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This is a 4 page paper that provides an overview of "The Great Gatsby". The greatness of Jay Gatsby is explored in existential terms. Bibliography lists 1 source.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KW60_KFlit057.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
characters: Jay Gatsby is great. This, however, supposes an obvious question for the reader: why is he great? Certainly, many young, modern readers of the novel tend to struggle with
this conception of Gatsby as a "great" man, because he lacks the traditional hallmarks of greatness that are ingrained in 21st century consciousness. While he amasses wealth, he does not
utilize this wealth for any kind of lasting social achievement, he does not appear to have many true friends or to be particularly well-liked, he dies in a senseless and
confused manner rather than a heroic one, and even then, no one cares to attend his funeral. However, this disparity in conceptions of "great" does not necessarily mean that Gatsby
is not great. Plainly, Fitzgeralds conception of greatness is situated in other values that may be less apparent to a young 21st century reader. Chief among these values is
the emerging notion of existentialism. Fitzgerald wrote his novel in the days after the end of World War I, when the youth of American had just experienced the horrors of
fighting in war, as well as the profound disillusionment associated with returning to a life of material abundance and extreme moralism in the United States, and struggling to find worth
in either of them. For this "Lost Generation", as they are commonly called, the American Dream had been grossly divested of value; they had a prescient view that the acquisition
of material wealth was ultimately hollow because of the looming reality of death that awaits everyone, and that the social morals put forth by American "high society" were not particular
important in comparison to the matters of life and death which they had dealt with overseas. This is the value system in which Fitzgerald rightly labels Jay Gatsby a "great"
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