Bronze monuments: the terror of death and its role in The Great Gatsby

This thesis is about the way humans cope with death through the lens of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in the wake of war. The thesis contains three chapters all of which work in succession to build a picture of various characters’ death denial. Chapter 2 considers how Nick’s narrative is an attempt to deny death through the ritual of mourning. Chapter 3 analyzes wealth in the novel and its role in striving for immortality. Gatsby transcends the limits of an ordinary life with his interest in opulence, while Nick’s wealth provides a level of privilege that allows for his avoidance of hardship. Chapter 4 examines the novel’s three main female characters: Jordan, Daisy, and Myrtle. The primary goal of this thesis is to demonstrate how the text of Gatsby serves as a piece of meta-fiction that functions in concert with its characters to transcend the limitations of mortality.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Talley, Samuel

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shaheen, Aaron
• Hampton, Bryan Adams; Stuart, Christopher J.
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Death--Psychological aspects
• Fiction--Technique
• Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940. Great Gatsby; Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940--Criticism and interpretation

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/803

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1994