whole truth: as a soldier, Gatsby ended up in Daisy's house, and they fell madly in love with each other. They wanted to have a wedding, but Gatsby had to go to the front, and the relationship between the lovers was interrupted for a long time. Daisy, deciding that Gatsby was dead, became engaged to Tom, but on the wedding day she received a letter from Gatsby. She failed to upset the wedding. The Buchanans have healed family life, they had a daughter.
Having found out where Daisy lived, Gatsby built his villa opposite. He held parties - in the hope that one day Daisy would come to them. And now, having met Nick, he asks to arrange a meeting for them.
The meeting took place, Gatsby and Daisy fell in love with each other again, and both were incredibly happy. During an explanation at the Plaza Hotel, Tom learns about the lovers and a scandal ensues. It is decided to go back home: Nick, Jordan and Tom are going in one car, Gatsby and Daisy are in another.
At this time, Myrtle, having quarreled with her husband, runs out onto the road, and the car in which Gatsby and Daisy were traveling hits her and disappears. Suspicion falls on Gatsby. Nick meets Gatsby in the Buchanan garden and realizes that Daisy was driving. Upset by his wife's death, Myrtle's husband finds Gatsby and kills him, and then shoots himself.
In addition to Nick, his father comes to Jay Gatsby's funeral. One of the guests is late. There is no one else: the Buchanans drove away, Daisy didn’t even come. This upsets Nick. Gatsby's villa is empty.
A few years later, Nick meets Tom, but their meeting is cold. Nick Carraway remembers Gatsby and realizes that there will never be another person like him in his life.
The novel teaches us loyalty and devotion; he teaches us to love and be ready to do anything for the sake of love; he teaches us honor and friendship.
This is interesting: The novel “An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser was first published in 1925. The plot is based on the murder of his girlfriend Grace Brown in 1906 by C. Gillette and a similar case with C. Harris. To prepare for a literature lesson, we recommend reading for a reading diary.
Contents of the tragedy "The Great Gatsby" with quotes
« If you measure a personality by its ability to express itself, then there was something truly magnificent in Gatsby, some kind of heightened sensitivity to all the promises of life... It was a rare gift of hope, a romantic passion that I have never seen in anyone else».
Nick Carraway belongs to a respectable, wealthy family in one of the small towns of the Midwest. He graduated from Yale in 1915, then fought in Europe; returning to his hometown after the war, “ couldn't find a place for myself"and in 1922 he moved east to New York to study credit business.
He settled in the suburbs: on the outskirts of Long Island Sound, two completely identical capes jut into the water, separated by a narrow cove: East Egg and West Egg; in West Egg, between two luxurious villas, nestled a house that he rented for eighty dollars a month. His second cousin Daisy lives in more fashionable East Egg. She is married to Tom Buchanan. Tom is fabulously rich, he studied at Yale at the same time as Nick, and even then Nick was very unsympathetic to his aggressively flawed behavior.
Tom started cheating on his wife on their honeymoon; and now he does not consider it necessary to hide from Nick his connection with Myrtle Wilson, the wife of the owner of a gas station and car repair, which is located halfway between West Egg and New York, where the highway runs almost right up to railway and runs next to her for a quarter of a mile. Daisy also knows about her husband’s infidelities, it torments her; From his first visit to them, Nick was left with the impression that Daisy needed to run away from this house immediately.
On summer evenings there is music at neighbor Nick's villa; on weekends his Rolls-Royce turns into a shuttle bus to New York, carrying huge quantities guests, and a multi-seat Ford shuttles between the villa and the station. On Mondays, eight servants and a specially hired second gardener spend the day removing signs of destruction.
Soon Nick receives an official invitation to Mr. Gatsby's party and turns out to be one of the very few invited: they didn't expect an invitation, they just came there. No one in the crowd of guests knows the owner closely; not everyone knows him by sight.
His mysterious, romantic figure arouses keen interest - and speculation multiplies in the crowd: some claim that Gatsby killed a man, others that he is a bootlegger, von Hindenburg's nephew and second cousin of the devil, and during the war he was a German spy. They also say that he studied at Oxford.
In the crowd of his guests he is lonely, sober and reserved. The society that enjoyed Gatsby's hospitality paid him by not knowing anything about him. Nick meets Gatsby almost by accident: after talking with some man - they turned out to be fellow soldiers - he noticed that he was somewhat embarrassed by the position of a guest who was unfamiliar with the owner, and received in response: “ So it's me - Gatsby».
After several meetings, Gatsby asks Nick for a favor. Embarrassed, he walks around for a long time, presenting a medal from Montenegro, which he was awarded in the war, and his Oxford photograph as proof of his respectability; Finally, in a very childish way, he says that Jordan Baker will present his request - Nick met her at Gatsby’s, and met her at the house of his sister Daisy: Jordan was her friend.
The request was simple - to invite Daisy to his place for tea one day, so that, supposedly by chance, as a neighbor, Gatsby could see her, Jordan said that in the fall of 1917 in Louisville, she and Daisy hometown, Daisy and Gatsby, then a young lieutenant, loved each other, but were forced to part; he was sent to Europe, and a year and a half later she married Tom Buchanan.
