The following is adapted from a wonderful
on-line article:
An analysis
of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby”
through a
consideration of two Italian translations.
By Paul Armstrong
Libera Universita’ Di Lingue E Comunicazione Iulm
Facolta’ Di Lingue, Letterature E Culture Moderne
Corso Di Laurea In Lingue E Letterature Straniere
Milano, Italy
Paul’s
brilliant analysis of Fitzgerald’s language has been added to and adapted (by me) and organised into short,
manageable sections for you.
Introduction
When
F. Scott Fitzgerald was writing The Great
Gatsby in the summer of 1924, he wrote "I want to write something new
– something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately
patterned". For this new novel he intended to adopt a narrative form
characterized by economy of expression and clarity of design and to develop his
themes through a method of implication rather than by explicit statement.
The
language in the novel, which Fitzgerald described as "blankets of
excellent prose", is characterized by the use of repetitive structures
which redevelop ideas and situations through parallels and differentiation.
For
instance: one of Gatsby’s drunken guests has an accident and can’t understand
why the car won’t go, Jordan Baker passes so close to a workman that her car
tears a button off his jacket, and Daisy Buchanan kills Myrtle Wilson while
driving Gatsby’s car. All of this careless driving suggests the lack of
responsibility with which these characters conduct their lives and provides an
important example of their moral carelessness.
The
novel also abounds in colours and flowers which form narrative connections that
achieve symbolic significance through repetition.
For
instance
a
narrative thread is established between the green light at the end of Daisy’s
dock (Ch. 1) and the "fresh green breast of the new world”(Ch. 9): the two
passages ultimately linking Gatsby’s dream with that of the Dutch sailors who
first touched the shores of the New World.
Apart
from the language in the novel tending to form patterns of incremental
repetition, other elements of style include suggestive descriptive phrases:
1.
in the form of oxymoron,
as when Nick Carraway’s ambivalent attitude towards the leisured class surfaces
in his mention of Jordan Baker’s "charming, discontented face", of
Daisy’s "absurd, charming little laugh", and of Tom’s
"magnanimous scorn".
2.
by linking of
nouns with surprising adjectives, like "triumphant hat-boxes", and
the frequent incongruity of subject and verb, like the wreck of the car which
"crouched” in George Wilson’s garage.
3.
by the use of a
vocabulary of impermanence: words like "drift” and "restlessness”
appear frequently, reflecting the insecurity of the era and the lack in purpose
or direction in people’s lives.
Characterization
is not therefore a straightforward business in The Great Gatsby. It is frequently developed through suggestion
rather than revealed through objective description. The result is a novel that
generates a richness and complexity of meaning.
Finally,
there are hundreds of words related to time, as we would expect in a novel
whose main character wants nothing less than to bring back the past, to
preserve a golden moment from five years earlier that he wanted to last
forever.
Analytical and Evaluative Comments
“ it is what
preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams (. . .)
These early words
seem to anticipate Gatsby’s murder by George Wilson, the car mechanic who runs
a garage and petrol station in “the valley of ashes”. The words “foul”, “dust”,
and “wake” carry powerful resonances of death, murder and funeral rites. In
chapter 2, Nick describes the valley of ashes as a place "where ashes grow
like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.” Men move “dimly and
already crumbling through the powdery air.” Nick frequently uses the verb "ashen"
to describe Wilson who seems literally to dissolve into the valley of ashes: he
“mingled immediately with the cement colour of the walls. A white ashen dust
veiled his dark suit and his pale hair ". At the end of the novel when Wilson goes to Gatsby’s house to kill him, Fitzgerald
describes Wilson
as an "ashen figure gliding toward” the house. We can see therefore how
through a careful patterning of word choice and imagery Gatsby’s murder by
George Wilson is foreshadowed right at the start of the novel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nick describes
Long Island as: “that slender riotous island”
"Riotous”
anticipates the profligate and wanton behaviour of the residents of East and
West Egg.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Across the
courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the
water”
East Eggers live
in houses that are palace-like, stately mansions affordable only to the very
rich. Here is introduced one of the novel’s key themes, wealth and the corruption that comes with it. The verb
"to glitter” suggests that these houses reflect light like gold or something magical. Notice too
the use of the adjective "white” to describe the palaces in East Egg. It
was Daisy who chose the “cheerful red and white colonial mansion” she and Tom
live in. Daisy is often linked with the colour white. She speaks of her own
"white girlhood”. On the night Gatsby first met her "the sidewalk was
white with moonlight” as "Daisy’s white face came up to [Gatsby’s] own.” Whiteness
appears to refer to, and reinforces our impression of, Daisy’s purity. By the
end of the novel, we realize that white, in fact, denotes an emptiness at the
heart Daisy, a lack of conscience- a vacuous nature- an empty page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“They had spent a
year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there
unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together … I felt that
Tom would drift on forever …”
The Buchanans have
spent a year in France
in pursuit of pleasure. To describe the Buchanans’ inability to settle in one
place for very long Nick uses the same verb, "to drift", twice. To
drift is to wander aimlessly, live without purpose. The adverb
"unrestfully" enhances not only the idea of the Buchanans’ physical
rootlessness but their moral rootlessness too.
