ShmoopTube

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We speak student!

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The Great Gatsby

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Incorruptible Dreams

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a la Shmoop

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Incorruptible Dreams.

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Our main character doesn't even make it

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to the last page of the book.

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Gatsby dies. Spoiler alert there, sorry.

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[ scream ]

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What does Gatsby's death mean?

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Yeah, well, I mean...

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Gatsby is shot by George Wilson.

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And the crazy thing about it is that he's not --

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He's shot because he thinks that Myrtle

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was having an affair him, with Gatsby.

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So he's killed -- His death is meaningless,

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because George kills him for

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something that's not true.

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And that kind of brings to light the fact

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that nothing in this book is real.

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Nothing is true. So what does it matter

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that he was killed for an untrue reason?

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Because everything's false.

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So, yeah, Gatsby dies and --

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And, if I may, even the notion of the real truth...

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In theory when you buy a book,

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if nothing else, you can trust its title.

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[ goofy laugh ]

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And in this case, it's like the, eh, "great" Gatsby.

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It's sort of like the opposite.

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He wasn't great. He was just kind of there.

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He was a placeholder,

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which is about as opposite of great as you can get.

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Right. And the fact that it's The Great Gatsby

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is, again, another nod to what

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Fitzgerald can do with words.

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By saying "the great Gatsby," we --

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He's great. He's this enigma of

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excitement and parties and greatness.

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And at the same time, it is so clearly ironic that he's called "the great Gatsby,"

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because there is nothing about him that is great.

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[ crash ]

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There's nothing about anyone in this book that's great.

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Even Nick kind of turns out to be a little bit judge-y.

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[ whoop ]

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What does Gatsby's death mean?

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[ goofy laugh ]

Full Transcript