Genre

English Lit: AQA A Level The Great Gatsby - Specification A, topic 6.1.2

The Great Gatsby may simultaneously be described as a love story, a tragedy, a fable about the American Dream and a crime story.

In short, these four elements come together to make the overall narrative about ‘destructive passion’.
We already know much about it being a love story and a tragedy.
By fable, we mean that it contains many archetypes and that within the narrative, there is a moral message for the reader.

The American Dream refers to the fact that in the opening up of America in the twentieth century, many people felt that they could go there and find not only material wealth but also long-term happiness.
In essence, this derived from the idea that America is a ‘new country’ and is not restricted by the boundaries of either European classes or other issues of poverty in developing countries.
Many people in the present are still seeking residency in the USA. This suggests the American Dream still exists.

Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby as a moralistic fiction.
This means the novel is there to teach us something.
When Nick returns from the East, he wants the world to be ‘at a sort of moral attention forever’.
In this, Fitzgerald seems to want his readers to be morally attentive too. The tragedy warns us of over-ambition.

Test yourself on Genre

Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby as a moralistic fiction. What does this mean?