The Toiling Effects of Being Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past: A New Critics Analysis of The Great Gatsby

Abstract

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a timeless masterpiece of American literature. Although the events that the characters endured are long past, the emotions that they stir within the human conciseness have been preserved by every reader in the past 96 years. Factors such as war, love, and selfishness are defining things that shape the characters, and in turn, the world that surrounds them. Throughout this literary critique, I closely examine the text of the novel to connect all the different aspects of Fitzgerald's masterpiece to a single underlying theme of nostalgic longing. Within the analysis, I connect the theme with many of the important characters to reveal how their questionable actions could be explained. Additionally, I connect the theme to the novel's symbolism to create a greater depth of emotion than what can be seen on the surface. Finally, I discuss the reason why this longing exists in the first place and how it could quite possibly be a faulty human condition that still exists within the generations of our own time.