Full title · The Great Gatsby

author · F. Scott Fitzgerald

type of work · Novel

genre · Modernist novel, Jazz Age novel, novel of manners

language · English

time and place written · 1923–1924, America and France

date of first publication · 1925

publisher · Charles Scribner’s Sons

narrator · Nick Carraway; Carraway not only narrates the story but implies that he is the book’s author

point of view · Nick Carraway narrates in both first and third person, presenting only what he himself observes. Nick alternates sections where he presents events objectively, as they appeared to him at the time, with sections where he gives his own interpretations of the story’s meaning and of the motivations of the other characters.

tone · Nick’s attitudes toward Gatsby and Gatsby’s story are ambivalent and contradictory. At times he seems to disapprove of Gatsby’s excesses and breaches of manners and ethics, but he also romanticizes and admires Gatsby, describing the events of the novel in a nostalgic and elegiac tone.

tense · Past

setting (time) · Summer 1922

settings (place) · Long Island and New York City

protagonist · Gatsby and/or Nick

major conflict · Gatsby has amassed a vast fortune in order to win the affections of the upper-class Daisy Buchanan, but his mysterious past stands in the way of his being accepted by her.

rising action · Gatsby’s lavish parties, Gatsby’s arrangement of a meeting with Daisy at Nick’s

climax · There are two possible climaxes: Gatsby’s reunion with Daisy in Chapters V–VI; the confrontation between Gatsby and Tom in the Plaza Hotel in Chapter VII.

falling action · Daisy’s rejection of Gatsby, Myrtle’s death, Gatsby’s murder

themes · The decline of the American dream, the spirit of the 1920s, the difference between social classes, the role of symbols in the human conception of meaning, the role of the past in dreams of the future

motifs · The connection between events and weather, the connection between geographical location and social values, images of time, extravagant parties, the quest for wealth

symbols · The green light on Daisy’s dock, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes, Gatsby’s parties, East Egg, West Egg

full title · A Farewell to Arms

author · Ernest Hemingway

type of work · Novel

genre · Literary war novel

language · English

time and place written · 1926–1928; America and abroad

date of first publication · 1929

publisher · Charles Scribner’s Sons

narrator · Lieutenant Frederic Henry

point of view · Henry narrates the story in the first person but sometimes switches to the second person during his more philosophical reflections. Henry relates only what he sees and does and only what he could have learned of other characters from his experiences with them.

tone · As the autobiographical nature of the work suggests, Hemingway’s apparent attitude toward the story is identical to that of the narrator.

tense · Past

setting (time) · 1916–1918, in the middle of World War I

setting (place) · Italy and Switzerland

protagonist · Frederic Henry

major conflict · While there is no single, clear-cut conflict, friction does arise when Henry’s love for Catherine cannot quell his innate restlessness.

rising action · Henry and Catherine’s flirtatious games prepare and sometimes foreshadow their love for each other; their last days together before Henry’s return to the front zero in on the demands of love versus Henry’s life outside his relationship with Catherine.

climax · Broadly speaking, the Italian retreat, but more specifically, Henry’s capture and near-execution by the battle police

falling action · Henry’s decision to flee and quit the army marks his farewell to arms and his commitment to Catherine.

themes · The grim reality of war, the relationship between love and pain, feelings of loss

motifs · Masculinity, games and divertissement, loyalty versus abandonment, illusions and fantasies, alcoholism

symbols · While Hemingway avoids the sort of symbol that neatly equates an object with some lofty abstraction, he offers many powerfully evocative descriptions that often resonate with several meanings. Among these are the rain, which scares Catherine and into which Henry walks at the end of the novel; Henry’s description of her hair; the painted horse; and the silhouette cutter Henry meets on the street.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1136