1.
Why is this book a classic?
At the beginning of the book, my question was sincere with
yearning, however, by the time I finished the first chapter, I was irritated
that I was even reading the book because of its obvious lack of substance and I
asked the same question above judgmentally and indignantly. Over the next few
chapters I was pushing myself with repugnance to read it to get it over with
only to get a grade—I was certainly not enjoying it or thinking that it had
anything to do with me and I still could not fathom why, on earth, it could be
a classic! At last I finished, but was taken aback by Nick’s observation about
the green light and the rising of early America and the comparison that he made
with the green light Gatsby adored from across the bay. I finally began to make
a connection. What was the connection? Both signified a search for the American
Dream. Additionally, I was interested in Nick’s geographical movement “back” to
the Midwest and how it connects with the idea that the founding generations of
America had traveled west to freedom. Nick, too, was travelling back to a land
more free than the east—I surmised that the Midwest was a symbol of moral
virtue and liberty of the New World, whereas the east was a symbol of opulence,
greed, power and social class struggle; the same thing one would find in 17th
and 18th Century Europe. In conclusion, I found the answer to why
The Great Gatsby is a classic—It is a classic because it exhibits the unending
struggle for freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Only can these two things be
real if they are founded upon the Judo-Christian principles. Poor Gatsby and
his crowd sought their happiness through money and greed. Nick realized that
happiness comes only through living ethically and morally. Another reason I
would call this book a classic is that, just as in any classic, you get
to see yourself as others see you and see others as they see themselves.
2.
Compare The American Dream of our
Founders and the new American Dream of the 1920’s.
The American dream is abundantly boundless with opportunity
and prosperity. In contrast, Fitzgerald’s novel exposes the “new” American
dream with all its limitations. What is
the difference? The first was founded upon the rock of God, freedom,
liberty and pursuit of happiness, the kind of happiness that comes when the
heart, mind and hand that produces it follows the godly and ethical standard
laid out in the Bible. The second is founded upon the sandy shores of money and
fame and false perception of the past. Gatsby wants to recreate the past by
returning to that glorious month he spent with Daisy. He does not realize that
by basing his decisions built on a false foundation, he lives in a befuddled quandary.
“[Gatsby’s] life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he
could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he
could find out what that thing was....”[1] The new American Dream requires
us to reinvent ourselves, live in the past and glory in all the selfishness to
acquire everything in order to obtain our goals and yet, we never end up with
the goal nor the happiness we thought we sought.
Fitzgerald was a genius to retell parabolically our American
Founding gone awry. In the same way that James Gatz wanted to reinvent himself
by raising his social status with money and greed, our pilgrim fathers set out
to reinvent their lives by leaving their fathers and their governments to
establish a new order founded upon God and liberty. In the end, the pilgrims
paved the way for the American Dream of prosperity, abundance and happiness.
For the reinvented Jay Gatsby, whose foundation was a false rendition of the
American Dream based on money and loose morals, he and his crowd ultimately
destroyed the path of prosperity, abundance and happiness. Fitzgerald exposes
the limitations of the American Dream when the foundation is built upon
immorality and bondage. Otherwise, the American Dream founded upon high morals
and liberty brings the greatest happiness and prosperity.
Glaring amidst the splendor and material extravagance, came
the decline of the American Dream in the 1920’s. The subtle tweaking of the
once true foundation turned to a love of money and fame that superseded the
noble and moral goals. Lavish parties, alcohol, greed, and the quest for
pleasure caused the degeneration of the once good social and moral values
portrayed by America’s founding fathers.
Compare this idea to Lenin’s regime to reinvent government
based on a proletarian uprising (actually a total control of the masses) or
later, Hitler’s regime to reinvent humans based on particular characteristics
of his own prejudice. One can say that all happy nations are alike, each
unhappy nation is unhappy in its own way.”[2]
And the unhappiness comes simply because life is based on any of the millions
of untrue and unethical principles, whereas, happiness is always and only based
on and a few simple principles—the laws of God (morals, ethics and liberty).
Nick Carraway embodies the
conscience of the novel. He leaves Minnesota in the Midwest to pursue the bond
business in the east and gets entangled with Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan
and Jordan Baker, the characters who embody the arrogance, greed and gaudy
wealth of the day. Although not perfect, Nick believes “Every one suspects
himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of
the few honest people that I have ever known.”[3] The
dishonesty of Jordan; the greed and lust of Gatsby and the carelessness of Tom
and Daisy disgust him greatly. In the end of the novel, he is alone, as all the
others have either fallen to their deaths or the depths of apathy, complacency
or moral degeneration. Nick turns westward and back home to his quiet, humble
circumstance where it seems that the morals and morale are held higher and
idyllic.
Nick’s westward movement impressed me and caused
me to think of the 17th Century pilgrims and later the 18th
Century pioneers who both sought political and religious rest, in addition to
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Is the West where we will always go for
those precious commodities? Are the ideals, morals and ethics in the West?
Ancient History began in the East and moved westward first to the Greeks, then
the Romans, then throughout all of Western Europe, finally to the New World in
the west. It seems there is a pattern, but where do we go from here now that the
new west would be the East? Are we at the end of time now that we have no more
“wests” to go to for our higher knowledge? I do not know, but it appears that
until we know, we ought to follow Nick in a literary sense and continue our
studies in the great books of the Western World with an eye to seeking the
ideals, the high morals and the careful measure of our own characters that we
might remember that the road to happiness lies only in these
Study Questions:
- Jay wants to reinvent himself. How is this an analogy of the culture of the 1920’s?
- How does this book treat the problems of social classes?
- Compare the symbolism of the two instances of “green lights”. Once when Gatsby looks over across the bay at Daisy’s mansion and then at the end when Nick is pondering on the other green light. What is the significance of each and the difference between them?
- What are the limitations to the American Dream and what poses those limitations? Are the limitations removed if the American Dream is founded upon certain principles?
[1] The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
(Scribner:2004), Chapter 6, page 110.
[2] Based on Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, First line of the book. Original line goes like
this, “All
happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”
[3] The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
(Scribner:2004), Chapter 3, page 59.
No comments:
Post a Comment