Plot Flaws In The Great Gatsby

863 words - 4 pages

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a novel that epitomizes the time in our history known as the roaring twenties. It was a time of great extravagances and frolicsome attitudes. The novel also revealed the darker side of this time with its underlying themes of greed and betrayal on the part of many of the characters. The novel as a whole seems to be a very well thought out piece of literature with little or no flaws. However, if studied a bit harder several defects can be spotted. These include such things as shifts in setting, sequence manipulation, and shifting of narrators.

The setting of a novel is very important to the overall plot. It can help define the mood and ...view middle of the document...

Another flaw in the plot line was that of obvious sequence manipulation. An example of this was when they decided to go to town in chapter seven. Tom, Nick, and Jordan go in Gatsby’s car, and Gatsby and Daisy go in Tom’s. Then on their return they have the same car arrangements. This was very unusual particularly with the circumstances surrounding Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy’s conversation in the hotel room. In a real life situation there would be no way that Tom would have let his wife ride home with the man she was having an affair with. This unrealistic action was performed to put the characters in the right position needed for the confusion of the car accident involving Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan’s mistress. Not to mention that it so happened that Daisy was supposedly driving even though she was severely shaken up by the hotel incident. “She thought it would steady her to drive...”(151); driving is the last thing somebody should do if they are emotionally traumatized.

A similar instance of sequence manipulation has to do with the unusual coincidental nature of certain scenes relation to timing. “A moment later [Myrtle] rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting...”(144), this whole scenario of her being able to recognize a speeding car from inside a garage when it was starting to get dark was quite a bit unbelievable. Also, the fact that after recognizing the car she had enough...

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