1)- Nick is one of the main characters in the great gatsby and the narrator throughout the text. Along with some other characters nick changes quite a lot, in a way he was never directly affected by any major incidences but he was always on the sideline, he saw every thing that happened and i think nick did change a lot and became a lot wiser in the end. He also saw how fake and sad the rich people are and by seeing through the illusion that if you have money, you’re happy. Nick starts of by saying he is not a judgemental person but as the book progresses he becomes extremely judgemental of the upper class, and i think that’s because he has seen the true world of an upper class citizen and that they are not any better than the others, if anything they are worse. I feel like the eyes on TJ Eclburch are they eyes of god, and the eyes of all upper class and lower class people, they constantly watch the poorer people, judging them but never judge the upper class, richer people because of this theory that if you’re rich then you can do no wrong, but nick changes to the fact that this is not true.
Daisy changes in an unusual way. Fitzgerald builds her character with such susencent that the reader wants Daisy to be an extravagant, exciting character to match Gatsby and at the start Fitzgerald portrays this And enforcing it by describing gatsby by being an exciting character. As the book progresses Daisy doesn’t change as such, but the way fitzgerald plays with daisy’s character it changes the Idea of Daisy, her person doesn’t change but she is slowly revealed to being this boring character which contrasts with Gatsby’s character.
I think Gatsby changed allot as a character. He started off with this huge dream, The American Dream, that him and daisy were going to live together but as we progress through the book he slowly comes to the realisation that it is only a dream, and it breaks him as he realizes that nothing what he thought was true.
” ‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay, You always have a green light that burns at the end of your dock.’ ”
This quote is a perfect representation of Gatsbys situation, it is talking about just before Gatsby has realised that he won’t end up with Daisy. The green light represents the hope that Gatsby has for him and Daisy and as Gatsby thinks he’s getting closer to it, he’s getting further and further away. I think Gatsby changes in a different way to the other, nick and daisy change to new people, were as Gatsby changes in a way that breaks his persona and reveals his true self.
2) The book is based on illusion and these three characters reinforce this idea.
Gatsby’s illusion is probably the biggest and most relevant in the book, when Gatsby first come the west egg he had huge hopes to be with daisy, he is extremely rich and has a persona of being happy and extravagant, but this is one illusion of Gatsby, although he is rich, he made his money illegally and he is happy due to materialistic objects. That is the illusion Fitzgerald paints but the biggest or most relevant illusion is the one that fool Gatsby himself, he has spent the last 5 years of his life planning and preparing for getting back with daisy and when he gets close to her the green screen starts to unravel and Gatsby starts to break as he realizes his whole life is based on fake material and false conclusions.
Daisy- Daisy illusion represents the hallucination that all rich, upper class citizens are happy and have a good life, this turns out to be exactly the opposite in Daisy situation, at the start of the book Fitzgerald portrays her to have a happy life with Gatsby, then fall in love with Tom but this inst true as when she marries Tom she becomes empty and unhappy with out realizing her mistake. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as having such extravagant characteristics which makes the reader expect to reflect into Daisy, but this is an illusion as Daisy turns our to be a boring flat character that falls dramatically flat in comparison to Gatsby.
Nick and daisy-Nick’s illusion is displayed by Fitzgerald in an unusual way, nick is a strong character but Fitzgerald uses him to express that the rich upper class like Daisy although they seem happy and to have a perfect life, in fact they are exactly the opposite, their happiness is based on material and not true happiness, they marry each other for their means and this results in having a lack of true happiness.
3)An important relationship that displayed illusion was the one between Gatsby and Daisy. When they first met they were happy and full, but as time passed this faded away. Gatsby then acted as though he could turn back time, and go back to the past when he was with Daisy but this was all an illusion that Gatsby son realized as he spent time with daisy. He though he was getting closer to her but in reality he was still far away from her.
another important relationship was the one between Daisy and tom, this represent the upper class and how they are all ways happy and if you have money your life will be good but this was all proved wrong through Tome and Daisies relationship as tom has an affair with Murrtle. Their relationship was based one materialistic things which proved to be lacking of true meaning.
