The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis Essay Analysis

The Great Gatsby is a timeless classic written in 1925 by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book is set in 1922 during the roaring twenties, when many people defied Prohibition, indulged in new styles of dancing and dressing, and rejected many traditional moral standards. Fitzgerald’s characters often find themselves yearning for what they have lost. This includes Jay Gatsby, George Wilson, and Nick Carraway.

In the character of Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates the idea of a man who has reinvented himself through hard work and intense focus. Amassing the wealth and position necessary to pursue his love of Daisy, a girl Gatsby met during the Armistice to win her back from her current husband, Tom. Gatsby was born “James Gatz,” the son of poor farmers in North Dakota. However, he was deeply ambitious and determined to be successful. He changed his name to “Jay Gatsby” and learned the manners of the rich on the yacht of Dan Cody, a wealthy man he saved from a destructive storm and ended up being employed by.

Daisy fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him. However, she harbors a deep need to be loved. When a wealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asks her to marry him, Daisy decides not to wait for Gatsby. The night before the wedding, Daisy drank and refused to marry Tom. “Take ’em downstairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mind!'” (The Great Gatsby, 77).

Though Daisy’s mother and bride’s maid cleaned her up, she married him the next day. George Wilson is a gas station and garage owner living in the ‘valley of ashes’ between Eggs and New York City. Wilson’s wife, Myrtle, is engaged in an affair with Tom Buchanan. After Tom finds out his wife and mistress “were slipping precipitately from his control,” he confronts Gatsby and Daisy in New York.

The confrontation made Daisy extremely nervous, and she thought driving would calm her. While driving, Daisy hit Myrtle Wilson and killed her on impact. Wilson’s deep anger over his wife’s death left him a mess. He found out the car’s owner by harassing many garage owners and the Buchanans into telling him. While Gatsby used his pool for the first time that summer, Wilson murdered him and then committed suicide with the same gun.

Wilson’s great need to avenge his loss led him on a destructive path. The novel’s narrator, Nick, is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets.