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The Great Gatsby Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald s novel The Great Gatsby, the reader, through many methods and techniques, is placed in a position which, influenced by rich characterisation, leads to either a favourable or unfavourable outlook on the characters involved in the story. Set in 1922, and around the locale of New York City and Long Island, the story portrays the destruction of innocence, the materialism and the dishonesty of the times and the people. These values are foregrounded by the author and in effect, privilege the values that are portrayed by the narrator, Nick Carraway and those occasionally of the protagonist, Jay Gatsby. Characters such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan stand out as the effects of the shattering effect that the East has on the American Dream.
The plot of The Great Gatsby is of the protagonist, Jimmy Get who, changes his name to Jay Gatsby and amasses great wealth by dubious means solely to please Daisy, a socialite. Wooed earlier by the penniless Gatsby, Daisy had rejected him for her social equal, Tom Buchanan. Yet no matter how high Gatsby rises, he is doomed, for the wealthy Buchanan's are not worthy of Gatsby s sincerity and innocence. Though Gatsby plans to take the blame for a hit-and-run murder committed by Daisy, Tom Buchanan tells the victims husband that Gatsby was driving, and the husband murders Gatsby.
The Buchanan's retreat into the irresponsibility that their wealth allows them. The narrator, Nick Carraway, by then completely disillusioned by the East, returns to his home in the middle West. The context of the story is particularly important to the structure, views placed on the characters, and symbolism. In the time after the war, society was split up into four main factions. Firstly the rich by birth who are born into rich families and do no work, with emphasis placed on the fact that money makes money. The second class were the nouveaux rich who constructed their own wealth through their own hard work.
These people are privileged by the text. The third group were the middle class of who were dazzled by the two upper classes and most often portrayed as pathetic. The last group were the poor who were shown to have neither the drive nor the resources to make it big in society. 1922 was also during the period of prohibition and when bootleggers could often get rich quick by selling alcohol on the black-market to the rich. It was also the era of when women acted as they believed men wanted them to, air-headed and chic. The novel shows both the possibilities and the corruption of the American Dream in the East. Through the character of Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows that one could rise from obscurity to become a figure of legendary riches and social glamour.
But this worldly success, like his aristocratic manner (addressing everyone as old sport), is no more than a veneer, beneath which is a void. Crudely put, money and prestige do not bring happiness. Furthermore, his fortune is based upon shady business deals. It is ironic that much of Gatsby s bogus lustre has rubbed off upon Fitzgerald s dark fable, notably in film adaptations. The entire work is haunted by a sense of perpetual anti-climax a misapplication of power. Such a waste of power seems to be a characteristic of American culture then (and now? ) The point of view that is received from the story is that of the narrator, Nick Carraway.
He is however far from being from a third-person peripheral, he in fact deeply involved in the story. He is a young mid-westerner who, dissatisfied with his life at home, was attracted to New York and now sells bonds there. He is the most honest character of the novel he even tells readers that he is the only honest person he knows. His reliability and decency both gives him a sense of credibility as a narrator, and causes him to fail to become deeply fascinated by his rich friends on Long Island. He helps Daisy and Jay Gatsby to renew a love that they had known before Daisy s marriage, and he is probably the only the only person to have any genuine affection for Gatsby. However his affirmation of Gatsby at the end is complex; he envies Gatsby s romantic selflessness and innocence at the same time that he abhors his lack of self-knowledge.
Nick symbolizes the well rounded person with his traits of, tolerance, decency, naivety, and innocence. It is because of this, that the reader is positioned to like him. Gatsby is the protagonist of The Great Gatsby. Indeed, some of Fitzgerald s own characteristics can be seen in the Great Gatsby himself (the title is, of course, ironic).
The character of Gatsby was never intended by Fitzgerald to be a realistic portrayal; he is a romantic hero, always somewhat unreal, bogus and absurd. No matter the corrupt sources of his wealth, such as bootlegging and gambling (and these are only hinted at), he stands for hope, for romantic belief for innocence. He expects more from life than the other characters, who are all more or less cynical. He is an eternal juvenile in a brutal and corrupt world. A symbol of new money Gatsby spends much of his time trying to impress and become accepted by other rich people. He gives lavish parties for people he knows nothing about and most of whom he never meets, in the hope that one day Daisy will wander into one.
