“Demaine” and the Illusion of Legitimacy in The Great Gatsby

This research examines the Valley of Ashes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) as a site of ecological degradation, industrial modernity, and social inequality. While previous studies have primarily focused on the novel’s commentary on the American Dream, wealth, and moral decay, this study foregrounds the environmental dimension of Fitzgerald’s work, analyzing how industrial landscapes reflect both ecological and socio-economic consequences of capitalist modernity. Using a qualitative thematic analysis, guided by ecocriticism and environmental justice frameworks, the study identifies recurring textual patterns related to pollution, ash-covered landscapes, labor exploitation, and the intersection of environmental and social vulnerability. The findings reveal that the Valley of Ashes functions not only as a symbolic moral and social wasteland but also as a literal depiction of industrial pollution and environmental injustice. Through its portrayal of dust, smoke, and the harsh lives of marginalized characters, the novel critiques unregulated industrialization, highlighting the ethical and ecological costs of economic ambition. By integrating ecological and social perspectives, this study contributes to Gatsby scholarship and demonstrates the value of ecocritical approaches in interpreting literary landscapes as active sites of environmental commentary and social critique. The paper underscores the inseparable relationship between environmental decay, social stratification, and moral responsibility in the context of twentieth-century industrial America.

Allegorical cartographies and the Road to Success in The Great Gatsby

The study concerns the problem of translating culturally marked vocabulary in the modern Ukrainian translation of Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s novel «The Great Gatsby» and the transfer of such vocabulary from the literary environment to the cinematic one, as depicted in Baz Luhrmann’s 2012 film. The work is interesting because of the need for a more detailed study of culturally marked vocabulary in fiction and the difficulties that may arise during its translation. It has been determined that the internal interdependence between language and its cultural context often leads to difficulties in translation and interpretation. It is emphasized that culturally marked vocabulary is inextricably linked to national culture and identity and serves as a fundamental component of the conceptual system of language. Particular attention is paid to problems primarily related to the lack of direct lexical equivalents between languages. The issues of classification and systematization of culturally marked vocabulary, its differentiation by subject into geographical, ethnographic, and socio‑political categories are considered. The ways of transferring such vocabulary from the source language into the target language are analyzed, namely: phonographic transformations, calquing, approximate translation, possible types of translational transformations, and examples of their use in the translated text are given. The growing interdependence between different communities and the increased relevance of intercultural communication as a field of scientific research are emphasized. It is emphasized that fiction contains basic concepts, ideas, and images that, when analyzed, provide a better understanding of the moral values inherent in a particular ethnic group. Some aspects of the formation of the American national character as a separate community with its own culture, character, and self‑awareness are highlighted. It is determined that a translated film acquires a new cultural identity, functioning as an autonomous text in the target culture, and becomes an integral part of the artistic process, inseparable from the cultural environment in which it is perceived. Film translation is analyzed as containing not only linguistic but also paralinguistic components.

The Great Gatsby employs a distinct style and language to reveal the moral emptiness and hypocrisy hidden beneath the halo of the Jazz Age, as well as to profoundly explore the spiritual essence of the broken American dream through the lens of broken dreams of love and money, which had a significant impact on American society at the time. He is a highly symbolic figure representing the United States in the 1920s, particularly the broken American ideal of unparalleled wealth and material abundance. In addition to its utilitarian relevance, The Great Gatsby has significant artistic value, with symbolism playing a key role throughout the work. Then this paper introduces Fitzgerald's biography, the novel's period background, and the discussion of symbolism, and then this paper specifically analyzes the symbols used in The Great Gatsby and their significance in conveying the theme of the novel. Finally, the paper draws a conclusion, reflecting on the problems of the American dream, and at the same time, linking with the modernization process of China, from which a warning can be obtained.

Economic development and inequality of opportunity: Kuznets meets the Great Gatsby?

