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F. Scott Fitzgerald, in The Great Gatsby, imparts upon the reader a very specific impression of glamour and allurement in a perfect, yet shallow, upper class society. We have the perfect metaphorical contrast; Nick s inner struggle between being surrounded by beautifully rotten people or himself alone as a true man. When Nick comes to the point in his life where he is torn between the two, Nick s metamorphosis takes place.
Through the duration of the novel, he experiences an epiphany through the observation of the false life Gatsby leads, then comes to a realization that he cannot help nor change such superficial values in those surrounding him, therefore he attempts to make his own life a life with true meaning. Nick seems to be quite the socialite; he is always attending Gatsby s parties, lunch outings with Daisy and Tom, and trips to town with Jordan Baker, yet never once does he admit to anyone (except to the reader) how purposeless and alone he sometimes feels. The superficiality of the materialistic lifestyle within the lives of the characters in The Great Gatsby is revealed and contrasted through the reader getting to know Nick. Nick was always involved somewhere within Gatsby s rich, complex life, yet he was still somewhat apart from it all along.
In the very first chapter, Nick begins to tell a past story, a flashback, and perhaps this story can be presumably narrated in isolation now, due to the unknown outcome that the book later reveals. He seems almost at peace with himself, for now Nick knows he rides far above the pettiness and obvious suppressions that only shallow people possess: Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes but after a certain point, I don t care what it s founded on (Fitzgerald 6). One could very easily take Nick for a snob in the very first chapter, even possibly take him as a lonely, condescending, introverted man with nothing else better to do than to look down upon the rest of society. But then there is this radiant light that shines throughout Nick s words. This light seems to ride above all that Nick has ever seen or experienced, and this light s name is Jay Gatsby. The image of Gatsby s parties and how Nick interacted there shows us how he was swept into this world of spiritual deprivation and materialism.
From the beginning to the end of the story, Nick is aware that people of money, (like Daisy and Tom) are often shallow and arrogant people, so he separates himself from people like them on one level: I am still afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my fatherly snobbishly suggested and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth (Fitzgerald 6). But Nick discovers one man, with whom he has such an absolute fascination for, that for a brief moment in his lifetime, Nick s initial morality seems to dissolve and he enters Gatsby s environment. In this environment, he meets a woman named Jordan Baker and becomes romantically involved with her. Unfortunately, Jordan herself is a careless person who is indifferent towards most people except herself. She brings out superficiality in Nick that is clearly represented in the beginning of the book.
For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, and then in midsummer I found her again. At first I was flattered to go places with her because she was a golf champion and everyone knew her name. Then it was something more. I wasn t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity... She was incurably dishonest It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is something you never blame deeply-I was casually sorry, and then I forgot (Fitzgerald 62 - 63).
It is not until the very last chapter, (after Gatsby s death and the Buchanan s departure) and after the holocaust was complete (Fitzgerald 170), that Nick realizes how dangerous complacency can be when it s counterpart is superficiality. Nick expresses this discovery when he officially ends his relationship with Jordan Baker and the epiphany is now visible. You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver didn t I?
I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride. I m thirty, I said. I m five years to old to lie to myself and call it honor. She didn t answer.
Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away (Fitzgerald 186). In the end, the illusion of happiness attained through corruption and wealth is what destroys the life of Jay Gatsby and helps create a more meaningful one for Nick Carraway. Gatsby leaves much debris of his lonely life behind and Nick is leftover to pick up the pieces. For instance, Meyer Wolfsheim and Klipspringer won t even come to his funeral and Nick tries with all his good will to convince them to come. Even Gatsby s very own father had only a picture to show for his son s life and of his attainments. Jimmy sent me this picture.
He took at out his wallet with trembling fingers. Look there. It was a photograph of the house, cracked in the corners and dirty with many hands. He pointed out every detail to me eagerly.
Look there! and then sought admiration from my eyes (Fitzgerald 180). In the process of picking up all these pieces, the reader begins to see that Nick was Gatsby s only friend in the world, the only person who truly sacrificed a bit of honest emotion for him. Nick sees how Gatsby s house once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams (Fitzgerald 189). What this means, is that Nick has found the falsehood in the green light from across the waters and that Jay Gatsby is the light s most perfect symbol.
Although Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves (Fitzgerald 157), Nick learns (from watching Gatsby) that wealth imprisons nothing but failed dreams and no human connection is obtained through wealth if that is the only thing you have to cling to. For Nick Carraway, whose epiphany of detachment from a depth less society has just occurred, the question still remains: Does Nick find peace or loneliness at the new station in life he has brought himself to And as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby s wonder when he first picked the green light at the end of Daisy s dock. He had come a long way to his blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther And one fine morning (Fitzgerald 189). Marine Bewley states the fact that the green light is the central symbol in the book and that our first sight of Gatsby is related to it (19).
Nick knows far to well that trying to dictate your own destiny, the way James Get did, could actually be quite possible. But does that make you an honest man nonetheless? The answer is no. So Nick beats on, living his life alone, but not purposeless this time. Of course, he will always be pulled back into his past someway, somehow, but it is only there as a reminder.
To be material without being real shows the emptiness of an existence with the realization of a tainted ideal. Nick is imagining what Gatsby would be thinking if he had understood that the goal, winning Daisy and her materialistic insubstantiality, was unworthy of his effort. Fitzgerald does not specifically state if Gatsby is or is not waiting for the phone call from Daisy. If Gatsby has realized that Daisy will not call, then he has undergone the self-recognition of the tragic hero.
If he is waiting for the phone call, then he is still holding on to his idealized goal. While this shows that he is holding onto the part of his life: that which marked his personality as more substantial than Daisy's personality, it also illustrates the futility of reaching for a corrupted goal. Many people today may lack the motivation of Jay Gatsby in the quest for his pure dream. Their existence is strictly materialistic. Such individuals view the purpose of education not as serving to perfect ones intellect, but to secure a job. Every day they perform the same dull and tedious routine, their only goal being the receipt of a paycheck, which they will redeem ultimately for social status.
Some do have dreams, and to their life is added new meaning through the reaching for a goal. It is this reaching, the gaining of enjoyable and constructive experience, which gives purpose to people s work and diminishes the monotony of their daily existence. Whereas the straight materialists will eventually spend their dream, the experience that a reacher gains cannot be taken away. Bewley, M. Scott Fitzgerald s Criticism of America. Modern Critical Interpretations; F.
Scott Fitzgerald s The Great Gatsby. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 11 - 27. Fitzgerald, F.
S. The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953.
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