Great Gatsby Critics

• Ramos- Tom


  By attempting to maintain his way of life, Tom has reduced whole people to ashes without any thought of consequences

  
• Gunn- wonder and idealism


  Gatsby's sense of wonder and idealism is a "tragedy"

  
• Lindberg- American dream

  the American Dream is used by Fitzgerald as a means of social criticism

  
• Lindberg- Fitzgerald


  Fitzgerald immortalised the glamorous atmosphere and wild parties of the upper social classes

  
• Trilling- Gatsby


  Gatsby comes inevitably to stand for America itself

  
• Fetterley- Daisy

  he who possesses Daisy Fay is the most powerful boy

  
• Posnock- Consumerism


  People in Gatsby's society are obsessed with material wealth and treat eachother as objects

  
• Lindberg- Tom

  Tom is 'a contradictory force to Gatsby's hard-earned money, the opposite of the self-made man

  
• failure of dream


  Bewley - theme is 'the withering of the American dream
• american potential / dream

  Maxwell Perkins - American 'land of freedom and opportunity
• Gatsby as arrogant and immoral

  Dyson - Gatsby's 'self-centeredness masquerading as heroic vision
• Gatsby as untainted and pure


  Mizener - 'the incorruptibility at the heart of Gatsby's corruption
• CAPITALISM/ AMERICAN DREAM: Decadent downside

  Sarah Churchwell sees Gatsby as a "cautionary tale of the decadent downside of the American dream."
• CAPITALISM/ POWER/ STATUS/ CORRUPTION: money causes chaos in GG

  Posnock: 'moral, emotional, and spiritual chaos unleashed by money is at the centre of the GG
• WOMEN/ MEN: Daisy- fear- Tom


  Todd McCarthy: 'fear of her husband
• AMERICAN DREAM/ UNRELIABLE NARRATOR: Nick projecting his fantasies


  Sarah Churchwell: 'can't be certain if Nick is projecting his fantasies on to Gatsby
• WOMEN: Myrtle and sexuality

  Ivan Strba: 'Myrtle represents, overt, unconcealed sexuality
• How does Baz Luhrman's 2013 dramatisation alter the character of Nick?

  'Nick is presented as retelling the story from a Sanatorium in 1929, after the Wall Street Crash
• LOVE Money overpowers love

  Hayley Krumwiede: "His purpose is to show that money overpowers love"
• AD - withering

  Bewley: "The main theme is the withering of the American Dream"
• AD + NEW AMERICA: Gatsby-America itself


  Lionel Trilling: "Gatsby comes inevitably to stand for America itself"
• AMERICAN DREAM: Green light for Gatsby


  Tony Tanner: "The green light offers Gatsby a suitably inaccessible focus for his yearning"
• AD/ LACK OF PURPOSE/ ISOLATION/ NEW AMERICA: Gatsby- america- lost sight-place in head

  Paul Staveley: "Like America itself, Gatsby has lost sight of his original ideals and strives instead to reach a place he creates in his head"
• CAPITALISM/ FERTILITYThe Valley of Ashes

  Stephanie Forward: "Has come about as a by product of capitalism"
• NARRATOR/ AD: Gatsby as a doppleganger


  Claire Stocks: "Possible to read Gatsby as a doppleganger who embodies all that Nick would like to be"
• NARRATOR/ AD/ LOVE: Nick's love for Gatsby


  Bernard O'Keefe: "Nick has indeed fallen in love with Gatsby"
• AD/CAPITALISM/ CORRUPTION: Consumerism Vs Purity of AD

  Stephanie Forward: "Unbridled consumerism posed a threat to the purity of the American Dream"