The purpose of this research is to underline the stereotype of blonde women originating from the 1920s era as represented in The Great Gatsby (2013) film. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method, with the film serving as the primary source of data. The data were collected through careful and repeated observation of the film in order to identify scenes, dialogues, and visual elements that reflect gender representation. The film is analyzed through the lens of feminism to examine how stereotypes are constructed and reinforced through female characters, particularly Daisy Buchanan. This research adopts Karen J. Warren’s concept of ecofeminism, which highlights the interconnected systems of domination affecting women, along with Gill’s concept of stereotype to analyze how simplified and generalized images of women are socially produced. Through these theoretical frameworks, the study explores how Daisy Buchanan is portrayed not as an autonomous individual, but as a character shaped by societal expectations, male authority, and cultural norms of the 1920s. Her identity is largely defined by her appearance, femininity, and emotional expression, rather than her personal agency or intellect. The findings reveal that society within the film tends to overlook Daisy Buchanan’s complexity as a woman. Instead of being seen as a character with inner conflicts and personal desires, she is primarily viewed as a blonde woman who embodies beauty, fragility, and dependence. This perspective marginalizes her voice and limits her ability to make independent decisions within her social environment.As a result, Daisy Buchanan can be understood as a character created by society to represent the stereotypical blonde woman of the 1920s era. The film illustrates how social constructions and gender stereotypes shape women’s identities and influence the way they are perceived and treated within a patriarchal society.

Narration is a key component of storytelling because it affects how readers engage with a story. Prolepsis, analepsis, and paralipsis are the three narrative techniques that are crucial for enhancing a story's complexity and depth. The presentation of knowledge or future occurrences is prolepsis, also referred to as flash-forward. This technique heightens the tension in the narrative and contributes to character development. On the other hand, analepsis, or a flashback, returns the audience to the beginning of the story. With the use of this technique, subplots may be created, character backstories can be explored, and important details can be revealed. Contrarily, paralipsis is a literary device where the narrator wilfully withholds information that the reader could guess. Paralipsis can be used to generate ambiguity, cast doubt on the audience, and alter their perspectives. The novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald uses analepsis to reveal the backstory of Jay Gatsby and prolepsis brings back the reader to the present to witness his romantic innuendos with Daisy Buchanan. Paralipsis helps to create suspense about Gatby’s reality by withholding his true identity for some time. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini makes use of analepsis to explore the complex relationships between its characters, focusing on the protagonist's friendship with Hassan and the guilt he carries from his past bringing the reader in the present again, through prolepsis for progression of the narrative. In the novel, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, analepsis is used to unveil the backstories and secrets of the various characters in this psychological thriller. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, uses analepsis and prolepsis throughout the novel to reflect on his past and the events that led him to his current state of alienation. Important narrative techniques like prolepsis, analepsis, and paralipsis improve storytelling by rearranging time and the flow of information. They captivate the audience, foster character development, and complicate the plot structure. By skilfully utilizing these tools— engrossing, immersive, and thought-provoking narratives are produced.

The representation of wealth and how it is inherited often determines a person's position in the social structure. The difference between old wealth and new wealth reflects different lifestyles, values, and forms of social recognition. This study aims to analyze Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, how the film depicts class and social inequality, and reflect on its relevance to contemporary Indonesian society. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, the analysis focuses on cinematic elements such as setting, characters, and visual symbols that represent the contrast between “old money” and “new money.” Guided by Marxist theory, this study explores how the film depicts class struggle, capitalism, and the illusion of social mobility. The results of the study reveal two key findings. First, the film affirms that new wealth does not automatically confer cultural legitimacy, as the social structure remains controlled by established groups. Second, this representation is relevant to the Indonesian context, where differences in lifestyle, access, and privilege between “old money” and “new money” are still strongly visible in urban social life. However, this study has limitations because it only examines one film and does not use empirical data from Indonesian society. Overall, The Great Gatsby criticizes capitalist inequality and illustrates how class divisions persist over time, both in 1920s America and in Indonesia today.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has been extensively examined from literary and stylistic perspectives; however, its pragmatic dimensions, particularly verb presupposition triggers, remain underexplored. Factive and implicative verbs play a crucial role in conveying implicit assumptions, shaping narrative meaning, and maintaining discourse coherence. The lack of corpus-based pragmatic analysis limits a comprehensive understanding of how presuppositional mechanisms operate within literary texts, especially in cross-linguistic contexts. This study aims to identify and classify verb presupposition triggers in The Great Gatsby, with a specific focus on factive and implicative verbs, and to examine how these triggers contribute to the construction of implicit meaning and narrative coherence. Additionally, the study seeks to propose a cross-linguistic, corpus-driven framework for presupposition analysis. A corpus-driven approach is employed by aligning the English source text of The Great Gatsby with its Chinese translations. The analysis draws on an established corpus of verb presupposition triggers in modern Chinese, enabling the systematic identification and classification of corresponding presuppositional verbs in English through cross-linguistic mapping. The findings reveal that factive and implicative verbs function as key pragmatic devices that embed background assumptions, guide reader interpretation, and enhance textual cohesion throughout the narrative. The corpus-based, cross-linguistic methodology proves effective in uncovering implicit pragmatic patterns that are not easily detected through traditional qualitative analysis. This study enriches the pragmatic interpretation of The Great Gatsby and demonstrates the value of corpus-driven methods in literary pragmatics. Moreover, it offers a replicable methodological model for constructing verb presupposition trigger corpora in English and other languages, contributing to broader research in corpus pragmatics and cross-linguistic studies

