F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald authored and released The Great Gatsby as a book in 1925. It features people who call the fictional town of West Egg on Long Island home. The summer of 1922 is the primary setting. Fitzgerald defines, extols, and criticizes the idea of the American Dream in his novel. In essence, symbols and literary techniques are used to portray the American Dream and its demise. Fitzgerald tries to capture the latent pessimism that pervaded during the 1920s in his book. He provides evidence of the American Dream's decline and eventual death. The Great Gatsby handles longstanding subjects like the pursuit of happiness, social stratification and the meaning of life and existence. Fitzgerald’s inferences regarding the American Dream are characterized by social criticism of the moral effects that are aligned with material excess and vast wealth as manifested in the book’s characters. Basically, in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald attempts to illustrate that the American Dream ethos was misguided and overrated in the 1920s.
Overview
The Great Gatsby is set in the summer of 1922 in America. It is narrated by Nick Carraway, who is a veteran and a Yale graduate from the Midwest. He accepts a job as a salesman in New York and takes up residence on Long Island, next to Jay Gatsby, an enigmatic millionaire who is mainly characterized by his lavish parties in which is more of an observer than a participant. Nick’s cousin, Daisy, lives in East Egg with her husband, Tom Buchanan, whom Nick is acquainted with from college. Through his cousin Nick meets a contemptuous golfer, Jordan Baker, and a romantic affair ensues between them. Over the course of the novel it is revealed that Tom has a mistress called Myrtle Wilson, who also has a husband. They dwell in the Valley of Ashes, which is a dumping ground located between New York City and West Egg.
The center of the novel is the friendship that develops between Gatsby and Nick. After Nick is invited to one of his parties, Gatsby is inclined to make his acquaintance because he is Daisy’s cousin, with whom he is in love with. Moreover, they were also in a similar division in the Great War. Nick learns that Daisy is Gatsby’s ideal American Dream. He is obsessed with sharing a life with her and perceives it as the ultimate fulfillment of all his dreams. On most nights, Gatsby stares at the green light that marks the end of Daisy and Tom’s dock, which is across the bay from his residence. He reveals that he only bought his place to be closer to Daisy and holds such lavish parties in the hope that one day she will attend.
Nick plays a major role in reuniting the two lovers who start having an affair. When Tom finds out, however, he is enraged, even more so when he realizes that he has also lost his mistress. He drives Gatsby’s vehicle and Myrtle ends up dead on the street, apparently by a hit-and-run that was caused by Gatsby’s car. Soon after, when Gatsby and Daisy are driving by, Daisy is at the wheels but Gatsby assumes the responsibility for the accident. Wilson, Myrtle’s husband is aggrieved by the loss of his wife and seeks out Tom for revenge. Tom directs him towards Gatsby and Wilson eventually kills Gatsby and himself. Nick makes the funeral arrangements but none of Gatsby’s friends and acquaintances attends. Not even Daisy bothers to come. Seemingly, no one is bothered by Gatsby’s death. Disgusted by the people around him, Nick decided to move back to the Midwest.
The American Dream
The ‘American Dream’ is an ideal that was coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931 in Epic of America. The definition of the American Dream can only be explained in one paragraph as written by Adams.
“That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position” (Adams 2).
The American Dream is the idealistic notion that each American citizen has an equal opportunity of achieving prosperity and success through initiative, determination and hard work. “Scholars argue whether The Great Gatsby is a parody on the concept of the American Dream, a criticism of the era or simply a love story, but its status as a modern classic is hardly questioned” (Kleven 1).
The Pursuit of the American Dream
Majority of the characters in the novel are in pursuit of the American dream. Through each of these characters, it is evident that the American Dream is largely overrated and misguided.
Jay Gatsby
Gatsby was initially a simple man, born to poor farmers. He enlisted to fight in the Great War. It was in the course of this venture that he met Daisy as a volunteer. With time he fell madly in love with her but felt that she was beyond his reach. Regardless, he decided that a life with her was his ultimate American Dream. The misguided nature of the American Dream is evident in the way Gatsby sought out to win over Daisy. He perceived that he could not give her a fulfilled life without material wealth. Therefore, in order to acquire his American Dream it was important to Gatsby that he amasses vast wealth and possessions. He takes his time to become a wealthy man during which period Daisy marries another wealthy man, Tom. Regardless, Gatsby still perceives that he can win her over if only he becomes wealthier. He acquires a large mansion just across from Daisy’s marital home, expensive cars and silk shirts. He also throws the biggest and most expensive parties on a regular basis just to draw the curiosity of the woman he loves. “Fitzgerald uses the American Dream as a means of criticism of the hysterical quest for wealth as displayed in the character of Jay Gatsby” (Lindberg 14). Basically, according to the view of the American Dream portrayed in the story, Fitzgerald suggests that wealth and material possessions supposedly increase one’s happiness in life and therefore America is filled with people who attempt to amass as much wealth as possible in the hope that it will make them happy. According to The Great Gatsby this is a wrong approach to the American Dream.
