THE GREAT GATSBY, F Scott Fitzgerald

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THE GREAT GATSBY, F Scott Fitzgerald

NARRATIVE VOICE (VIEWPOINT)

A first person narrator (Nick Carraway)
As readers we receive all our impressions via Nick’s limited viewpoint
This technique lends unity and simplicity to the novel
Nick is involved in the action of the novel; hence, we see him at parties, in cars, at lunch with Gatsby and Wolfsheim, carrying Gatsby’s dead body, and so on. In such cases, we are left to draw our own conclusions about the characters, their moral attitudes etc.
Nick is a good listener and observer, but "inclined to reserve all judgements about people". For example, he enters the Buchanans’ social circle and apparently fails to recognise their utter selfishness and lack of morality. Similarly, he forms a relationship with the dishonest, "hard, limited person" of Jordan Baker. It is only after Myrtle’s death that Nick realises how self-serving and "careless" they all are. His response is to return to the more communal, caring Mid-west of his childhood. The immorality and venality of the East have left him wanting "the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever".

Nick’s story is quite straightforward and revealed in a chronological order
Gatsby’s personal history, however, is revealed through flashbacks. This gradual uncovering of his past increases the sense of mystery surrounding Gatsby.

Chp.3: A German spy, a US soldier, an Oxford graduate?

Chp.4: Gatsby/Daisy (Oct. 1917); Daisy marries Tom B. (June 1919),

though she hesitates when she receives a letter from Gatsby on

the eve of her marriage.

Chp.6: At 17 years old, a penniless James Gatz re-invented

himself as Jay Gatsby; clam-digger, salmon fisher etc. along Lake

Superior but full of "vast, vulgar and meretricious" dreams; served

millionaire yachtsman Dan Cody for 5 years and was cheated out of

an inheritance.

Chp.8: Gatsby tells Nick about his initial desire for Daisy,

increased by his awareness of her wealthy background ("gleaming

like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor"); he

used his officer status to conceal his own poverty; after having

sexual intercourse with her, he found "he had committed himself to

the following of a grail". After the Armistice Gatsby was sent to Oxford

by mistake, thus delaying his return to Daisy.

Chp.9: Wolfsheim recalls meeting Gatsby as a major, decorated

with many medals but penniless and hungry. Wolsheim "raised him

up from nothing"; he "made him". Gatsby’s father reveals his son’s

boyhood list of "resolves" and a daily schedule including elocution,

"poise", study and exercise.

Fitzgerald uses action in all the key scenes (e.g. Myrtle’s NY apartment; Gatsby’s parties; the Plaza Hotel room argument; the death of Myrtle; the murder of Gatsby). This gives the novel a dramatic flavour.
Scenes are carefully selected and often juxtaposed against each other for effect (e.g. Myrtle’s party is followed immediately by a description of Gatsby’s parties; Wolfsheim’s account of how he initiated the penniless Gatsby into racketeering is followed immediately by the youthful Gatsby’s earnest list of "resolves"). No space is wasted telling us about Nick’s job, about Jordan Baker, about the details of Gatsby’s business dealings, about the details of Daisy and Gatsby’s summer affair.