This paper explores Marxist theory's vital role in literary studies, contrasting it with post-WWII approaches like formalism and structuralism, which prioritize language and text (Culler, 1997). Unlike these, Marxism stresses on social, economic, and historical forces shaping literature (Eagleton, 1996). From a Marxist lens, texts reflect class struggle, power dynamics, and material realities, not plain entertainment (Marx & Engels, 1998). Fundamental concepts contain historical materialism, class conflict, and capitalism critique (Marx, 1990; Fiveable, 2025). The base-superstructure model postulates economic bases determining cultural superstructures like literature, which often reinforces ruling-class ideology (Marx & Engels, 1998; Eagleton, 1996). Marxist criticism thus uncovers how texts propagate or challenge inequality. Examples include Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”, and García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, all exposing class tensions. Marxism's relevance persists amid economic crises, wealth gaps, monopoly capitalism, and consumerism (Wani et al., 2018; Singh, 2024; Oxfam, 2023). In sum, Marxism links literature to real-world conditions, positioning it as a catalyst for social awareness and change (Eagleton, 1996; Musto, 2012).

This article will examine the surprisingly prolific advocacy for the use of characters from the Star Wars franchise (1977-2024) to teach neurodivergence. While Star Wars is a specific example, it is utilized here as a focus for the larger issue within academia of the uncritical use of popular culture media for diagnostic pedagogy (defined here as the use of teaching methods designed to help students understand the processes of diagnoses). Responsible diagnostic pedagogy must be reflective of the immense power medical professionals have over their patients’ lives, avoid dehumanizing dis/ability, and incorporate the voices of people with dis/abilities. While Star Wars is a popular media franchise that students may engage with, its use in diagnostic pedagogy ignores dis/abled lived experience, intersectionality, and often relies on a gross misunderstanding of the text. This article will therefore explore how pedagogy utilizing the Star Wars franchise acts as a problematic example of the medical model that also ignores basic media theory. The case of bipolar Zelda (a pop culture phenomenon arising after the release of The Great Gatsby [2013]) will be analyzed as a far more productive counterexample. Specifically, this essay will argue that ‘bipolar Zelda’ succeeds where Star Wars fails because it invites intersectional discussions centering around issues of power and oppression.

Abstract F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and “Spring in Fialta” are perfectionist love stories that feature car accidents. What is the relationship of the aesthetic bliss that replaces romantic bliss, on the one hand, to a plot that depends on random violence, on the other? This essay argues that Fitzgerald is Nabokov's precursor in reconciling the age of randomness, as noted and theorized by Victorian novelists, to modernist technical perfectionism by considering accidents in the Aristotelian-Thomistic way, as the inessential disguise and deliverer of substantial change, the transubstantiation of God. Nabokov is Fitzgerald's antitype: a canonical linkage that reveals the synchronicity of time. The essay puts Fitzgerald's ambition to write a novel better than he can write in relation to John Freccero's argument about The Divine Comedy: that it is the record of Dante's attempt to write a poem better than he can write — at least at first, before his conversion by way of Inferno. The problem for Fitzgerald and Nabokov is that language itself cannot play the role of the transubstantiated God, the substance that hides behind the accidents of their books. The essay is a tribute to the failed attempt, which, as opposed to Victorian art, does not live within modernity but seeks, impossibly, to forestall it.

Abstract In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald dramatized the response of upper-class liberals to the collapse of Progressivism and to a widely shared perception in the 1920s of a crisis of democratic government. His famed indictment of “careless people” reflects Nick Carraway’s effort to find a source of authority that will enable him to critique both inherited wealth and popular democracy. In Nick’s self-justification, Fitzgerald reveals attitudes that tempt professional-class liberals again today.

