The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Jazz Age (the
Roaring 1920s) on Long Island, near New York, it depicts first-person narrator
Nick Carraway’s interaction with Jay Gatsby, the mysterious millionaire with an
obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.
The American Dream
A question for all of us studying the great Gatsby. What if Jay Gatsby was never
after the American Drean in the first place??
What is the American Dream?? It is the belief that America?? Offers the
opportunity to everyone a good and successful life achieved through hard-work.
A dream of a land in which land should be better and richer and fuller for
everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or
achievement….regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.
Over all an aspiration that anyone of any class, caste, gender can achieve. A
good and happy life, a better way of living, better and richer life. Rather vague. It
depends on how one would define the definition of happiness in this American
Dream. Although morally, its concept includes truth and justice, within business
of capitalism, not everyone plays by these rules. It is the accruing material
prosperity and capitalistic end, and Gatsby does achieve that. But his lonely
violent end tells us that he has not quite gained the happiness that has been
promised to come with the American Dream package. So was he even after the
American Dream?
If one is to think about Gatsby’s character, he has too much depth as being a
success or failure of the American Dream. He has an idealistic yet mysterious
personality. Till the end, he seemed to be a composed character who is
nevertheless, an embodiment of the American Dream. His motivations are not
rooted in material or financial pursuit. But in a much-romanticized yearning for
utopian transcendence. The problem of the American Dream for Gatsby is that
its very much achievable provided one works hard for it. But what Gatsby wants
is something he can never achieve. For instance, like the status of those from
Old Money that the Buchanan’s have which he’s not been born into but Oxford
association with European aristocratic Blue Blood Ties, or in changing Daisy’s
value by having her give up on Tom Buchanan and marrying Gatsby instead. This
was never going to happen.
He lied to Nick about his origins and said he came from a wealthy family, who
are all dead now. “I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West, all
dead now.” By fabricating association with old money America and British
aristocratic, he reveals that what he desires is not anything that sheer effort or
hard work can ever help him achieve like the American Dream. Rather he’s after
circumstances of birth that no one can control or obtain through individual
agencies.
In the novel, a symbol that reveals that Gatsby was never after the American
Dream is his mansion. For the average person who is after the American Dream,
his or her home would, according to the time, have a loving home, white picket
fence, children and possibly, two dogs. But Gatsby is after none of that. The
point of the American Dream is to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor by feeling a
sense of ownership over one’s house and family. In the novel, it is seen that
Gatsby’s mansion is so much for other people and not himself. (the main
occupiers of the home)
Another symbol in the novel is the green light that was permanently lit at the
end of Daisy and Tom’s boat dock. There is a description of him stretching out
his arms towards something he can never reach. This is a gesture that he repeats
over and over again. The first time the green light appears, it is described as an
“enchanted” magical object, but in chapter five, the light has had its “colossal
significance” because Gatsby is actually standing there, touching Daisy herself,
hence he no longer needs to stretch out his arms.
The idea of the American Dream is one that is socially corrupt because even
though Gatsby is a self-made millionaire, the society that he lives in does not
accept him. One reason for this is because he lives in West Egg, whereas the
“East Egg is reserved for the elite members of the upper class born into old
money”. Upon closer inspection on Gatsby, the American Dream is actually one
of hollowness.
For Gatsby, his American Dream actually became Daisy….to have her, for her to
leave Tom for him. But this was never to be, as Daisy couldn’t admit that she
never loved. And even Gatsby, himself, was unsure if Daisy were to return to
him, would it be because she really loved him, or would it be because he was
now rich? Nevertheless, Daisy or the rest of society could never accept Gatsby.
He lived in West Egg, whereas the old money folks resided in East Egg.
Gatsby’s was on the path to his own destruction. He was in pursuit of a dream
that turned him evil.
