The Doomed Dream

Francis Scott Fitzgerald applies the techniques of foreshadowing as well as flashback in numerous ways in the American classic twentieth-century novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald weaves in both writing techniques to help organize the story, strengthen the plot, and allow readers to go back and forth in time, providing the characters’ background information as well as anticipation for upcoming events. He particularly uses foreshadowing in the latter half of the book to flash hints at the tragic events that follow. But Fitzgerald skillfully makes another use of this technique: to foretell the hopeless nature of Gatsby’s “flawless” dream. Through the use of objects, motifs, dialogue, and descriptions of Gatsby’s actions, Fitzgerald communicates the inevitable approaching death of Gatsby’s dream.
Because Gatsby, with his great power of imagination, conjures up an ideal dream of Daisy Buchanan, (the love of his life), he can never be satisfied with the reality of Dai...