The Great Gatsbyand Myth

Abstract

While The Great Gatsby is a novel much debated by critics and readers, there has been a general consensus that in a variety of ways the novel attains the status of a myth, and that Gatsby is a sort of mythical hero. The debate that has developed is over the kind of myth that The Great Gatsby is. Briefly, the critical issue is whether or not Fitzgerald was writing a myth specifically about America and American society, or whether the themes of The Great Gatsby transcend such particulars of time and place, and attain a wider relevance.