The words “drifted”,
“unrestfully", and "drift on forever”
also anticipate the end of the novel when the Buchanans do indeed move from
East Egg. After Daisy kills Myrtle Wilson in a hit-and-run accident, she and
Tom leave East Egg in a hurry without telling anybody where they will be moving
to.
Fitzgerald develops
characterization through suggestion. Nick observes that Tom’s eyes are
"flashing about restlessly", that Tom “had been hovering restlessly
about the room” and that Daisy’s "body asserted itself with a restless
movement of her knee". Again all this restlessness suggests Tom and
Daisy’s anxiety and nervous pursuit of action.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The lawn started
at the beach and ran toward the front door jumping over sun – dials and brick
walls and burning gardens – finally when it reached the house drifting up the
side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run.”
Notice the imagery.
Fitzgerald turns the lawn into a wave which dashes itself up “from the momentum of its run” and spreads
itself out over the side of the house ("it reached the house drifting up
the side"). The words used to describe the lawn are words of movement (“ran”,
“jumping”, "drifting", "momentum of its run"). The
repetitive structure is evident: in just a few pages Fitzgerald has effectively
associated the Buchanans with words of movement. They drift "unrestfully”
or "restlessly”. Even their lawn seems to be moving. Fitzgerald wants us
to know from the outset that the Buchanans are wealthy, morally vacuous
drifters. The Buchanans’ association with restlessness, with nervous movement,
also anticipates the final outcome of the novel when Tom and Daisy leave Long
Island after the killing of Myrtle Wilson in a hit-and-run accident.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Nick arrives
at the Buchanans’ for dinner Tom Buchanan is described for the first time in
terms that emphasize his physical presence. “He seemed to fill those glistening
boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of
muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body
capable of enormous leverage – a cruel body.”
Tom is associated
with words of movement ("shifting” and "moved ") reinforcing Fitzgerald’s
description of him and his wife as wealthy drifters. The word choice "cruel
body” and “great pack of muscle” suggests that the physical aspect of Tom’s
nature is capable of bursting out instinctively at any moment, as indeed it
does. We are immediately aware of his aggressive nature which we later see concrete when Tom bruises Daisy’s finger and breaks Myrtle Wilson’s nose in a rage.
Fitzgerald writes
that Tom’s body "was capable of enormous leverage". The mechanical
imagery of 'leverage' reinforces the idea of Tom’s physical power. However, “leverage”
suggests not only physical power but the power to influence: morally, socially,
emotionally. In chapter 7 when Tom tells Daisy that Gatsby is a bootlegger
involved in all sorts of criminal activities, his words have a vital influence
("leverage") over Daisy who abandons Gatsby without hesitation the
moment she hears them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Nick finally
meets his cousin Daisy, her first words are:
"I’m p –
paralyzed with happiness.”
This ambiguous
phrase suggests that somehow Daisy is unable to enjoy her life. Daisy’s life is
"paralyzed", stagnant with inactivity. Her wealth, which is what
gives her all her "happiness", has taken care of all her needs. Unintentionally,
she indicates to Nick her strong sense of boredom, her inability to enjoy life.
