1.The social background of The Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby is also famous as a description of the “Jazz Age,” a phrase which Fitzgerald himself coined. After the shock of moving from a policy of isolationism to involvement in World War I, America prospered in what are termed the “Roaring Twenties.” The Eighteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, passed in 1919, prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol in America. “Prohibition” made millionaires out of bootleggers like Gatsby and owners of underground salons. Fitzgerald glamorizes the noveau riche of this period to a certain extent in his Jazz Age novel. He describes their beautiful clothing and lavish parties with great attention to detail and wonderful use of color. However, the author was uncomfortable with the excesses of the period, and his novel sounds many warning notes against excessive love of money and material success.

2.The narration features of the novel.

At his best Fitzgerald’s craftsmanship is impeccable. The choice of a dramatic narrator, through whose consciousness everything filters, ensures the compact organic wholeness of the work. Nick Carraway is on the whole a reliable narrator. The magic power of Carraway lies in the fact that he has connect with all of them. Carraway’s limited omniscience determines the fact that he deals out information in such a manner that he seems to withhold at first, thus creating a superb effect of mystery and suspense. Carraway’s own summary of the life of Gatsby, his parties, and so on and so forth until the whole secret is unraveled and past and present mingle to bring the tragic drama to a pathetic, significant finish.

3.A Major theme of The Great Gatsby.

One of main themes of The Great Gatsby is the attitude of its characters—especially Gatsby—toward money. From the poem about the gold-hatted lover that serves as an epigraph, to Nick Carraway’s meditations on the green light at the conclusion, money symbolism runs through the novel. Gatsby says Daisy’s voice is “full of money,” and worships the green, money-colored light across the bay where Daisy lives. Gatsby’s love of Daisy is partly based on the glamor he associates with her money, and he pursues her by becoming wealthy himself. His passion for Daisy blends with earlier desires for financial success going all the way back to the daily schedule he established as a boy. His dream is completely misguided.