1. THE GREAT GATSBY BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD LITERARY ANALYSIS

2. SOCIAL COMMENTARY Although it may not have been its original intention (then again maybe it was), The Great Gatsby is a critical commentary on society in the America (New York) especially in the early 1920s. It includes a number of potential themes: the new skewed American Dream, money, power, greed, socio-economic critique, types of wealth, morality, honesty, etc. Modernist imagery abounds through the lifestyles (the Egg- ers), the settings (the Eggs, Manhattan, Valley of Ashes), and the actions of just about every character (dishonesty, drinking, infidelity, racism, sexism, elitism, carelessness, corruption)

3. CHARACTER SKETCH Seemingly each character represents something a little different Gatsby—singular, innocent of purpose, but morally ambiguous, blindly ambitious Tom—moral corruption, social bully, landed wealth, carelessness Daisy—weakness, selfishness, morally ambiguous, carelessness, flawed Jordan—selfishness, morally ambiguous, careless, carefree, flawed

4. CHARACTER TRAITS Literally every character contains flaws, some are greater or more egregious and exampled more than others. Tom and Daisy, George and Myrtle, Nick, Jordan, Meyer Wolfsheim, Catherine, Owl Eyes, West Eggers, East Eggers all represent a different segment of society, and Fitzgerald seems to be equally critical of each at different time and place. “They smash things up things…and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess…”