In the end we discover that Daisy suffers from moral paralysis too as seen in
her ability to offer no compassionate reaction to either Myrtle or Gatsby’s death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nick
describes the interior of Wilson’s garage:
“the only car
visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner.”
An aspect of
Fitzgerald’s style is to juxtapose incongruous words. In this example, notice
the incongruity of subject (Ford) and verb (crouched): an animal or a person
can crouch down, but not a car. Also the verb has the double meaning. It
suggests not only Wilson’s
subjugation to his wife but also that he is ready to spring into action at any
moment. Indeed towards the novels’ end, when Wilson hears that his wife has
been run over and killed by a car, he immediately becomes obsessed with
murdering the person who killed her, kills Gatsby, the wrong man, and then
shoots and kills himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Myrtle Wilson is a woman who is
eager to escape from the drudgery of her life into the paradise of the upper
class. All of her life she has aspired to refinement and propriety. She is,
however, far from refined, and this is evident in her continual misuse of
correct grammar. She uses "got” instead of "have", doesn’t know
how to use the question form, uses “you’d of “instead of "you would
have", and confuses "appendix” with "appendicitis” managing also
to mispronounce the word as "appendicitus” instead of
"appendicitis". Myrtle’s speech reveals her lack of education and
refinement: it could never come out of the mouth of one of Tom’s class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"And on
Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day … repairing
the ravages of the night before.”
Gatsby's guests
don’t just damage his property, they actually ravage it. "Ravages”
suggests a hidden, darker side to Gatsby's typical party guest; a violent side
which anticipates the later violence. The reader wonders that if Gatsby's partygoers
are capable of ravaging his property, what else are they capable of doing?
Indeed the final accident, caused by Daisy, in a sense Gatsby's last guest,
will result in Gatsby’s murder after he is falsely identified as the driver of
the car that has killed Myrtle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At
the opening of Chapter 3, Nick describes the party on the lawns of Gatsby’s
mansion.
“The lights grow
brighter … the earth lurches away from the sun … yellow cocktail music … an opera
of voices pitches a key higher … Laughter … spilled with prodigality … tipped
out at a cheerful word … groups change … swell … dissolve and form in the same
breath; … confident girls … weave … glide on … sea change of faces and voices
and colour … constantly changing light.”
The whole
description suggests vividly the effect of alcohol on the party-goers. Things
seem to “lurch” and “weave”. Laughter “spills” and is “tipped out” as if it
were drink. The music at Gatsby’s party is “yellow” impossible since we cannot
hear a colour. The riotous guests are mixing their sense impressions. Notice too
that yellow being a colour akin to gold suggests that Gatsby’s money is
everywhere, even in the music that is being played. Guests laugh "with
prodigality" suggesting their reckless, extravagant life style. Much of
Fitzgerald’s word choice is associated with movement ("lurches",
"spilled", "tipped out", "change more swiftly",
"swell", "dissolve and form", "weave here and
there", "glide on", "constantly changing"). This
creates intoxicating atmosphere of restlessness and disorder, suggest again the
confused and nervous pursuit of action which characterizes the lives of Gatsby’s
partygoers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the end of
Chapter 5, Gatsby and Daisy are finally alone. Leaving them, Nick sees Gatsby
peering into Daisy’s eyes listening to her enchanted voice. Nick describes Daisy’s
voice as:
“a deathless
song.” (note the contrast to Nick's previous descriptions of her voice as 'breathless' and 'charming' and Gatsby's description of it being 'full of money'.
Although the word
"death” is attached to the suffix “less", its presence is ominous. "Death”
foreshadows a tragic development. "Deathless” hints at the fact that Daisy
will not die; but "deathless” might also be suggesting that Daisy will
have something to do with Gatsby’s "death” since it is Gatsby himself who
is listening to her "death”- less voice. At the end of the novel George
Wilson murders Gatsby because he thinks that Gatsby was driving the car that
ran over and killed his wife. Instead, the driver of that car was Daisy, who is
thus indirectly linked with Gatsby’s death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nick tells us that
when Gatsby met Daisy for the first time as a young officer in 1917 and implies that it was
purely by chance.
