AQA English Literature A-level

The Great Gatsby: Literary Form

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Genre and Structure

Genre, Narrative Style and Literary Influences

Genre is defined as a ‘category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterised by a
particular style, form, or content’ (Merriam-Webster dictionary). F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The
Great Gatsby contains elements of multiple genres: tragedy, realism, modernism, and social
satire.

The Great Gatsby is a novel about 1920s America. Many readers consider The Great Gatsby
as a 20th-century tragedy. If we can understand what a classical tragedy entails, then we can
extrapolate this into its modern equivalent.

The Great Gatsby is sometimes considered a Realist novel due to its realistic depiction of the
world a banknotes Fitzgerald sets his novel in a New York that readers recognise: landmarks
such as the Plaza Hotel and Central Park are familiar to readers. However, Fitzgerald alters
Great Neck and Manhasset Neck to East and West Eggs. The large landfill site at Flushing is
renamed “the Valley of Ashes”. Nonetheless, Fitzgerald’s use of factual figures and historical
dates, like the 1919 World Series, places the novel under the genre of realism. The exploration
of the themes of sex and adultery also add to the novel’s realism. The novel is also considered
a social satire. Fitzgerald’s use of irony, exaggeration and ridicule mocks and exposes the
hedonism of 1920s America. Think about Nick’s long list of Gatsby’s guests: none of them
knew who Gatsby really was and the readers didn’t know who they were. Even though most
social satire is superficial, Fitzgerald exposes the tragic human tendency to be fallible. The
readers see this through Myrtle Wilson’s attempt to transcend the status quo but fate decrees
she must die. With her death, Gatsby and George Wilson die too. Only those from the lower
class die in this novel. Fitzgerald demonstrates how the lower classes are the victims of 1920s
American society. Beneath all the extravagance is a deep callousness and shallowness.

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The readers understand the greatness of Gatsby through the unreliable voice of Nick
Carraway. Nick’s voice is not the same as Fitzgerald’s but sometimes Nick assumes the role of
Fitzgerald’s mouthpiece. Interestingly, Fitzgerald doesn’t use an omniscient narrator,
especially since Nick doesn’t know all the facts. And yet, the reader is expected to believe Nick.
Nick’s subjective point of view places Gatsby on a pedestal and the real victim of the novel.
Nick is dishonest about his own shortcomings: he dismisses his affairs with other women and
his alcohol use. He doesn’t tell the reader the truth about Gatsby’s past until chapter six. Thus,
in many ways, Nick outlines Gatsby through his retrospective viewpoint and leaves the reader
to colour him in. Gatsby’s backstory and tragedy are mainly told by Nick but are also narrated by
the gossiping party guests, Jordan Baker and Meyer Wolfsheim. This means that the novel is
not in the chronological order of Gatsby’s life but the chronological order of Nick’s memories.

As well as a realist novel and a satire, The Great Gatsby can also to some extent be considered
a modernist novel. Modernism does not have one specific definition, but is understood in a
variety of ways by different critics. Nevertheless, modernism in the arts is generally seen as a
movement or set of movements occurring in the first half of the twentieth century. According
to Hugh Holman, modernism is a “strong and conscious break with tradition [...] impl[ying]
historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair”. This sense of
alienation, loss and despair can be attributed to various factors, such as the devastation of the
First World War, the breakdown of traditional frameworks used to make sense of the world (e.g.
Christianity) and the rise of consumer culture and its attendant values. Alienation and a sense of
meaningless are particularly present in The Great Gatsby; Gatsby feels them when the dream
of Daisy has ended, Daisy feels it when she laughs hollowly about her worldliness in chapter
one, crying “Sophisticated -- God, I’m sophisticated!”. They also manifest in Tom through his
restlessness, which is repeatedly referred to when he is introduced to the reader. The novel
paints a picture of a ‘lost generation’, one in which the eyes of an advertising billboard stand in
for the eyes of God: a world where people live without values or principles, committed only to
illusions or consumerism. Thus, The Great Gatsby can be considered modernist in tone and
explores modernist thematics. Furthermore, the novel displays various other modernist
characteristics, such as a limited and imperfect narrator. In making Nick flawed, biased and
having only partial access to Gatsby (his knowledge of Gatsby is based on gossip as well as on
first-hand contact with him), Fitzgerald breaks with the Victorian tradition of omniscient
narrators who often pronounces some kind of judgment on the events that they are narrating.

