MEG 11 Block 3 Summary | F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

Here you will get the detailed summary of IGNOU MEG 11 Block 2 for Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie.

We have provided the summary of all units starting from unit 1 to unit 5.

Unit 1: The Man, The Milieu, and The Moment

This unit introduces us to F. Scott Fitzgerald, his life, the Roaring Twenties, and the cultural environment in which The Great Gatsby was written. Fitzgerald was born in 1896 and rose to fame during the Jazz Age—a period marked by prosperity, rebellion against traditional values, jazz music, and new attitudes toward wealth and pleasure. The unit highlights how Fitzgerald’s own experiences with love, money, social class, and fame deeply influenced his writing.

Fitzgerald was obsessed with the American Dream, social mobility, and the emptiness beneath glittering wealth.
His personal life, including his marriage to Zelda and financial struggles, paralleled the conflicts faced by his characters.
The 1920s offered economic excess and moral decay—an ideal backdrop for a novel about illusion, ambition, and loss.

This context helps us understand how The Great Gatsby became a mirror to its time: it glamorized wealth but also exposed the spiritual void behind it.

Unit 2: The Plot and The Self-Improving Hero

This unit presents the plot of The Great Gatsby and examines the character of Jay Gatsby as a classic self-made American hero. Gatsby, born James Gatz, reinvents himself from a poor farmer’s son to a wealthy socialite through sheer ambition, charm, and shady business dealings.

Key plot elements:

Narrated by Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate who rents a house next to Gatsby’s mansion.
Gatsby throws lavish parties hoping to win back Daisy Buchanan, his lost love.
Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, a wealthy, arrogant man.
Gatsby and Daisy briefly rekindle their romance, but it ends in disillusionment and Gatsby’s death.
The novel ends with Nick’s reflections on the American Dream and the moral emptiness of the rich.

Gatsby’s dream—to rise above his origins and recreate an idealized past—is doomed from the start. His relentless self-improvement and romantic vision make him heroic, but also tragically naive.

**Unit 3: The Great Gatsby and Fable, Symbol, and Allegory**

This unit explores the novel’s rich use of symbols, allegory, and mythic structure. The Great Gatsby is more than a love story; it is a modern fable about dreams, illusions, and the American ethos.

Key symbols:

The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock: Symbolizes Gatsby’s hopes and the unreachable dream.
The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg: A haunting image of godless judgment or moral emptiness in a material world.
The Valley of Ashes: Represents moral and social decay, the wasteland behind the glamour.
Gatsby’s mansion and car: Excess and artificiality masking inner emptiness.

The novel functions as a modern allegory—Gatsby stands for the American Dream; his rise and fall reflect the hollowness behind material success. The story echoes classical fables but is deeply rooted in modern disillusionment.

**Unit 4: The Great Gatsby: The Narrative Technique**

This unit analyzes the novel’s narrative structure and the role of Nick Carraway as a first-person narrator. Nick is both a participant and observer, which gives the novel a unique blend of intimacy and detachment.

Nick is not entirely reliable—his judgments are shaded by personal bias, admiration for Gatsby, and disdain for others.
The narrative is non-linear and layered, often moving through memory, retrospection, and selective storytelling.
Fitzgerald’s lyrical prose, filled with metaphors and rhythm, enhances the novel’s poetic and symbolic quality.

Nick’s voice allows readers to see Gatsby through a lens of nostalgia and critique, making the story feel both real and mythic.

Unit 5: Critics and Criticism – An Overview

This final unit surveys the critical reception of The Great Gatsby over the decades. Initially, the novel received mixed reviews and only gained recognition posthumously, particularly in the mid-20th century.

Major critical approaches:

New Criticism: Focused on its structure, symbols, and themes.
Marxist criticism: Viewed the novel as a critique of capitalism and class hierarchy.
Feminist criticism: Explored gender roles, especially the portrayal of Daisy and Myrtle.
Postmodern/Postcolonial readings: Looked at issues of identity, disillusionment, and the constructed nature of the American Dream.

The unit shows how The Great Gatsby evolved from a modest novel into a canonical work of American literature, inspiring debates on ambition, ethics, wealth, and memory.