“he knew that he
was in Daisy’s house by a colossal accident.”
As in the example above
of Daisy’s “deathless” voice, the words “by a colossal accident” foreshadow
tragic developments. Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship ends with, and by, a
"colossal accident". The killing of Myrtle Wilson leads to the "colossal”
mistake of George Wilson murdering Gatsby, the wrong man since it was Daisy and
not Gatsby who was driving the car.
Note the verbal
patterning in which the language, through the words “by a colossal accident”
and "deathless", ominously hints at the fact that Daisy is a fatal
woman whose love is death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Chapter 6, after
getting to know him better, Nick presents the real story of Gatsby’s past.
“The truth was
that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of
himself.”
"Platonic conception”
is a strange formulation since on the one hand a "conception” is something
which is conceived (an embryo, a foetus) through sexual intercourse, while on
the other hand "Platonic” can suggest Platonic love, a kind of love in
which sexual intercourse is absent. In this sense, "Platonic conception”
could suggest that the boy created himself anew ("sprang from")
according to an ideal scheme or plan of action ("Platonic conception"),
but that he also wanted a kind of love in which sexual attraction was present,
a love in which pregnancy ("conception") was possible through sexual
intercourse. Whatever that 'Platonic conception' meant to James Gatz, from the
ashes of that young boy Jay Gatsby came into existence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Still remembering
what he has learnt about Gatsby’s youth, Nick informs us about Gatsby’s belief
that:
“the rock of the
world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing.”
This phrase seems
to contain an allusion to Daisy, whose original surname, Fay, is an old English
word for "fairy". So the words "fairy’s wing” might hold a
subtle allusion to Daisy, who for Gatsby is an image of excellence and
perfection, as indeed is the image of a fairy. The suggestion may also, therefore, suggest
that the reality of the material world around Gatsby ("the rock of the
world") is less important to him than his dream of Daisy (“a fairy’s
wing")- indeed, that his world is built upon this dream.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another point in Nick’s
description of Gatsby’s youth is this:
“He stayed there …
two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny,
to destiny itself, and despising the janitors work with which he was to pay his
way through.”
The ferocity
registers the intensity of Gatsby’s dissatisfaction with the hand life has
dealt him: "the janitors work with which he was to pay his way through”
college. Gatsby conceived an image of himself as a person who had great things
to accomplish and to aspire to ("he sprang from his Platonic conception of
himself") so the ferocity may also suggest that he has the energy, the
strength and the anger to lift himself out of this routine life, out of his
allotted role. Indeed a few pages previously, Nick writes about the “colossal
vitality” of Gatsby’s “illusion”. Look at the confident plosive alliteration of the 'd' here which almost stamps out hi determination- perhaps not only reminding us of a drum-beat, but also of the powerfull heart-beat of Gatsby.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Chapter 6, Daisy
and Tom attend one of Gatsby’s parties for the first time. After the party,
when Tom and Daisy have gone home, Gatsby tells Nick that he is sure that Daisy
didn’t enjoy herself.
“He broke off and
began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors
and crushed flowers.”
"I wouldn’t
ask too much of her", I ventured. "You can’t repeat the past."
"Can’t repeat
the past?” he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!"
Gatsby believes
that he can repeat the past, that he can arrange everything with Daisy just as
it was five years ago and relive that beautiful moment in the present. Yet as
he speaks of his dream, he is walking on a "desolate path of fruit rinds
and discarded favors and crushed flowers". The adjective
"desolate", with its connotations of loneliness and abandonment together
with the fruit rinds, discarded favors and crushed flowers all create an image of
the superficiality of Gatsby’s present joys. Also, these small, fragile objects
have been irreversibly changed, crushed by Gatsby’s riotous guests. They are
images that suggest that the past is in the past and can’t be resurrected.
These images of the irreversibility of the past suggest that Gatsby’s dream of
being permanently reunited with Daisy can never be realized.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In chapter 7,
while prepapring to go to New York, Gatsby of Daisy:
"Her voice is
full of money”, he said suddenly.