But before the wedding dinner, having thrown into the trash the groom's gift - a pearl necklace worth three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Daisy got drunk like a cobbler, and, clutching a letter in one hand and a bottle of Sauternes in the other, begged her friend to refuse on her behalf to the groom. However, they put her in a cold bath, gave her ammonia to smell, put a necklace around her neck, and she “ got married like a sweetheart».
The meeting took place; Daisy saw his house (this was very important for Gatsby); the festivities at the villa stopped, and Gatsby replaced all the servants with others “who know how to remain silent,” because Daisy began to visit him often. Gatsby also met Tom, who showed an active rejection of him, his house, his guests and became interested in the source of his income, which was probably dubious.
One day, after lunch at Tom and Daisy's, Nick, Jordan and Gatsby and their owners go to have fun in New York. Everyone understands that Tom and Gatsby entered into a decisive battle for Daisy. At the same time, Tom, Nick and Jordan are driving in Gatsby’s cream-colored Rolls-Royce, and he and Daisy are in Tom’s dark blue Ford.
Halfway there, Tom stops by to get gas at Wilson's - he announces that he intends to leave forever and take his wife away: he suspected something was wrong, but does not connect her betrayal with Tom. Tom becomes frantic when he realizes that he could lose both his wife and his mistress at the same time.
In New York, the explanation took place: Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy does not love him and never loved him, he was just poor and she was tired of waiting; in response to this, Tom exposes the source of his income, which is truly illegal: bootlegging on a very large scale. Daisy is shocked; she is inclined to stay with Tom. Realizing that he has won, on the way back Tom tells his wife to go in the cream car with Gatsby; the others follow her in a lagging dark blue Ford.
Arriving at a gas station, they see a crowd and the body of Myrtle who was hit. From the window she saw Tom with Jordan, whom she took for Daisy, in a large cream car, but her husband locked it and she could not come; when the car returned, Myrtle, freed from the lock, rushed towards it. Everything happened very quickly, there were practically no witnesses, the car didn’t even slow down. From Gatsby, Nick learned that Daisy was driving.
Until the morning, Gatsby stayed under her windows so that he would be nearby if she suddenly needed her. Nick looked out the window - Tom and Daisy were sitting together, like something united - spouses or, perhaps, accomplices; but he did not have the courage to take away Gatsby’s last hope.
Only at four in the morning did Nick hear a taxi drive up with Gatsby. Nick didn't want to leave him alone, and since that morning Gatsby wanted to talk about Daisy, and only about Daisy, it was then that Nick found out strange story his youth and his love.
James Getz was his real name. He changed it at the age of seventeen, when he saw Dan Cody's yacht and warned Dan about the beginning of a storm. His parents were simple farmers - in his dreams he never recognized them as his parents.
He invented Jay Gatsby for himself in full accordance with the tastes and concepts of a seventeen-year-old boy and remained faithful to this invention until the very end. He recognized women early and, spoiled by them, learned to despise them. Confusion constantly reigned in his soul; he believed in the unreality of the real, in the fact that the world rests firmly and reliably on the wings of a fairy.
When he stood up on the oars and looked up at the white hull of Cody's yacht, it seemed to him that it embodied everything beautiful and amazing that there is in the world. Dan Cody, a millionaire who made his fortune in Nevada silver mines and Montana oil operations, took him on a yacht - first as a steward, then he became chief mate, captain, secretary; for five years they sailed around the continent; then Dan died.
Of the twenty-five thousand dollar inheritance that Dan left him, he did not receive a single cent, without ever understanding due to what legal intricacies. And he was left with what the peculiar experience of these five years had given him: Jay Gatsby’s abstract scheme took on flesh and blood and became a man. Daisy was the first sorority girl" on his way.
From the first time she seemed dizzyingly desirable to him. He began to visit her house - first in the company of other officers, then alone. He had never seen such a beautiful house, but he well understood that he did not come to this house by right. The military uniform that served him as an invisibility cloak could fall off his shoulders at any moment, and underneath it he was just a young man without family or tribe and without a penny in his pocket.
And so he tried not to waste time. He probably expected to take what he could and leave, but it turned out that he doomed himself to eternal service to the shrine. She disappeared into her rich home, into her rich life filled to the brim, and he was left with nothing - except for the strange feeling that they were now husband and wife. With stunning clarity, Gatsby comprehended the secret of youth in captivity and under the protection of wealth...
His military career was successful: at the end of the war he was already a major. He was eager to go home, but due to a misunderstanding he ended up in Oxford - anyone from the armies of the victorious countries could take a course for free at any university in Europe.
Daisy's letters showed nervousness and melancholy; she was young; she wanted to arrange her life now, today; she needed to make a decision, and for it to come, some kind of force was required - love, money, undeniable benefit; Tom arose. Gatsby received the letter while still at Oxford.
Saying goodbye to Gatsby that morning, Nick, already walking away, shouted: “ Nonentity upon insignificance, that's who they are! You alone are worth them all combined! How glad he was later that he had said these words!
Not hoping for justice, the distraught Wilson came to Tom, found out from him who owned the car, and killed Gatsby, and then himself.
Three people attended the funeral: Nick, Mr. Getz - Gatsby's father, and only one of the many guests, although Nick called all the regulars at Gatsby's parties. When he called Daisy, he was told that she and Tom had left and had not left an address.
They were careless creatures, Tom and Daisy, they broke things and people, and then ran away and hid behind their money, their all-consuming carelessness, or whatever else their union was based on, leaving others to clean up after them.