Fitzgerald’s poetic language also suggests that he took inspiration from the Romantic age.
Some critics argue that Fitzgerald was influenced by the English Romantic poet, John Keats. In
his ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, Keats’s speaker is torn between the enchanting nature of death
and the uncertainty of life. Perhaps Fitzgerald alludes to this through Daisy. When Daisy sees
a nightingale in The Great Gatsby, she says “It’s romantic, isn’t it, Tom?”. Perhaps Daisy is
enchanted by its poetic symbol. This moment ends with the “shrill” of the telephone. This
shows how modernity kills the beauty of nature, it cuts it off and thus, the conflict between
science and nature arises. Fitzgerald was also influenced by the great Modernist poet, T. S.
Eliot (he called himself a “worshipper” of Eliot’s poetry). We see the influence of Eliot’s seminal

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poem ‘The Waste Land’ in the novel. The Valley of Ashes alludes to this wasteland and both
writers criticise modernity and its ruin of nature.

Fitzgerald’s use of irony, exaggeration and depiction of the ‘laissez-faire’ attitude of the old
money class make the novel a social satire. The ‘old money’ characters retreat “back into
their money or their vast carelessness” (Ch. 9). There is a real sense of superficiality
throughout the novel as Fitzgerald notes the inevitable human fallibility in the novel.

The Great Gatsby is also a novel about writing a

novel. We call this ‘Metafiction’. Think about the way
in which Nick is a self-conscious storyteller - he refers
to “this book” he’s writing. He consciously uses
pretentious words and experiments with his style
and structure. Perhaps Fitzgerald was influenced by
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Like Nick,
Marlow is both unreliable and self-conscious.

Structure and Narration

- Fitzgerald does not use his eponymous protagonist, instead he uses Nick Carraway
who interestingly does not know all the facts of the narrative. The gaps in Nick’s
narration serve to humanise Gatsby as Gatsby is presented as a shadowy figure that
can only be glimpsed through Nick’s memories.
- Nick’s viewpoint is retrospective which further makes Gatsby vague and romantic in his
blurry outline. Nick also tells the reader of Gatsby’s death from the very start of the
novel. This gives his death an inevitable predetermined quality. Gatsby is raised to the
pedestal of a tragic hero.
- Nick’s portrayal of Gatsby is revealed bit by bit. This makes Gatsby seem more
mysterious. Notice how Nick knows all about Gatsby by the time he writes “the book”.
However, upon writing the story, he withholds most of Gatsby’s past and identity; thus,
the reader comes to learn about Gatsby in the same fragmented way that Nick learned
about Gatsby.
- Whilst Gatsby is the eponymous character, Nick controls the story.
- Nick combines three strands of storytelling:
1. Nick’s own experiences of life in the East. This strand controls the
chronological order of events, based on Nick’s memories.
2. Gatsby’s backstory, which is told from multiple perspectives. Think of
how the party guests guess his secret identity and Jordan’s description
of his love affair with Daisy. Nick also includes Gatsby’s own voice, but
this is not in the chronological order of revelations. Perhaps Mr Gatz’s
description of his son also fits here.
3. Nick’s reflections on the story: he adds other details as he remembers
them, such as the long list of party guests. This is supposed to give Nick
extra credibility, although these details are not really relevant to