One other relationship in the text was Nicks with Gatsby. Nick started out being considerate and accepting of every one, but when he sees the true life of the upper class and what little meaning it has he changes, and this is because of Gatsby antics with Daisy and Tom. Nicks sense of cohesion was broken when he was shown the real life and it broke his character and his morels because of this.
SETTING)
Gatsbys house- gatsbys house is extremely large, extravagant and sticks out above the rest. His house represent him self and his ego as he separates himself from every one else.
east egg represents old money. Rich people live there with money they did earn but got given to them through their families. All the people who live in east egg are rich and think they are better than every one else, they constantly judge every one outside their economical class and east egg shows this through their houses as they are huge and expensive and described as “…palaces…”
West egg is an where the average working class citizens live, nick lives there next to gatsby and the houses their reflect the people, the houses are of average size apart from Gatsby whos is a huge palace.
the hotel is the scandle setting where tom and myrtle have their affair. The hotel represent the fake relationship that tom and myrtle pretend to have and how the hotel isnt their real home, The hotel reflects illusion that the rich have happy and full lives but in reality this isnt true.
symbols-
the green light is an extremely meaningful symbol that is based around Gatsby. It represent the hope, the life that Gatsby and daisy can have and Gatsby is always chasing the green light, it is constantly mentioned through out the book, the green light shines at the end of daisy dock, which represent how Gatsby want to get to the green light, he wants daisy but is stopped by the bay which represent the past.
Water- water separates Gatsby from daisy as it represents the past 5 years, Gatsby tries to forget about it but this isnt true. When Gatsby talks about the green light he says his just across the bay, just out of reach but in reality is is further away than Gatsby thinks and he soon realizes how much water is in between them, and how far away they actually are. When ever gatsby and daisy are together it is raining as a way to remind them that they are still far away, and it also represent that it is adding to the past and is pushing them apart.
White-the color white represent daisys personality, Gatsby is such an extravagant and exciting character, and Fitzgerald portray this well, and this tricks the reader into assuming that daisy must or should be just as exciting but daisy slowly gets painted as a blank canvas as the book progresses. daisy is constantly displayed as a white object or having white things, and this could make the reader think of innocence, but through her dull actions it is clear that white represent being blank, and it breaks Gatsby as he realizes this when she wont be with him because its unheard of in her social class.
ILLUSION- illusion is a huge idea portrayed in Gatsby and it represent a lot of things in the book. One serious point of illusion that Fitzgerald exposes is social injustice of the social classes. Fitzgerald targets the idea that if your rich your happy, the thought that when you get money you have succeeded in life is completely destroyed by showing characters of the high social class for what they really are, and how they become materialistic as people and get their pleasure through objects as they lack true happiness.
I think illusion is relevant today but in a different way than past and it has an altered meaning in adulthood. Illusion today is shown by extremely petty meaning, the illusion is that if you keep up with the trends and watch the right videos, or play the right sports then you will be popular. Because of this, it is easy for someone to become popular or unpopular as trends get old and change all the time, and i think this is supported by how quickly teenagers become and stop being friends, trends have a huge effect on todays teenagers, and its through people believing the illusion, and this results in people becoming shallow as a person, and relying on trends to keep them popular. In adult hood i think this is still relivent, but the illusion is reinforcing different meaning, instead of having the fastest fidget spinner, its having the most expensive car, or buying the biggest boat, and because these trends, or ideas of illusion, dont change as fast in adult hood as they do in teenagers, adults dont jump to different thoughts, or different actions as fast as teenagers, but the illusion of being shallow and materialistic is still present because its been reinforced since they were young.
theme–
“Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”
Personification Paints a picture in the readers head how the city look, this is then reinforced by the metaphore comparing the houses to white heaps of sugar, Nick then describes the city through emotive language and through this excessive description is gives the city meaning to the reader of being unknown and powerful.
A strong Allusion that gave meaning to illusion was the allusion of TJ Eckleburgs eyes, and how they where Alluded to the eyes of god. This then gives meaning to the illusion that if your rich, in the upper class your life is a success and nothing bad can happy to you, as they eyes are looking over the vally of ashes, almost as if judging them, just like the upper class do. This shows that no one is watching what the upper class is doing where as the lower class always has some one above, watching all their actions and looking down on them.