Bits of Life 2

M-5 Words-950

with us, volleying us first toward one interpretation, then another.
That is one of the main themes of the poem. Men differ but man differs with his own self at times.

There appear to be two main themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

One pertains to his personal life and the other is the broader theme of the shattering of the great American dream.


New York is the background provided in the novel and Nick Caraway, a close friend of Jay Gatsby, assumes the role of a narrator.
We wanted to understand what exactly is the great American Dream?

The reply we received was that all Americans irrespective of their background or birth circumstances, have the equal opportunity to achieve prosperity, success, and happiness through hard work, determination, and initiative.

In The Great Gatsby, we get an authentic image of the high society of New York of the nineteen twenties. It was shown as a playground for millionaires.

The result of the First World War was the disillusion of the young Americans who served in the war. They saw the futility of Victorian social morals and values in the face of a brutal war.

Nick and Jay fought side by side in the war. Both represent cosmopolitan outlook and cynicism, a result of war. We can see that being projected in the parties and get- togethers arranged at Jay Gatsby’s home attended by socialites and speculators.

Here is where the American dream ended. Morals disintegrated and frowned upon. Jay Gatsby’s parties reflect pursuit of pleasure and material wealth rather than so called “noble” goals.

During the nineteen twenties America banned alcohol. It lasted for thirteen years and these thirteen years are the most notorious in the history of America.

The ban on alcohol fueled organized crime via bootlegging and betting. Thus prohibition acted as a catalyst in the emergence of underground crime. Anyone who was ready to take risks earned money and became rich. It created a thriving illegal underworld of bootlegging, as represented through Wolfshiem and Gatsby’s dodgy dealings.

We are told that there was “a stratospheric stock market spike” that made millionaires out of ordinary Americans overnight. They begin to look down on Americans with old money.

What is old money?
The term old money refers to “ inherited wealth held by families for multiple generations, often associated with established high social status, aristocracy, and discreet, traditional lifestyles. Unlike new money (self-made), it emphasizes privacy, discreet consumption, and timeless, high-quality, non-ostentatious fashion. Examples include historically wealthy families like the Rockefellers or Vanderbilts.”

Thus, Daisy, who belonged to an aristocratic family could not marry Jay. But he went on making more and more money to impress her.
At one of Jay Gatsby’s parties a video was shown in which the difference between East Egg and West egg. The twain could never meet. The former represents old money and the latter self made money.

Thus the love affair between Daisy and Jay was doomed. For Jay Gatsby to marry Daisy is just a goal. It looks as though he considers attaining a goal he set for himself is more important than marrying Daisy for love.

Marriages take place more for stage managing the social standing but otherwise they prove empty of genuine marital bonds and such relationships are merely skin deep and superficial. That is the tragedy of the situation at that period of American life.

Finally, the Great Depression of nineteen twenty nine crashes the superficial image projected by Nick and Jay Gatsby. That was a constant fear in their minds. It marks the end of the “roaring twenties.”

It brought both the old money and the novio rich to a close. Everybody lost everything they owned and they flaunted.

On the personal level, the novel ends when Daisy kills Myrtle who has been having an affair with her husband, Tom. But Jay takes it on himself and pays the ultimate price. We are told that there is one above all who watches the misdeeds of mortals i.e. God or according to the novel it is or T. J. Eckleburg on the billboard,

All in all, The Great Gatsby is a land mark written in a masterly manner by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was heavily influenced by real life experiences of the author himself.

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We were assigned to read Moby Dick written by Herman Melville and published it in the year 1851.

It was not a critically acclaimed or well received novel at that period of time. It was a commercial failure too.

It became a great American novel only after 1919. It was a popularized in colleges and universities in the twentieth century, after the 1919 centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous lines.


Anyone with patience to read the book from cover to cover may not be able to understand this strange struggle of Captain Ahab. The sailor Ishmael is the famous narrator of this epic battle between a human being and sea creature.

Ahab was the captain of the whaling ship called “Pequod” and Moby Dick was a giant white sperm whale. The whale bit off his leg on a previous voyage and since then Captain Ahab’s maniacal quest to revenge the wrong done to him starts off.

Talking of the beginning, we come to know that Ishmael signs up with the Quaker ship-owners Bildad and Peleg for a voyage on their whaler Pequod.
Pelege describes Captain Ahab