1. The Author

Francis Scott Fitzgerald is the author of “The Great Gatsby”. He was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1896, and educated at Princeton. Francis dropped out of school in 1917 to join the military before he completed his degree. Against his will he was sent to Alabama instead of Europe. In Alabama he met Zelda Sayre, which he married later. She was from a “higher” family, which were wealthier than his were. He gave out his first novel in 1920 which was called “This side of Paradise”, and it was a grate success. He continued writing some short stories, “The Beautiful and the Damned” in 1922, ”The Great Gatsby” in 1925, ”Tender is the Night” in 1934, and he never finished “The Last Tycoon” because he died. Francis represented the time he lived in, the jazz Age. His success led to a wealthy Way of living and a need for much money. He became an alcoholic, and after a while his wife, Zelda, got a nervous breakdown. His success also probably led to his physical collapse, which he describes frankly in the long essay “The Crack- Up”, in 1936.

2. The American Dream

The concept of “the American Dream” is that every person starts with the same opportunities and advantages. You are responsible for your own future. The American dream is then to manage to start with nothing and then become rich. James Gatz did that. He began with nothing and ended up as an extremely wealthy person. “The American Dream” concept started when the Declaration of Independence 1776 came: “…all men are created equal…certain unalienable righs..life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness».

3. Summary

This story, which is a jazz age representative, is about Jay Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, and his love to Daisy. This story is told two years after it happened and Nick becomes an observer and he is intrigued at what he sees. This story is for the most based at a place called East- and West Egg. Jay Gatsby moves to the place called West-egg. He becomes a neighbour with Nick Carraway, who is Daisy’s cousin. Gatsby and Daisy had an affair for about five years ago and Gatsby is now back to win her hart. Gatsby is a very wealthy person so he arranges some big parties to see if she comes, but she doesn’t. We hear a lot of gossip about Gatsby’s past. For instance that Then Nick arranged a meeting for Gatsby and Daisy at his home. After that they met more and more frequently. They got in love again. Since Daisy was married to an other wealthy man, who is named Tom Buchanan, they got to keep it in secret. But some day it had to come out, and it did. One hot day when they were in the city Jay tells Tom everything. Tom doesn’t take it so hard because he has a mistress witch Daisy doesn’t know about. When they drove home from the city Daisy run over a woman, who dies immediately. This woman seemed to be Tom’s sweetheart, so now didn’t Tom have anyone. He had to get Daisy back so Tom said to the killed woman’s husband that it was Gatsby who ran over his woman. The man wanted revenge, and he shot Jay Gatsby the next day. Tom indirectly becomes Gatsby’s murder. It was only Nick and Gatz, Jay’s father, who were it Jay’s funeral. Nick leaves West-Egg, and back to the Midwest.

4. The main characters

Jay Gatsby real name was James Gatz. He changed it at the age of 17. We hear a whole lot of stories of his past, lots of them are not true. Even Mr. Gatsby told some incorrect histories. For instance he said to Nick that he was a son of some wealthy people who lived in San Francisco, but they were dead now. The truth was that he was the son of some unsuccessful farm people. He did not accept them as his own parents at all. Therefore he changed his name to forget his past. Then he began to fish and other things that helped him to survive. When he had done that for a year he got a job at a yacht. He jobbed there for five years and he earned twenty-five thousand dollars. He is a mysterious man with good looks. I think he is mysterious because he does not tell us exact where he gets his money now. A short while before he joined the army he met Daisy. They dated for a month, and they were in love. Now he has a huge mansion with forty acres of lawn and garden. He has a hydroplane, a big beautiful yellow car and he had lots of parties all the time. Daisy Fay is married to Tom Buchanan. She met Jay Gatsby on October day in 1917. But Jay went to the war, and he was away from her for a long time, five years, and she was an attractive woman, so she married Tom. One of the reasons she married Tom was because he was rich, extremely rich. An example is the day before wedding; he gave her a string of pearls worth three hounded and fifty thousands dollars. We get to know her personality very little, but we’ll notice that she has no decency, because she does not think about sending some flowers to Gatsby’s funeral.

5. Attention

The author’s attention with this novel is to show us how people can be liked and get friends only because of their money. Francis shows us that the poor man, Mr. Wilson, who is a decent and honest man, is the only man who is watched by good. A symbol of that is a big placate with a man who has spectacles. He shows us that “everyone” likes Mr. Gatsby when he is alive and they can get something from him. Such as money, parties, a place to stay and more. But the only friend of Gatsby who came in his funeral was Nick Carraway. He also shows us the life of the rich people at the early time of this century behaved. The only worries they had were the temperature in the day and if the person they were married to would find about their lover.