The Great Gatsby and Short Sto

Certain novels and short stories written between the two world wars express common traits that equate to a story commonly labeled Modern American literature. The authors expressed a need through writing of peace and search for values in an unstable world. By careful examination and comparative analysis of the novel The Great Gatsby and other short stories of the Modern Era, one could find the similarities in point of view, conflict, theme, and setting.

The role of the narrator and point of view in the aforementioned stories all commonly consist of a first person point of view, and an involved narrator. In The Great Gatsby, the novel’s narrator is Nick Carraway. He is a young man who moves to the East to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often becomes a confidant for those with troubling secrets and problems. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through Nick’s eyes, and his thoughts and perceptions shape the story. As Nick says, “I’m inclined to reserve all judgments…the abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality”(Fitzgerald 1). In the short story by Catherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Grann

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