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 Gatsby’s story. These reflections emphasise Nick’s retrospective
narration.
- The structure of the novel has a quasi-volta. The novel turns around the central chapter.
The book has nine chapters and the plot revolves around the central fifth chapter
where the readers witness Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion. Whilst the first half of the novel
leads up to their reunion, the latter half deals with the inevitable ramifications of
Gatsby’s unchecked infatuation with Daisy.
- Think about how chapters 1-4 are written in Nick’s point of view. Jordan’s narrative of
Daisy and Gatsby’s past love triggers a shift in the narrative style. This shift helps
reveal Gatsby’s past and thus, it humanises him.
- Think also about chapter 5. It is written entirely in the past tense without interruption of
Nick’s other storytelling strands. What does this suggest? Perhaps this return to the
first-person past tense narrative intensifies the sentimentality of Gatsby and Daisy’s
reunion. It marks this chapter as poignant and thus, it serves as an excellent turning
point.
- Chapters 6-9 highlight the ramifications of Gatsby’s gutsy desire for Daisy. It also
shatters the myth of Gatsby. It undermines his glamorous lifestyle and mocks his
mysterious identity.
- Nick uses other perspectives to shift the blame of Gatsby’s façade. Think about
Michaelis’s account of Myrtle’s death and George’s actions.
- Nick tries to be a trustworthy narrator. Think about the way he relates to the reader
using colloquial language like dialect and slang in his dialogues but fills the prose
with poetic language. This jarring contrast makes the novel hard to read but it also
makes Gatsby vague because he is presented as a misunderstood man trapped in
Nick’s poetic memory.
- Think about Nick’s position as a narrator and character. He is connected to the old
money class but is not rich enough to live amongst them; Nick is friends with people
like Gatsby but is too conservative to indulge in their decadent lifestyles. He is both
“within and without” (chapter 2) as he exists on the edge of both social circles.
- Nick is ultimately an unreliable narrator. Fitzgerald limits Nick’s view so the reader fills in
the gap. This brings to mind Roland Barthes’ Death of the Author where the reader
makes what they will of the text; the meaning is determined by reader, not writer.
Fitzgerald encourages the reader to take on the role of the implied reader (Iser 1974).
This role encourages the reader to fill in the gaps of a narrative with their own
versions.
- Nick finishes narrating the story two years after the events of the summer of 1922. Nick
is relying on his memory, which suggests that he could have forgotten key details.
Although Nick uses dialogue to bring characters to life, he also quotes long speeches
verbatim. The reader’s sense of Nick’s accuracy is undermined by this practice.
- Think about the way Nick does not question whether the newspaper reports or inquest
statements are biased. He even includes Jordan’s description of Gatsby’s affair with
Daisy despite thinking her of being “incurably dishonest” (chapter three).
- In essence, Nick’s narration could just be more rumours to add on the pile of gossip
that plagues the memory of Gatsby. Can we say it is a definitive account of him?

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 Perhaps the novel should be called ‘A Great Gatsby’ rather than ‘The Great Gatsby’ to
acknowledge Nick’s subjective and limited viewpoint.

Here is a diagram of the novel’s structure.

Fitzgerald’s Use of Language

Fitzgerald uses a poetic style and rhythm to create a prose that is riddled with poetic language.
He writes of Gatsby’s “punctilious” manner (chapter 4) as well as of Jordan’s style of talking
with “bantering inconsequence”. These pretentious adjectives create an unusual rhythm.
Fitzgerald’s narrator also uses French words like “coupé” for car, “hauteur” for arrogance and
“amour” for love. These foreign vocabulary create a sense of a cosmopolitan atmosphere,
one that is characteristic of the twentieth century. Fitzgerald also uses the unusual adjective
“orgastic” to describe the future (chapter 9). Here, this alludes to “orgiastic” which suggests a
wild and uncontrollable activity and “orgasm” denoting sexual climax. Here, both allusions
echo the hedonistic decadence of the roaring twenties.

