Not to Acquire Mere Wealth, but a Lost Era – The Real American Dream in The Great Gatsby
Plot: The exposition of the story is Nick, a WWI veteran and alumni of Yale, moving to New York City to start a career in bond sales. A complication that arises from this is all the drama associated with wanting to get to know Gatsby, the mysterious millionaire who lives next door. The climax is chapter seven when Tom and George both realize that their wives are cheating on them and Daisy runs over Myrtle. Although George doesn’t know who his wife is sleeping with, Tom knows Gatsby is after Daisy, and there is a confrontation that makes Tom trick George into thinking Gatsby was cheating with Myrtle so he’ll kill Gatsby. This is the climax because it is the turning point where nothing is ever the same and issues that have been swept under the rug are finally exposed. The resolution is after Gatsby dies and Nick has a change of heart, deciding to dump Jordan, have a talk with Gatsby and stay away from people in East Egg. The central plot of The Great Gatsby is mainly Jay Gatsby’s efforts to win over Daisy Buchanan through acquiring wealth and material possessions. For example, in chapter five, this is exhibited when Gatsby flaunts his worldly goods by throwing piles of his fancy garments all around to show off in front of her (Fitzgerald 92). Unlike Daisy, Gatsby is from new money, however he wants her to know that he is not beneath her and that he is highly capable of earning the sort of frivolous commodities that impress her. In fact, she is so impressed by them, that they even make her cry (Fitzgerald 92). However, Daisy’s own struggles with her husband also play an integral role in the plot. Daisy’s husband, Tom, is a cheater and a racist, yet she finds herself unsure about whether she should leave him. In chapter seven, she states that she never loved Tom, before contradicting herself and saying that she cannot really say that she never loved Tom, yet then she says she’s going to leave him(Fitzgerald 132-133). Although ultimately, she does not choose Gatsby and Gatsby is killed by George, who believes he was having an affair with George’s wife after Tom makes him believe so.
Setting: The setting is New York City, from Spring 1922 through September. The main two areas where action takes place are called West Egg and East Egg. East Egg is where old money lives, such as Daisy and Tom, whereas West Egg symbolizes new money and is where Gatsby and Nick live. In chapter one, Nick remarks: “I lived at West Egg, the — well, the less fashionable of the two (…) (Fitzgerald 5).” What makes this interesting is that, there really is not a lot of physical descriptions to explain why West Egg is so inferior. Frankly, it seems like the criticism of West Egg is more emotional than anything. The fact that West Egg is not admired as much as East Egg, while it is where the people that earned their wealth, rather than inherited it live, reflects the view that hard work does not pay and is not appreciated, which is very telling of the dominant views in their society. Although it’s true that the work Gatsby did to achieve his place of residence would not be admirable to many, the fact that West Egg is generally viewed as inferior, regardless of his attachment to it, is indicative of the snobby environment The Great Gatsby takes place in.
Protagonist/Antagonist: The protagonists are Gatsby and Daisy, the antagonist is the passage of time. Although not a lot is revealed about the reasoning behind Gatsby’s motivations, he is still the protagonist since he is the center of attention that the story revolves around, same with Daisy. While he is a bit of a mystery, his vague aspirations are what makes a millionaire relatable to readers. What is clear is that the passage of time is the enemy. In chapter six, Gatsby makes this known: “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously, “Why of course you can (Fitzgerald 110)!” Gatsby believes that if he acquires enough wealth, he can acquire Daisy and thus, repeat the past. For Gatsby, wealth is like a tool to combat time. Although, in a circular way, Gatsby equates Daisy herself with wealth, exclaiming: “Her voice is full of money (…) (Fitzgerald120).” This exposes the futility of his aim for, he objectifies Daisy to be like a trophy or symbol of wealth used to acquire praise or social favors. Essentially, he does not truly love Daisy and is just using money and wealth, to try to go back in time, and achieve what he considers to be more money and wealth, in a strange, roundabout way. However, since he lacks self awareness to recognize this reality, the passage of time remains his antagonist because it is still the enemy of his goal, whether his goal be right or wrong. For Daisy, the passage of time is her enemy, not because she wants to relive the past like Gatsby, but because she wants to escape it. Daisy articulates this mentality fluently. “(…) She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘all right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow (…) (Fitzgerald 17).”When Daisy says that the best thing a woman can be is a beautiful fool, she is not saying that because she is happy with that lifestyle or because she is dumb, she’s saying it because she is depressed and jaded. She says it because she knows if she herself was to think too much about her life situation she would be miserable. She is not necessarily smart or dumb, just cynical, that is why she cries when she learns she had a daughter, she thinks that her daughter might make all the same bad choices she did. She is essentially giving the daughter “just don’t think about it your problems and they’ll go away” as advice. Ignorance is bliss. Daisy is not being materialistic and hedonistic just to satisfy some primal urges or feel mindless self indulgence for the fun of it. She does so because she is empty inside, trying to cover it up and trying to distract herself. However, both of their desires to relive the past and escape the past are superficial and short sighted. It is superficial for Daisy because, in doing so, she ignores her true feelings and superficial for Jay, because he doesn’t really love Daisy, she is just a symbol to him.
