ENGLISH - PAPER 1

• the american dream

  • if you work hard enough you will be successful
  • a lot of people who migrated to America were escaping something
  • widespread materialism
  • Gatsby personifies american dream as he sees it as more of a means of getting Daisy
  • Myrtle - an example of a failed american dream 'frentic quest for wealth' (Akesson)
  • Gatsbys car - restlessness and power - symbol of american dream
• greed is the main theme of the novel
• The American Dream was an idea that everyone could achieve success through hard work, but this ideal became corrupted by greed.
• first world war and the jazz age

  • the roaring 20s was a time for growth and prosperity with a lot of cynism and corruption
  • jazzage - cultural and glamorous , artisitic and social e.g Gatsbys parties
• the lost generation

  • Gertrude stein - referred lost generation to the first world war
  • generation felt powerless after WW1
  • loss and emptiness was filled with alcohol and indulgence
• flappers and freedom

  • women had short skirts, hair and makeup
  • women had the right to vote
  • Jordan Baker - second name after a make of car which shows her lack of feminity
  • critic - Lois Tyson - Jordan is accossaited with numerous lesbian signs even when dress feminine she is seen as masculine
• conspicious consumption

  • weath included cars, fridges and radios
  • Thorstein Veblen used 'conspicious consumption' as a term to critique the rise of power of wealthy businessman who displayed wealth through mansions and behaviour
  • Myrtle and George - 'no money' - excluded from 20s
  • conspicious consumption - litmus test for wealth and social status
  • Gatsbys lifestyle
• prohibition and organised crime

  • illegal to sell or transport alcohol
  • gangsters - sold alcohol to bars called 'speakeasies' for profit.
  • 1,000 speakeasies in New York
  • Meyer Wolfshiem - Gambler who Gatsby is involved with
• race and prejudice

  • immigrants arrived to New York to follow the American dream
  • tension between european immigrants and western immigrants as european classed themselves 'american'
  • no asians allowed to the US
  • racism widespread
  • african americans - second class citizens
  • 'Wolfeshiem' shows prejudice against immigrants as he is jewish
• F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • Zelda took a step back from marriage due to Fitzgeralds wealth
  • his partner, Zelda, had two mental breakdowns and after her recovery her and Fitzgerald split
  • Fitzgerald new relationship with shelian who was a successful journalist
  • Fitzgerald died of a heart attack age 44 - alcoholism
• media and the mass market

  • symbol of advertising - Doctor T.J Eckleburg - tensions in america appearance vs reality - symbol of religion as when Myrtle dies George states that 'God sees everything' whilst looking into the eyes of Eckleburg
  • mass culture - America was urban - flocking towards cities - solidarity in the masses
  • photography is a lemotif in the Great Gatsby. Gatsby has a picture of Dan Cody which suggests importance
• 'cant repeat the past? he cried incredously, why of course you can."

  Fitzgerald shows that Gatsby wished to relive the past and wanted to reconstruct and model it until perfection rather than being accepting
• 'a single green light, minute and faraway, that might of been the end of a dock'


  Gatsby - green light is a symbol of his dream - Daisy and status that comes with it - to obtain her would be achieving the American Dream.

  'minute' and 'faraway' - achieving a dream is impossible
• 'her voice is full of money'


  Daisy is the ultimate status symbol at her core she is not a person but a commodity
• 'Gatsby had broken up like glass against Toms hard malice'


  Gatsby's dream was always going to fail,

  underlines futile nature of Gatsby's dream as his life was built around a single goal that was unreachable, leaving him empty and chasing a destructive dream that could never truly be realised - looks weak against Tom
• 'father snobbishly suggested, i snobbishly repeat'


  money isnt the only thing that people are born with or without but some people are naturally truthful and amiable and nave a larger 'sense of fundamental decencies'
• 'i'm inclined to reserve all judgements'

  ironic - novel full of his own judgements
• 'it excited him too, that many men had already loved Daisy - it increased her value in his eyes'


  even though gatsby loves Daisy a part of him loved her because of challenge and persuit that was involved in the process. a part of him loves her because everyone else does. he wanted something that was in demand, hard to get - it was all part of his quest for wealth and power. shows the extent of materalism in the 1920s
• 'gatsby turned out alright in the end'


  Nick suggests that after Gatsby's hopeless dreams, his perfection to repeat the past was not his ultimate downfall
• 'he wanted nothing less of Daisy, that she should go to Tom and say 'i never loved you'


  ironic - a lot to ask

  gatsby wishes to erase the last 5 years
• 'i want to get one of those dogs'

  Myrtles motive behind relationship is material one of greed, lasts for social mobility
• Ao5 - critical views 


  James Miller - 'Gatsby embodies in a grotesque way the desire to transcend time'

  Birkets - 'when his dream of love is destroyed, he is nothing but his extravagent props'

  Strba - 'Gatsby clings onto his idealised vision' - memories of Daisy
• Ao4 


  Pride and Prejudice - Gatsby is respected for his wealth before his personality just like Darcy.

  All my sons - committing horrendous crimes to protect his family and persue the American dream. similar to Gatsby who takes part in racketeering to obtain wealth and win over Daisy. Shows Damage the American dream can cause.

  The collector - unable to truly rise in station even though he comes close to great money. compares to Gatsby who is unable to challenge Toms 'old money'