There was music from my neighbour s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests jumping from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound drawing the aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. Through the foregrounding of the amount of parties that Gatsby held and yet his lack of friends, demonstrated especially through his funeral, Fitzgerald privileges the idea of having friendship.
Since the reader is basically seeing and doing what Nick sees and does, the way that the reader is positioned to react towards Gatsby is greatly influenced by the chronological way that the narrator is brought to discover his neighbour for himself. Because of this progression at the beginning of the story, by listening to rumours and old money views on him we are positioned to dislike Gatsby. He represents everything I find distasteful However as the novel moves along Gatsby s underlying decency emerges and the reader is slowly brought to associate with the protagonist. You re worth the whole damn lot of them. In the end though it can even be pointed out that Gatsby showed the greatest form of love that can be shown for another, he in effect laid down his life in the defence of Daisy. Gatsby s obsessiveness over Daisy was quite prominent throughout with foregrounding of the facts that; he did not care that what he did to make his money was wrong, all he cared about was impressing her; he kept a scrapbook of articles involving her; and he bought his house so it could be opposite to the green light at the end of her jetty (green standing for envy).
This, in the end, wasted attempt at winning Daisy is brought about by her reluctance to move from the security that old money offered. Fitzgerald once said. America s great promise is that something s going to happen, but it never does. America is the moon that never rose.
This indictment of the American Dream could well serve as an epigraph for The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby pursues his dream of romantic success without ever understanding that it has escaped him. He fails to understand that he can not recapture the past (his love for Daisy Buchanan) no matter how much money he makes, no matter how much money he displays. Tom Buchanan was the egotistical, bigoted, racist, materialist, symbol for old money. The husband of Daisy he is conveyed as completely without taste, culture, or sensitivity, as he carries on a rather sordid affair with Myrtle Wilson. He pretends to help George Wilson, her husband, but allows him to think that Gatsby was not only her murderer but also her lover.
He is presented as the antihero or antagonist of the novel. Being born into already established wealth leads Tom into a self assurance that he is better than those who need to work. A materialist Tom involves himself in the goods that society had to offer. This materialism is not for any reason at all, contrasting him to Gatsby who bought everything he had to impress Daisy. Tom is also constantly questioning the origins of Gatsby, continually accusing him of being a bootlegger. Who is this Gatsby anyhow? ...
Some big bootlegger? It is worth noting that not only was a bootlegger an illegal profession, but it was in-fact work, in effect classifying Gatsby as middle class in the eyes of the rich by birth. Another contrasting point between Tom and Gatsby is that Tom treats his wife, Daisy, as a possession, while Gatsby loves and looks out for her. Tom is a stark contrast to Gatsby, from this and the critical view placed on him from the beginning of the text, the reader is caused to make the value judgement, to view Tom as an unfavourable character Daisy Buchanan, Nicks second cousin, takes the role of both Gatsby s dream and the wife of Tom. Unhappy in her marriage because of her husband s deliberate unfaithfulness, she has the character of a poor little rich girl. She renews an old love for Jay Gatsby and considers leaving her husband, but she is finally reconciled to him.
She kills Tom s mistress in a hit-and-run accident after a quarrel in which she defends both men as Tom accuses Gatsby of trying to steal her from him. Daisy allows Gatsby to take the blame for the accident and suffers no remorse when he is murdered by the woman s husband. After Gatsby s death she in effect disappears from the scene. They were careless people Tom and Daisy... they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clear up the mess they had made. Daisy, as her name implies, is like a young flower, she has a weak sense of innocence, yet she is cold and unfeeling.
Appearing as simple and childlike, Daisy is in the eternal pursuit of sophistication, often her opportunism takes hold of her and she ignores and feelings that she has. Oh aren t we so sophisticated. It should be noted that Daisy is constantly dressed in white, which can mean purity, or leave an impression of a deficiency in colour. Daisy s materialistic ways are often exhibited throughout the novel. The case of her daughter and her treatment as more of a possession rather than a child presents this. It can also be seen by the impression that the piles of fine designer label clothes that Gatsby possessed left on her.