Minor/Auxiliary Characters: There are quite a few important minor characters in The Great Gatsby. George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson are arguably the most vital because, while seemingly not very active or important at first, they end up contributing to Gatsby’s death. Gatsby is killed because Tom makes George think he killed Myrtle. Thus, the prescence of George and Myrtle are aides who help progress the plot. As minor characters often tend to be, Myrtle does not have much of a personality other than being an archetype. In fact, for lack of a better term, she comes across as an archetypal “hussy,” as well as being resentful and stubborn. Her being resentful is made clear when she explains that she never loved the man she married: “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman (…) I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” “You were crazy about him for a while,” said Catherine. “Crazy about him!” cried Myrtle incredulously. “Who said I was crazy about him? (…) “The only CRAZY I was was when I married him (Fitzgerald 35).’’ Her stubbornness is also made clear when she refuses to listen to Tom telling her to drop a subject: “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” shouted Mrs. Wilson. “I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai —— (Fitzgerald 37).” Although that isn’t to say she deserved to get abused or hit, still the most productive thing she did for the story was die. George is a pretty unhinged character, as one would have to be to commit a homicide and suicide, although not all murderers display how unhinged they are as clearly as George. Even before the murder, his unstable nature is shown: “I’ve got my wife locked in up there,” explained Wilson calmly. “She’s going to stay there till the day after to-morrow, and then we’re going to move away (Fitzgerald 136).”George’s mental instability is foreshadowed before he kills Gatsby.
Narrator and Focalization: The Great Gatsby has a first person limited point of view. It is first person because the narrator, Nick, uses the word “I” and is limited because he cannot read people’s minds. Whether or not Nick is reliable is quite a contentious subject, with many thinking he is not, but personally, I really haven’t seen any convincing evidence to suggest so. Given that Nick is not the center of the story and doesn’t have a very strong personality, I hardly notice him. Furthermore, we only see the story through his point of view. I think this prevents the story from being too dramatic, considering that Nick isn’t cheating on anybody, sleeping with anybody’s wife or committing some terrible crime, he is relatively stable and keeps the story easier to follow. If all the main characters narrated different parts of the story, it might have made it less classy, less esteemed and harder to differentiate from cheap pulp fiction with excess drama. Although on onehand it might have made it easier to understand the character’s motivations, people don’t always truly understand themselves anyways or practice self awareness. Plus, the, at times, mysterious andvague nature of their motivations is what makes them more relatable.
Major Themes: The two major themes of The Great Gatsby are that, money doesn’t buy happiness, and that you can’t turn back time. For instance, Daisy and Gatsby are both miserable people, despite being rich. Daisy didn’t even want to marry her husband. Before her bridal dinner, an event that should be happy, Daisy is drinking and distressed: “Never had a drink before, but oh how I do enjoy it (…) “Take ’em down-stairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’ She began to cry — (Fitzgerald76). Gatsby feels a part of him is missing. As Nick states: “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy (Fitzgerald 110).” Gatsby exclaims: “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see (Fitzgerald 110).” However, Gatsby never gets to relive the past and dies in vain. Although Daisy did not want to relive the past, the message is still hammered hard into her brain when Gatsby dies, and unfortunately, will likely cause her to slip more deeply into her escapist tendencies than ever before, unless she has the courage to take it as a wake up call to confront her inner demons.
Historical/Literary Period: The Great Gatsby is a Modernist novel from the Roaring Twenties. It is a textbook example of the sort of decadence students are frequently taught in school to associate with the decade, perfectly encapsulating the wild party lifestyle, a result of wealth rising after WWI, that could be referred to as the calm before the storm (the storm being The Great Depression), if it wasn’t so wild and chaotic. The fact that Gatsby got his money from being a bootlegger is consistent with how ubiquitous the illegal sale of alcohol was during the prohibition era of the Roaring Twenties. The fact that selling alcohol was seen as a bad thing to do, is surely a sign of its time and product of its era. Modernism is also apparent in the book. One characteristic of Modernist literature is the move away from omniscient narrators (Cuddy- Keane). This is made apparent in The Great Gatsby by Nick not knowing everything and having to find things out. Modernism also tends to focus on a sense of isolation, loss of control, despair and questioning of conventions (“Modernism in Literature – What Are Characteristics of Modernism in Writing?”).The Great Gatsby does all of this in the content of its tale of misery. Stylistically, The Great Gatsby also demonstrates Modernism in its use of fragmentation: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past (Fitzgerald 180).” There are many examples of this in the book, however, that is just my favorite quote. It reminded me of my first time kayaking and how helpless I felt against the river’s current, how I feared that the waves would carry me too far and that I’d get lost, or that they’d throw me into the path of a large motorized boat and I’d get
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