Moreover, Fitzgerald uses repetition to give his prose an element of poetic rhythm. He writes in
chapter nine of the hold that the East had on Nick. Nick confesses that “even when the east
excited me most, even when I was keenly aware of its superiority to the broad, sprawling,
swollen towns beyond Ohio, with their interminable inquisitions which only spared
children and the very old - even then it had always for me a quality of distortion”. Here,

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Fitzgerald uses the anaphora of “even” to emphasise the “superior” grip that the East had over
Nick. He uses sibilance to capture the manipulative “distortion” and deceiving atmosphere of
the East. Earlier in the novel, Nick describes the motion of the air-bed which held Gatsby’s body
as he “shouldered” the mattress as moving on an “accidental course with its accidental
burden” (chapter 8). Here, the repetition of “accidental” contradicts the predestination of
Gatsby’s death. Perhaps Nick blames the careless actions of the careless old money.
Nonetheless, the verb “shouldered” alludes to the biblical Jesus who shouldered the cross.
Indeed, Nick refers to Gatsby as the “son of God” (chapter 6). This further emphasises the
predetermined nature of his premature death - his ultimate sacrifice for Daisy.

In addition, Fitzgerald uses synaesthetic language to create a mysterious atmosphere. He

writes of the “yellow cocktail music”, “warm darkness”, and “pale gold odour”. Here, these
descriptions mix the senses to create a confusing vague atmosphere. Perhaps this vague
quality brings the scene vividly to life for the reader as they get to imply what these senses
manifest as. Fitzgerald also uses colour and music to set the scene. He describes ambiguous
colours like “harlequin designs”. The adjective ‘harlequin’ can refer to a bright shade of green
or a pattern with diamonds. This ambiguity places Gatsby on another realm. The food on
Gatsby’s tables are “bewitched to a dark gold”. Here, this creates a rich and deep colour.
Perhaps the food is described as though it was money.

Symbols and Imagery

- The green light is a symbol of hope
- Gatsby lets the green light symbolise Daisy
- Think about what the colour ‘green’ connotes: envy, inexperience, fertility,
freshness and sickness. Green is also considered the colour of money
- Green comes back in “the fresh green breast of the new world” (chapter 9) -
America: ‘green’ symbolises the pursuit of American Dream
- Daisy is a symbol of Gatsby’s hopes for the future
- Perhaps she is also a symbol for the American Dream
- Fitzgerald wanted to call his novel Gold-Hatted Gatsby, here the colour gold, as in the
rest of the novel, creates a sense of worth. Gatsby adopts the role of the wealthy
bourgeoisie and flaunts his material wealth to capture Daisy’s attention.
- Cars are both symbols of status and destruction
- Tom uses his car to assert his social and material superiority over Wilson.
Think about Wilson’s lack of transport: Wilson can’t take Myrtle out of Tom’s
reach. Tom dangles the car as bait for Wilson to emphasise his power.
- The newspapers label Gatsby’s car as the “death car” (chapter 7). This suggests
that the car is a fatal weapon. Myrtle’s death reinforces the dangerous power of
the car and the fragility of people. Think of the description of Myrtle: her left
breast was “swinging loose like a flap” (chapter 7). The violence of the car is
emphasised here.
- Clocks are a symbol of the confusion of time

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 - Gatsby leans too hard against the clock which highlights the pressure he puts
on their meeting. He puts all his hopes and dreams into the Daisy of the past
and wills the past to “repeat” itself.
- Daisy and Nick think that the clock might have actually broken. This suggests
that they both willed for Gatsby to have revised time. Gatsby remembers the
exact time that has passed (“five years next November”) whilst Daisy vaguely
remembers that “many years” had passed (chapter 5).

Sources:
● The Great Gatsby A-Level CGP Guide
● The Great Gatsby A-Level York Notes Advanced
● Mr Bruff’s Guide to The Great Gatsby
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