The Primary Theme of "The Great Gatsby"

          I think that the primary theme of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is that The American Dream is an unsustainable ideal that gives people false hope and artificial happiness. I think that this theme fits all the criteria for the primary theme of  a novel. I think that it is the main message, saying that the American Dream was a corrupt ideal that would never bring real happiness, which was also a broad idea about life in the 1920s. Nick Carraway says several things throughout the book about how it is unsustainable, and keeps getting farther away, but he never really states that it is corrupt or impossible. One quote that is very important, and fits this theme very well without outright stating it is on page 134. It says "so he gave up, and only that dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly,  towards that lost voice across the room." This is also a point in the book where a major change seems to go through Gatsby, the protagonist. He seems to realize that the dream is corrupt, and he will never get to keep Daisy's wholehearted love.

The Climax of The Great Gatsby

          The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is often considered the "great american novel," so of course, this book has a great climax as well. The climax of a book is the turning point of the story, and I believe that the turning point of this story is when Gatsby finally tells Tom that he and Daisy are in love with each other, and he and Tom have a big fight. I think that part of the story was leading up to this point, because eventually Tom had to find out that Daisy loved somebody else. This was also, in part, where Gatsby's dream is realized: first he wanted Daisy to love hime, and now he wants everyone to know it. Also, after this point in the story, the book begins to move very quickly towards the end, causing a sort of chain reaction where Daisy and Gatsby drive home very fast because she needed to get away from Tom, and they hit Myrtle Wilson and don't stop. After that, George Wilson finds out who's car it is, and goes to the Buchanan house, and then Tom tells him it was Gatsby, and then he goes and shoots Gatsby. All these events coming from the climax very quickly bring the story to a close.

The Weather During Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby's First Meeting

          On the day that Nick Carraway invites both Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby to his house for tea so that they can see each other for the first time in a long while, the weather is very stormy. It was pouring, but right before Daisy got there it let up a little. I think this weather was very important and helpful to the meeting. To me, it gave it a much more solemn and alone feel. It felt much more serious, but it also felt like no one else could see or hear the two. Which I think might have gotten Daisy to open up more than if it was sunny, or if there were other people there. Rain makes it dark outside, and drowns out most outside noise, so it would have felt like it was just them, which I think is a very good way for them to meet. They can't get distracted by outside things.

Does Nick Carraway Judge People?

          In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator the story is a man named Nick Carraway. On the first page, Carraway says that he is "inclined to reserve all judgements" about people, and in the first three chapters, it is very hard to tell if this is true. The way the book is written, he seems to assume certain emotions and sometimes characteristics from physical attributes of people. However, I think that this is just the way Fitzgerald described people in his writing. I think that this is different from actually judging (forming a conclusive opinion) the people that Carraway meets. For example, when we first meet Tom Buchanan, Carraway describes his physical attributes, and the fact that he was a football player. Carraway also describes him and his family as "enormously wealthy," which is a fact, not a judgement. Caraway withholds from the reader any opinionative judgements (if he has any) about Tom Buchanan, and I have found that he has done the same for all the other characters we have met so far. He describes them physically, and gives us facts about them, but none of his positive or negative opinions about them.