Free Great Gatsby Essays: Genre :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Genre of The Great Gatsby   If you want to find out, into which literary corner F. Scott Fitzgeralds masterpiece, the Great Gatsby, belongs, youve got to put forward a look at two main genres of novel-writing, the so-called novel of politeness on the one hand and the romance on the other. The novel of manners gives, using most of the time a rather satirical tone, a sharp portrayal of the actual life as it really is and also of the loving behaviour and attitudes that are closely related with it. This type of novel concentrates on people of a certain class, time and place are clearly defined. The mortal attitudes of those people, their inner desires, get into conflict with the more conventional values, which are defined by the society they live in. The result is, that the protagonist has the problem of combining himself and his desires with the rules (the manners) of society, that he himself as a part of this society helped to establish, involuntarily. Examples for t his special kind of novel are creations of authors like Henry Fielding and Jane Austen. On the other hand in that location is the romance, non aiming at a detailed description of life, only wanting to show it as it is imaginatively seen. The romance concentrates on the inner aspects of human nature, it is not concerned with ordinary events. It is difficult to decide to which literary type the Great Gatsby belongs. It is possible to ask it as a novel of manners for it presents life and zephyr of the Roaring Twenties in America, the Jazz Age, marked by prohibition, the organised crime, the new woman as well as the wealthy upper-class and their disregard in most affairs. Fitzgerald is also using a satirical and comic tone most of the time. But the book could as well be read as a romance. This seems to be even more appropriate for the book is concerned with the portrayal of a mans idealism in all its glory but as well in all its unreality and unworldliness. Gatsby is presented a s a mysterious figure, fitting well within the fantasy and magic of his naive dream. He is Prince Charming, the gallant knight, trying to get his Princess in white, its a perfect example for a sad and tragic fairy-tale. While writing the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald got influenced by some(prenominal) other books, such as The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler, published 1918-1922, which is portraying the Western civilisation as being in a enjoin of decay.