Here Gatsby seems
unconsciously to be telling us that Daisy represents to him the American Dream
itself, that he sees her as an embodiment of the glamour of wealth. For Gatsby, Daisy represents everything for
which he has yearned all his life. Ironically, Gatsby loses Daisy for the same
reason that he adores her: her patrician arrogance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After Myrtle’s
death, Nick tells Gatsby to go away from West Egg for a while since his car is
bound to be identified by the police. But Gatsby refuses to consider leaving
while there is still a chance that Daisy may change her mind and return to him.
As they sit together Gatsby tells Nick about his relationship with Daisy five
years previously. Daisy belonged to a social class which had always seemed
remote from him, and feeling aware of his own poverty and lack of background,
all through their courtship and even later when they became intimate, Gatsby
tormented himself with his unworthiness pretending to Daisy that he was
financially secure and belonged to the same social class she belonged to. Here
are Nick’s words:
“He might have
despised himself, for he had certainly taken her under false pretences. I don’t
mean that he had traded on his phantom millions, but he had deliberately given
Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much
the same strata as herself – that he was fully able to take care of her.”
What is
interesting here is Fitzgerald’s use of the adjective "phantom” to
describe Gatsby’s money. "Phantom” means illusory, unreal, invisible and
the word implies, as is the case, that Gatsby’s millions didn’t exist. Indeed
Jay Gatsby, the young soldier, was tormented by the fact that he was too poor
for Daisy. "Phantom” also has the meaning of spectre, ghost reinforcing
the suggestion of death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Chapter 8, Gatsby
insists that Daisy has never really loved Tom:
"Of course
she might have loved him just for a minute, when they were first married – and
loved me more even then, do you see?"
Suddenly he came
out with a curious remark.
"In any case,”
he said , "it was just personal."
Gatsby’s words take
us back to "his Platonic conception of himself". Daisy’s love for Tom
is just a small matter ("it was just personal") whereas his love for
Daisy is an ideal kind of love that reaches beyond the level of personal
feelings into something transcending the people involved. His love for Daisy is
therefore bound up with his vision of the ideal, with "his Platonic
conception of himself".
Gatsby’s desire is
to transcend the world as it is and to somehow move beyond people towards
something greater and better. His pursuit of transcendence, his vision of
moving beyond the level of personal feeling towards something better is clear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Towards the end of
Chapter 8, Nick tells Gatsby that he thinks him better than all the others put
together.
"They’re a
rotten crowd", I shouted across the lawn. "You’re worth the whole
damn bunch put together."(pg.122)
Nick is making a
moral judgement when he calls people like the Buchanans and Jordan Baker
"rotten". By describing them as "rotten", morally corrupt,
Nick associates all of these people with the moral laxity of the American upper
class. Realizing that Gatsby’s dream, however tainted and pathetic, is beyond
the comprehension of this "damn bunch” of people, Nick tells Gatsby
"they’re a rotten crowd . . . You’re worth the whole damn bunch put
together."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is the passage, which also ends the novel.
“I spent my Saturday nights in New York because those gleaming, dazzling
parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and
the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and
down his drive. One night I did hear a material car there, and saw its lights
stop at his front steps. But I didn’t investigate.”
On the last night, with my trunk packed and my car
sold to the grocer, I went over and looked at the huge incoherent failure of a
house once more. On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with
a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it, drawing
my shoe raspingly along the stone. Then I wandered down to the beach and
sprawled out on the sand.
Most of the big shore places were closed now and
there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat
across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to
melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered
once for Dutch sailors’ eyes – a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its
vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once
pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a
transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this
continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor
desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate
to his capacity for wonder.
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown
world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at
the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his
dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did
not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity
beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the
night.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic
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 ---
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne
back ceaselessly into the past. (pgs. 143 – 144)’
The use of "material” to describe a car is
another example of Fitzgerald’s unexpected adjectives. Mention of a
"material car” picks up on the theme of materialism, of cars as being an
index of material success, and takes us back to Myrtle’s death. In having
Myrtle run down by Gatsby’s car, Fitzgerald seems to be sending a message.