This study reads The Great Gatsby as a temporal enactment of melancholia, where Freud's pathology of unresolved loss meets affect theory's contagious moods. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) is widely recognized as a critique of modernity; this study argues that melancholia is the novel's primary diagnostic lens for exposing modernity's structural failures. Rather than treating melancholia as a secondary affect, this analysis positions it as the affective mechanism through which Fitzgerald reveals the temporal, ethical, and ontological contradictions of Jazz Age modernity. Through Gatsby's pathological fixation on a receding past, Nick's melancholic narration of temporal collapse, and symbols (green light, Valley of Ashes) that materialize un-mournable futures and stratified waste, the novel demonstrates that modernity produces melancholia as its inevitable symptom-and melancholia, in turn, unmasks modernity's hollow core. This study thus contributes a melancholic hermeneutic of modernity,, showing how unresolved loss is not incidental but constitutive of consumerist, industrial, and aspirational modernity.

To fully understand a literary work, we must explore its origins – who wrote it, when and why it was created, and the meanings the author intended to convey. In The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald's personal views, emotions, and thoughts are deeply embedded in the novel's structure and themes. Therefore, to interpret the novel more effectively, we need to consider these influences and how they shape Fitzgerald's stylistic and linguistic choices. This analysis will examine Fitzgerald's narrative techniques, including first-person and retrospective narration, as well as his use of language to establish tone and meaning. Through the linguo-stylistic method of analysis, we will explore his figurative language such as metaphors, similes and other literary tools to uncover deeper layers of expression. Additionally, a cognitive-stylistic approach will help us understand how Fitzgerald's language choices evoke emotions in characters and influence the reader's perception of the novel's themes.

This paper aims to analyze the first Polish translation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's third novel, The Great Gatsby, published by Ariadna Demkowska-Bohdziewicz in 1962, with a focus on the translator's strategies in reproducing culturally specific references and realia of the early twentieth century American society, idiomatic expressions and stylistic nuances.Particular attention is given to the political and cultural context of Cold War-era Poland, which may have influenced translation choices such as the omission of ethnic identifiers or the general attenuation of language.The study reveals the translator's tendency towards domestication and explicitation with the purpose of increasing the readability of the novel for the target audience, often at the expense of its stylistic and cultural richness.

The aim of the article is to explore the linguistic, cultural, and stylistic challenges involved in translating F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” into Kazakh language. As a seminal work of American literature, the novel presents unique difficulties for Kazakh translators due to its rich use of symbolism, period-specific idioms, and culturally bound references to 1920s American society. This study employs research methods as theoretical analysis of literary translation, comparative translation analysis and textual analysis. It also analyzes strategies used to convey the nuances of social class, identity, and the American Dream to a Kazakh-speaking audience, highlighting the role of explanatory techniques such as footnotes and adaptive equivalence. The results of the study showed how key elements—such as Fitzgerald’s lyrical prose, character-specific speech patterns, and central metaphors (e.g., the green light, the valley of ashes)—are rendered in Kazakh preserving both meaning and literary tone. The research underscores the translator’s role not only as a linguistic mediator but also as a cultural interpreter, and it contributes to broader discussions on the localization of Western literature in Kazakh language contexts.

Abstract This study investigates the critical reading experiences of preservice English teachers by comparing the original novel The Great Gatsby with its graphic novel adaptation. A total of 35 preservice teachers from the English Language Teaching Department participated. Over the course of a 14‐week semester, both the novel and graphic novel were assigned sequentially, and comparative discussions were facilitated throughout the process. The study employed a mixed‐methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with a quantitative Likert scale survey. The survey assessed various aspects of the texts, including narrative structure, character development, thematic representation and overall critical reading. The findings indicated that while preservice teachers appreciated the visual appeal and engaging nature of the graphic novel, they also observed a reduction in the depth and complexity of character portrayal compared to the original novel. The study emphasises the importance of incorporating diverse formats, such as graphic novels, into literary education. The findings suggest that graphic novels can make stories more engaging and easier to understand. However, they may also simplify complex themes and character development. This research highlights the need for further exploration of graphic novels as teaching tools, recognising their strengths in enhancing comprehension while also considering their challenges in preserving the depth and nuance of traditional narratives.

This paper examines the complex relationship between economic growth, income inequality, and social mobility using a mixed-methods approach incorporating both quantitative analysis of OECD data (2000-2024) and theoretical frameworks from development economics. The research question investigates whether economic growth necessarily leads to increased income inequality and reduced social mobility, or if policy interventions can decouple these relationships. Using panel data analysis and the Great Gatsby Curve framework, findings reveal a nuanced relationship where the quality and inclusiveness of growth matter more than growth rates alone. Results indicate that while rapid economic growth can exacerbate inequality in the short term, countries with strong institutional frameworks and redistributive policies maintain higher social mobility despite growth. The study contributes to understanding how policy design can harness economic growth while preserving social mobility and reducing inequality.