Great Gatsby Rhetorical Précis

In the great American novel The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald claims that the lavish life brought by money is not as wonderful as it seems. Fitzgerald supports this by contrasting the characters' wealth with their completely unappealing personalities, by describing the unhappiness and annoyance between the characters, and by ending the novel in tragedy to exemplify that money does not bring true joy. The author's purpose is to inform the dangers of living excessively so that others do not fall into the trap of wealth. The author writes in a sarcastic tone for young Americans in the 1920s (and onwards).

F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term "Jazz Age" for the 1920s to describe the wealth and carefree personality of that period, and this is obviously shown in The Great Gatsby and his other works of literature. His stories usually accentuate the wealth that his characters have like Gatsby's yellow car and Tom's stable full of top-notch horses. Another characteristic that Fitzgerald highlights is a human-being's imperfections, an example being Gatsby yearning for the past instead of accepting the present. Also, Fitzgerald crushes our joy and motivation--our dreams. Like in The Great Gatsby, like in "Winter Dreams," the characters (which represent people of the 1920s) are left dissatisfied in the end. Whether it be the failure to marry that girl or to achieve the American Dream, Fitzgerald brings us to reality that sometimes, dreams are not completely fulfilled and only wishes unanswered.