Gatsby’s car, the biggest and fanciest around, is, after all, a clear and
obvious manifestation of American materialism. It is tragic that Myrtle died so
brutally, but her death takes on greater meaning when we realize that it is
materialism (“a material car") that bought about her death. Myrtle wanted
all the material comforts money could buy: it was her desire for money that led
her to have an affair with Tom, whom she initially got involved with because of
the expensive looking clothes he wore. Myrtle, a woman whose dream was to spend
her life acquiring material possessions, was, in effect killed by her own
desires ("a material car"). We should also notice that the car that
killed Myrtle was yellow, the colour of gold, hence the suggestion of wealth
and expensive material possessions.
Nick perceives Gatsby’s house as a "huge
incoherent failure". "Incoherent” is an unusual adjective to describe
a house and suggests that somehow Gatsby’s mansion does not hold together
firmly, that Nick almost sees it as lacking consistency, solidity.
Metaphorically, then, Gatsby’s house becomes his dream: it is magnificent,
"huge", yet "a failure", ultimately not holding together
but collapsing, disintegrating, like Gatsby’s broken dream.
Nick goes to the beach, to the edge of the
continent, and here he has a vision that transcends the moment and carries him
back to the arrival on the coast of the pioneering Dutch sailors. He refers to
"inessential houses” melting away as the moon rises and again what we
notice is Fitzgerald’s use of a surprising and unexpected adjective to describe
a house. Whereas Gatsby’s "huge incoherent failure” of a house and the
"material car” pick up on the theme of materialism and the misery it can
bring, the idea of "inessential houses", houses that are not of the
essence, points to idealism (an "essence” is a metaphysical idea) in
contrast to materialism as the other version of reality. This time, however, it
is Nick who has a transcendent vision in which houses dematerialize
("inessential houses") beyond the material world that surrounds him,
carrying him back to the moment in which the first Dutch sailors arrived on the
coast. In a way, because it is Nick who has this transcendent vision and sees
the "inessential houses” melt away and make way for the lush vegetation
that greets the first Dutch sailors, we may see Nick’s role as the writer of
the novel as the process of extending Gatsby’s transcendent, ideal vision so
that we may all share in it.
As Nick sits in meditation on Gatsby’s beach he tries
to recapture the wonder that the Dutch sailors must have felt at their first
sight of this newly discovered and unspoilt country: “I became aware of the old
island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes – a fresh, green breast
of the new world ", he writes. These thoughts get linked with the thoughts
of Gatsby and his dream of Daisy. In fact "flowered” suggests Daisy, whose
name is the name of a flower. The "fresh, green breast of the new
world", taken as an image of the ideal world the early settlers dreamed
about, associates the mind with a country that is lively ("fresh"),
fertile ("green"), and creative ("breast of the new world").
However, these words can also be associated with the youthfulness Daisy
represents ("fresh"), with the green light at the end of her dock ("green"),
and with the fact that she is a mother ("breast").
At the beginning of the novel, while watching
Gatsby, Nick witnesses a curious event. Gatsby, standing by the waterside,
stretches his arms toward the darkness, trembling. This gesture seems odd to
Nick because all he can make out across the Sound is a green light, such as one
finds at the end of a dock. Later, when Gatsby finally meets Daisy, Gatsby
tells her that her house is right across the Sound from his. He then continues,
informing her "You always have a green light that burns all night at the
end of your dock.” Prior to that day, the green light represented a dream to
Gatsby and by reaching out to it, he was bringing himself closer to his love.
Now that Daisy is standing beside Gatsby, her arm in his, Nick notes that the
green light will no longer hold the same significance. Gatsby’s dream, the goal
for which he patterned his adult life on, must now change. However, Gatsby was
still dreaming about Daisy the day George Wilson murdered him. Perhaps Gatsby
was happiest with his dream: the dream never deserted him but the reality of
Daisy did. Green is the colour of hope, promise and renewal. The green light
held for Gatsby all the promise and wonder that the original settlers once had
for this green land ("green breast of the new world"). The problem
Gatsby faces with his hope in the green light is that in America that green light, that
vision or dream, can only be realized by accumulating enough wealth to bring it
within arm’s reach, and the accumulation of such riches only serves to corrupt
the dream. Thus, the dream and its realisation are basically incompatible and
the green light is, after all, nothing more than a light bulb shining at the
end of Daisy’s dock.