Her cold heartedness is deeply contrasted to the loving and affection that is quite prominent in Gatsby. However much she was in love with Gatsby, she refused to leave the social and financial security that Tom offered. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it. We are encouraged by the text to view Daisy unfavourably. The contrasting of Gatsby to the other characters of the story also leads to the constructing of foregrounding and privileging of certain morals and values, or the lack of, in the text.
The materialism of society is foregrounded through the use of characterisation, especially in Tom and Daisy. This privileges and promotes feelings of love and spirituality in the midst of a cold, dark, unfeeling world. The corruption of society and the brutality of the East Coast is also substantially foregrounded in the text This privileges the idea of moral good and righteousness. Other narrative techniques are also used to convey the ideas in the text. There are several various themes or motifs that can be gained from The Great Gatsby, the main one being the corruption of the American dream which has already been introduced. Another is the ubiquity of car accidents.
This is also substantial considering that in the time cars were only owned by the rich. At Gatsby s first party, there is a smashup with drunk drivers. Jordan Baker has a near accident after which Nick calls her a rotten driver. Gatsby is stopped for speeding but is able to fix the ticket by showing the officer a card from the Mayor of New York. Finally, Myrtle Wilson is killed by Daisy, who is driving Gatsby s car. Bad driving becomes symbolic of pervasive irresponsibility and self-indulgence.
The adultery motif is also substantial. It can be noted that religion played no part in the lives of the characters in the story. This is a symbol of the moral recklessness of society. Indeed when Wilson is asked whether he was married in a church he replies, that was a long time ago. The frontier theme is also present. Gatsby believes in the green light, the ever accessible future in which one can achieve what one has missed in the past.
The final paragraphs of the novel state this important theme as well as it has ever been stated. Class issues are very well presented. Tom and Daisy seem accessible but when their position is threatened, they close the doors, retreating into their wealth and carelessness, letting others like Gatsby pay the price in hurt and suffering. The carelessness of the rich and their followers is seen in the recurring motif of the drunk driver. The symbol of the valley of ashes enhances the sterility motif. The many various relationships in the story are not seen to develop into anything meaningful.
Even the coming of a child did nothing to enhance Tom and Daisy s marriage. It is also seen that the Wilson s sterile marriage did not produce any children. To underscore the corruption of the American Dream, Fitzgerald s characters are nearly all finally seen as liars. Buchanan s mistress lies to her husband.
Jordan Baker is a pathological liar who cheats in golf tournaments. Tom Buchanan s lie to his mistress Myrtle s husband results in the murder of Gatsby. Daisy, herself, is basically insincere; she lets Gatsby take the blame for her hit-and-run accident. Gatsby s whole life is a lie. He lies about his past and his present, and he lies to himself. Nick is indeed the only character to survive the onslaught of corruption.
Settings of the novel is also a notable asset to the construction of characters in The Great Gatsby from the splendid mansions of Long Island through the wasteland of the valley of ashes presided over by the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg on a billboard (where the Wilsons live) to the Plaza Hotel of New York or Tom and Myrtle Wilson s apartment. The last main narrative technique employed by Fitzgerald is the selection of events that occurred over the summer. As the story takes place over a whole summer it is inappropriate to establish every little thing that went on, instead only events valuable to the characters construction are entered into the text.
The Great Gatsby is extensive in its construction of its characters throughout the story. Through techniques such as, narration, foregrounding and privileging, symbolism, motifs, and contrasting of the characters, Fitzgerald achieves his cause of the reader reacting either positively or negatively towards each of these characters. The use of Nick as the morally acceptable narrator is decisive in the way that the reader responds toward the other characters as it is from his eyes that the reader sees the other characters. Using Nick as the well rounded person and a guideline it is seen that while the reader reacts towards both Nick and Gatsby favourably, the reader is brought to react to the Buchanan's, and many other people, unfavourably. This essay was written by Exodus 5 The Great Gatsby 19 / 8 / 1998
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