Myrtle Wilson
Myrtle is not considered to be a major character in the story. However, she plays an essential role in the entire plot. She is the mistress of Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. She is the wife of garage owner, Wilson. She dwells in the Valley of Ashes, a dumping ground in the city. Her perception of the American Dream is associated with material possessions. Therefore, she is eagerly receptive of the attentions of Tom Buchanan, who is a representation of the actualization of the American Dream according to Daisy. He is rich and ‘sophisticated’ with a lineage that is embedded in wealth. Tom is her stepping stone to the American Dream. She perceives him as a breath of fresh air from the life of poverty and misery that she leads. She likes the idea of spending money that she does not have on things that she does not need. “I’m going to make a list of all the things I’ve got to get; a massage and a wave, and a collar for the dog, and one of those cute little ashtrays” (Fitzgerald 42).
It is understandable though that Gatsby and Myrtle both associate the American Dream and happiness with worldly possession. Gatsby was a raised as a poor child and considers wealth to be everything since he lacked it as a child. Besides, Daisy represents the kind of woman who is at the pinnacle of society and for a man with a poor background, she is the ultimate acquisition. Myrtle is still poor and despises her life of poverty. She wants to reach for a better life, which she believes can be acquired through wealth.
Daisy Buchanan
Daisy is the wife of Tom and Nick’s cousin as well as the object of Gatsby’s utmost affections. She is portrayed as being beautiful and seemingly shallow with an illusion of sophistication, which she did not possess in actuality. Daisy perceived that the American Dream for a woman of her station was to marry someone with a wealthy lineage like Tom. It is evident that she does not love him but remains married to him simply because of the status he holds in society. Her marriage is unhappy and her husband cheats on her with a garage-owner’s wife from the Valley of Ashes. She becomes cynical and contemptuous in life mainly due to her unsatisfactory marriage. Before her wedding she was crying because she did not want to marry Tom, yet she did anyway. “Tell em’ Daisy’s change’ her mine” (Fitzgerald 40).
Nick Carraway
To a small extent, Nick is also in pursuit of the American Dream and for a brief amount of time he perceives it in Jordan Baker, before he banishes his disillusionment about her kind. She is a renowned tournament golfer from the East and Nick has a distinct and profound feeling that she is incurably dishonest and yet he begins a romantic relationship with her. “Nick refers to an unpleasant story about her, which turns out to be that she cheated. He is attracted to her nevertheless for Jordan personifies to him the seductive values of the East” (Hollister 8).
Realization of the American Dream
For all the characters in the novel, the American Dream, which equates to happiness, eludes them. Firstly, Gatsby regularly looks at the “green light at the end of the dock across the bay”. In America, the green light means ‘Go’. It is a clear symbolism of the American Dream. It also identifies growth, envy and money. Gatsby perceives the green light on Daisy’s property as a sign that he should go for her and pursue his dream of having her against all odds. Ultimately, she eludes him and even causes his death indirectly. She does not even bother to attend his funeral. She writes a letter to Nick: “I cannot come down now as I am tied up in some very important business and cannot get mixed up in this thing now” (Fitgerald 91).
Myrtle’s pursuit of the American Dream also ends in death. She is killed by Daisy who was driving Gatsby’s car. Her husband seeks revenge and ends up killing Gatsby and himself. Evidently, all the people who came from poverty in pursuit of wealth and happiness ended up dead. The rich, Tom and Daisy, who had set of a chain of unfortunate events, escaped unscathed by the results of the mess that they had created. The reason for this according to Fitzgerald is that they were rich with old money and therefore untouchable by the squalor of the ‘little people’ who were only making futile attempts to reach their level.
Concerning the story, Fitzgerald once commented: “America’s greatest promise is that something is going to happen, and after a while you get tired of waiting because nothing happens to people except that they grow old” (Sutherland, & Connell 74). The factor of old money arises in this context. Gatsby thought that if he could only amass unprecedented wealth then he could have his dream of being with Daisy. However, he only had ‘new money’ in a society whereby only ‘old money’ is respected. Tom had old money and for that reason he knew that regardless of what transpired between Gatsby and Daisy, she would never leave him for Gatsby because of his lineage.
Conclusion
The Great Gatsby explores the American Dream in a period of extreme corruption. It attempts to conceal the boundary that separates the illusions from reality (Bewley 2). Gatsby was a man of passionate hope. Nick says of him: “It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall every find again” (Fitzgerald 2). In the end, this hope kills him just as it kills Myrtle and Wilson. Daisy and Tom set off on an abrupt trip to escape from the backlash of their own messes. Fitzgerald attempts to discredit the ideal of the American Dream. The only reason why Daisy and Tom can create such havoc in other people’s lives without suffering the consequences of their actions is because they are at the pinnacle of society. Tom has always been rich; he was born into the American Dream and will likely die in it. People such as Gatsby do not stand a chance of realizing a similar station in life simply because they work hard and hope for a better life.
Work cited
Adams, James Truslow. "The epic of America." (1932): 131-131.
Bewley, Marius. Scott Fitzgerald’s Criticism of America. 2014. Online Source.
Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. Online Source.
Hollister, Michael. Analysis: The Great Gatsby (1925). 2014. Online source.
Kleven, Oskar. The Great Gatsbies: a comparative study of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and the film adaptations from 1974 and 2013. 2013. Online source.
Lindberg, Lovisa. The American Dream as a Means of Social Criticism in The Great Gatsby. 2014. Online source.
Sutherland, John., & Connell, Jolyon. The Connell Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. 2010. Online Source.