We should also notice that during his reverie Nick
describes America’s
trees as having "once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all
human dreams". "The last and greatest of all human dreams” is the
dream that animated the imagination of the Dutch sailors when they first set
eyes on the "new green world", a dream of infinite possibilities and fulfilment.
"Last” can be seen in relation to the words "face to face for the
last time in history with something commensurate to his [man’s] capacity for wonder",
which appear at the end of the paragraph. To the Dutch sailors America was full
of promise and wonder, it represented the "greatest of all human
dreams", but this was the last time the world was equal to the great
expectations ("the last and greatest of all human dreams") these men
had. "Pandered in whispers” is something trees cannot do; only people can
pander and whisper. A 'pander' is a person who furnishes clients for a
prostitute: "pandered in whispers” suggests a pimp doing this privately,
secretly ("in whispers"). Is Fitzgerald suggesting the corruption of
the early idealism of America
by the worldly concerns ("pandered") of the later settlers, those who
had pulled down "the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house”? Perhaps
"pandered in whispers” suggests that whatever the settlers and explorers
came for, they came not only to "wonder” at America but also , in various
ways, to "rape” it silently, to use a metaphor for the various spoliations
of the American land. The "green breast of the new world", the 'pap' of
a possible new life, might have offered an inexhaustible supply of happiness
and success, but as an image we cannot help linking this "green breast” of
America to the shocking spectacle of Myrtle Wilson’s left breast "swinging
loose like a flap” after the road accident in which she is killed. It is almost
as if Fitzgerald wanted to show America
desecrated, mutilated, violated.
Nick writes that Gatsby believed in the
"orgastic future". "Orgastic” is another example of Fitzgerald’s
use of unusual adjectives. When Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald’s editor, queried
this word, Fitzgerald told him that it was the alternative version of the
adjective "orgasmic", and that in his view it was more appropriate to
this final passage than the word "orgasmic” was because only
"orgastic” suggested an intense experience which seemed to stand outside
the flow of historical time. Fitzgerald was very insistent about retaining this
word instead of the more commonly used "orgasmic": “I want
"orgastic”– it’s exactly the thing, I think", he wrote to Perkins.
Fitzgerald knew, of course, exactly what he wanted but the idea of
"orgastic” suggesting an intense experience that stands outside of
historical time is quite baffling. Some editions of the novel mistakenly preserve
"orgiastic", the adjective from "orgy", which was an
unauthorized and incorrect change made by Edmund Wilson in 1941, after
Fitzgerald’s death.
Nick concludes his passage by writing “so we beat
on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” He notes
how we are all a little like Gatsby, boats moving up a river, going forward but
continually feeling the pull of the past. Although one may look at Gatsby and
realize the futility of chasing dreams (at the expense of missing the joy of the
present and neglecting reality), in the end, is anyone really that different?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Conclusion
One
of the concerns of the novel is the condition of America in the early twentieth
century, but more specifically Fitzgerald is examining the fate of American
ideals during a period when the aspirations expressed in the Declaration of
Independence, issued in 1776, were under threat from the pressures of modern
life. Fitzgerald’s favoured title for the novel was "Under the Red, White,
and Blue", invoking the Stars and Stripes, the national flag as an emblem
of those ideals. Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers who formulated the
Declaration enshrined within it the ideal of equal opportunity for all. Yet
Fitzgerald depicts a society that is without fundamental equalities and riven
by class distinctions, dramatically rendered in the different fortunes of the
Buchanans, who live in fashionable East Egg, and the Wilson’s, trapped in the
dismal valley of ashes. The novel thus raises the question of what makes a
successful nation. Does material prosperity lead to loss of valuable ideals
such as honesty, loyalty, and fairness? Does the success of some in acquiring
wealth necessarily disadvantage many others and so create a divided and failed
society? America has traditionally cherished the notion of the self-determining
individual, living with minimal interference or regulation from government and
social pressures. 'The Great Gatsby' portrays a society in which individuals have
been regimented during wartime, and subjected to Prohibition during peacetime.
