The End Of Jay Gatsby - James Gatz and the Beginning of Hope

Finish all books completely - actually I finished a couple of days ago and just been busy with other projects so I was unable to blog yet.

I have fallen in complete love with Fitzgerald's writing style but on another note, I'm here to talk about the story and comparing it with Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

So, when I first started this project and read most of The Grapes of Wrath, I was pretty sure the theme both of the novels had were rebirth. After finishing The Great Gatsby, I realized another and probably better theme between both novels: false hopes and dreams.

Through both novels, the characters or even just a few, have dreams of starting a fresh new beginning or winning back their true love.

The Joads family hope to restart a new life in California but their dreams are ruined constantly throughout the entire novel. They a new people to a different world and try to be accepted.

In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby wants to win back his love, Daisy, by buying a house across the bay from her and Tom, her husband who has a mistress in New York City. Jay wants to relive his past with Daisy and show her he is not a poor boy but a rich, successful man now and wants her back.

It seems there are several similar ideas and also elements in both novels. Both novels deal with hot weather and end with water tragically. At the end of The Grapes of Wrath, Rose of Sharon finds hope with helping someone and in the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick or even perhaps Jay, finds hope in that "-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. ...And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." I feel this line states we hope is still close and we will still reach and reach until we have it in our arms.

Another possible theme would be reflecting on our pasts and never forgetting where we came from. This theme is still developing but I believe false hopes is the best one for me and the story.

Water is a big element in both books. Water in the Great Gatsby is also involved and symbolizes a lot in the novel. The lake that keeps Jay from fully reaching Daisy's type of life and that he died in his pool that he had never swam in all summer. This could symbolize his life of trying to fit in with people not like him and dying in the stress of trying to fit their expectations.

Heat is throughout most of both books until the very end when everything goes down hill and hope seems completely gone. It shows stress and tension between all characters in both novels. With the water at the end of both novels, it shows calmness and new beginning or a new chance.

Both novels suggest at the end, some new found hope for all the characters, gone or dead.

I would also like to say, I liked the writing style of Fitzgerald better than Steinbeck. It appealed more to my senses and I could really feel and see the images he created that came to life on the page. It inspires me to write like him and I hope I do one day.

The Great Gatsby

Oh, The Great Gatsby. What a wonderful book! I have read some before in grade ten but couldn't get into it. After starting the novel again this year, I see so much more. The novel is very well written and structured. I really can see the characters coming to life on the pages and their surroundings in my own eyes.

Just for fun, I did some background research about F. Scott Fitzgerald and the writing of The Great Gatsby.


After the birth of their child, the Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck, Long Island in October 1922, appropriating Great Neck as the setting for The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's neighbors included such newly wealthy New Yorkers as writer Ring Lardner, actor Lew Fields and comedian Ed Wynn. Great Neck, on the shores of Long Island Sound, sat across a bay from Manhasset Neck or Cow Neck Peninsula, which includes the communities of Port Washington, ManorHaven, Port Washington North and Sands Point, and was home to many of New York's wealthiest established families. In his novel, Great Neck became the new-money peninsula of "West Egg" and Manhasset Neck the old-money peninsula of "East Egg".

Progress on the novel was slow. In May 1923, the Fitzgeralds moved to the French Riviera, where the novel would come to completion. In November, he sent the draft to his publisher Perkins and his agent Harold Ober. The Fitzgeralds again relocated, this time to Rome, for the winter. Fitzgerald made revisions through the winter after Perkins informed him that the novel was too vague and Gatsby's biographical section too long. Content after a few rounds of revision, Fitzgerald returned the final batch of revised galleys in the middle of February 1925.

I found a lot of interesting facts about the novel also. Daisy is based off of a Chicago heiress named Ginevra King who Fitzgerald fell in love with. Just like the novel, he was a poor boy in love with a rich girl and she could and would not marry him. It is said that Fitzgerald used a line in the novel that he was said to by Mr. King, Ginevra father: "poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls" which also appears in the novel said by Daisy to Gatsby. Also the bill board with the hovering eyes are suppose to represent Daisy.

Jordan Baker was also based off of someone Fitzgerald knew who was good friend with Ginevra King. Her name was Edith Cummings. was one of the premier amateur golfers of her generation. She was one of the Big Four debutantes in Chicago, at the end of the First World War. She became nationally famous following her 1923 victory in the United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship. On August 25, 1924, she became the first golfer and first female athlete to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

I can't wait to continue reading this novel! It's going to be great!