Gatsby Mystery

The Mystery Underlying the Great Gatsby

In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald released The Great Gatsby to instant and permeating acclaim. The novel, often cited as being among the greatest American novels, is credited as such for capturing with startling emotion the sociocultural vagaries of high society in the early 20th century. The Great Gatsby is particularly compelling for the mystery which unfolds around its title character. Inexplicably wealthy, seemingly detached from the affairs of his neighbors and yet obsessed with feeding their impressions of him, Jay Gatsby is symbolic of the contradiction of American social mobility. Even as he becomes wealthy beyond the fantasies of most men, his low birth relegates him as an outsider. The mystery that pervades his story is powered by his own need to sublimate this low birth under displays of mirthless party-throwing and material excess.

Perhaps more than any other concept couched in...
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