We are told that as a young officer, Jay Gatsby was "liable at the whim of
an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world.” More generally,
the novel shows the emergence of a mass society with pressure placed upon
individual integrity from such sources as advertising and fashion and through
images spread by cinema and magazines. The concept of the self–regulating
individual must be revised in a society where you are what you wear, and where
you are defined by the car you drive or the house in which you live. Where does morality sit in a culture such as that?
Fitzgerald
was interested in the tensions that exist between two variant definitions of
the American Dream. The first is an idealised version which preserves the sense
of wonder and of limitless possibility at the heart of what America means - a
"fresh, green breast of the new world”. This America is an embodiment of
human potential, free from any limits set by past experience. It is this aspect
of Gatsby that Nick Carraway admires unequivocally. However, another version of
the American Dream has come to be predominant. This is a materialistic version
in which the process of creating one’s self is equated with getting rich.
Gatsby has recreated himself, shedding the past, abandoning his parents, just
as America tried to jettison European history and values with its Declaration
of Independence. Gatsby’s intention was to create an ideal self ("he
sprang from his Platonic conception of himself", Nick writes) held
together by hope and wonder. But this ideal is tainted by the criminal means he
employed to attain his wealth. It is this aspect of Gatsby, the corruption
within his lifestyle, and his vulgar exhibitions of affluence that provoke
Nick’s scorn. Fitzgerald presents the tensions that exist between these two
definitions of the American Dream in terms of an apparent paradox in which
success in material terms inescapably means failure in terms of the ideal.
Still in terms of Fitzgerald’s meditation on American ideals, the New World’s
"fresh, green breast", which represented a dream of infinite
possibilities and fulfilment, has diminished to become the "green light” at
the end of the Buchanans’ dock, the artificial marker of a rich man’s property.
In this way Fitzgerald’s disappointment in the American Dream is the
disappointment of all those whose idealistic dreams have been betrayed in the
materialistic wasteland that America has become.
The
decade following the First World War in America has become popularly known as
the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald played a major role in characterizing these years as a
period of pleasure–seeking and of reckless exuberance. Many of his short
stories provide an entertaining picture of youthful hedonism, but in his more
substantial fiction, a far more gloomy and at times sinister version of the age
emerges. The novel usually cited as capturing the essence of this version of
the Jazz Age is The Sun Also Rises (1926)
by Fitzgerald’s close friend Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway depicts a group of
young expatriate Americans, wandering aimlessly through Europe, sensing that
they are powerless and that life is pointless in the aftermath of the Great
War. But the feeling of loss and emptiness had already been identified by
Fitzgerald when, at the end of This Side
of Paradise (1920), he wrote of a new generation "grown up to find all
Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.” 'The Great Gatsby' may
also be seen to encapsulate this perception of life without purpose, of
restlessness, dissatisfaction and drifting. Daisy Buchanan complains that she
has "been everywhere and seen everything and done everything". The
prospect of having to devise ways to while away the years ahead appals her:
"What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon and the day after that, and
the next thirty years? ", she complains. Her social set shares this
purposelessness. They drift, restless but without direction. In contrast to
those who drift around him, Gatsby’s life is directed and purposeful. Nick
writes that Gatsby was "committed . . . to the following of a grail.” Gatsby,
like a knight in Arthurian romance, has taken Daisy as his grail, the sacred
object of his quest. He possesses the devotion, courage, and sense of purpose
typical of the Arthurian Grail Knights, but his wasted land is a world in which
materialism has taken the place of religion. Gatsby’s life ends in murder. His
energy is cancelled out in a case of mistaken identity. Fitzgerald seems to be
suggesting that such a hopeful attitude to life is untenable in the
materialistic wasteland that modern America had (and has) become.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Malcolm
Cowley, Exile’s Return, Penguin Books, 1994
Ernest
Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, Touchstone, 1996
Arthur
Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise, Boston,
Houghton Mifflin, 1951
Tim
Parks, Translating Style, Cassell, London,
1998
Francis
Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise,
Penguin Books, 2000
Francis
Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack – Up with other Pieces and Stories, Penguin Books,
1965
Gertrude
Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Penguin Books, 1966
Lionel
Trilling, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1945, Columbia University
Press
