45 pages 1 hour read

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1925

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Important Quotes

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“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one […] just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”


(Chapter 1, Page 1)

In this early line, Nick signals the non-judgmental attitude he will take as a narrator. It’s also designed to be ironic in the sense that such a line is traditionally used to excuse the behavior of the underprivileged. Yet in The Great Gatsby, where the most deplorable acts are consistently committed by the absurdly rich, the line serves to cleverly skewer the extent to which wealth and prosperity breed unforgivable behavior.

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“I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the war center of the world the middle-west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go east and learn the bond business. Everybody I knew was in the bond business so I supposed it could support one more single man.” 


(Chapter 1, Page 3)

Here, Nick frames his decision to move to New York as a consequence of having fought in the war. This may reflect some of Fitzgerald’s broader attitudes toward the Roaring Twenties. For example, many soldiers saw the brutality of World War I as having effectively annihilated the old Victorian morals of the 19th century, leading to the hedonism of the Jazz Age.

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“He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”


(Chapter 3, Page 48)

Nick describes the awe he feels at seeing Gatsby for the first time. The notion that Gatsby reflects back what an individual wants to see plays into the character’s ability to epitomize the American Dream. To Fitzgerald, the American Dream in the 1920s is entirely aspirational and therefore an illusion—a mere projection of an individual’s own needs, insecurities, and jealousies.