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The Great Gatsby By F Scott FitzgeraldWhile The Great Gatsby published 1925 is a highly specific portrait of American society during the R...

May 12, 2002 12:00 AM IST

2 min read

The Great Gatsby
By F Scott Fitzgerald

While The Great Gatsby published 1925 is a highly specific portrait of American society during the Roaring Twenties, its story is also one that has been told hundreds of times, and is perhaps as old as America itself: A man claws his way from rags to riches, only to find that his wealth cannot buy him the privileges enjoyed by those born into the upper class. The central character is Jay Gatsby, a wealthy New Yorker of indeterminate occupation. He is suspected of being involved in illegal bootlegging and other underworld activities. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsby8217;s neighbour in West Egg. Nick is a Yale-educated young man from a prominent Midwestern family. In some sense, the novel is Nick8217;s memoir, his unique view of the events of the summer of 1922. On one level, the novel comments on the careless gaiety and moral decadence of the period. The lives of the characters, filled with material comforts and luxuries and empty of purpose, represents this condition. 8216;8216;What8217;ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?8217;8217; goes the famous line, 8216;8216;and the day after that, and the next thirty years?8217;8217;