The Great Gatsby

For the sake of continuity, I will start this blog entry by asking what this book is about. At its most basic, The Great Gatsby is the story of the social climber James Gatz, who invents himself as Jay Gatsby, falls in love with a rich girl, and spends the rest of his short, tragic life trying to win her, despite the fact that she has married a wealthy man named Tom Buchanan. After quickly amassing the fortune he needs to care for Daisy, Gatsby almost succeeds in getting her back, at least until Tom investigates the actual sources of Gatsby's money, which Tom reveals on a trip to New York with Daisy, Gatsby, Nick, and another friend. This revelation makes Daisy doubt Gatsby, but it is a tragic accident on the way home from New York that ruins Gatsby's chances forever - and indeed ends his life. On the way home, Daisy drives, inadvertently striking and killing a woman who turns out to be Tom's mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Thinking Gatsby hit Myrtle and drove away, Tom tells Myrtle's husband where to find Gatsby. George Wilson goes to Gatsby's house, shoots him in his pool, and then shoots himself, leaving Nick Carraway alone to arrange Gatsby's funeral, which no one but Gatsby's father attends. It is a sad and wonderful story, but it's also a more complex one than I think I realized.

I think Jason is right on about the parallels between James Gatz and Clyde Griffiths (who seals his fate in part by inventing not one but two new identities for himself). There is a social climber at the heart of this novel, and the narrator says that he "represent[s] everything for which I have an unaffected scorn." At the same time, however, the narrator has genuine affection for Gatsby, who has "an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person. No - Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men."

But what did prey on Gatsby? That's a question I don't feel like I can entirely answer to my satisfaction.

The east-west business that Jason raised also interests me. The Carraways have new money, but they have stayed in the same place long enough that they can successfully mythologize their origins and masquerade as having old money. Near the end of the novel, Nick says, "I am . . . a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family's name." In the middle "west," old money is rooted. There are family homes, family estates, and the people have some decency. In the east, where there is new money, anyone can rent any house. No one "remembers" how to get to your address unless you're throwing a party. People don't come to your funeral. God himself isn't watching anymore; he's been replaced by an advertisement, a giant pair of eyes.

There is some connection, too, between geographical and social mobility, both of which are vaguely distasteful. Old money keeps horses. Old money converts a garage back into a stable, while new money buys a new yellow car, a "circus wagon." Jordan and Daisy are both bad drivers. I don't know what this all means, but I find it interesting!

I suppose Nick admires Gatsby's optimism because he knows Gatsby, like Clyde, can't possibly succeed. We can never have the American dream; it's ever receding before us, so that we can only ever be what we were at the start.

The Great Gatsby - That Ol' SPOILED Sport

What a difference context makes! I read this book two years ago and didn't find it nearly as satisfying as I did this time. On the one hand, I think it was more enjoyable because I already knew the basic plot movement and didn't need to wonder or worry about where the story was going. On the other hand, I had An American Tragedy for comparison.

Like An American Tragedy, The Great Gatsby is about money. In many ways James Gatz/Jay Gatsby is like Clyde Griffiths, a boy of humble origins who falls in love with wealth, wealthy culture, and a beautiful and rich girl. In An American Tragedy, Clyde had no chance of moving up the social ladder, but by marrying the right girl, he hoped he could. Gatsby wants to climb the social ladder so that he can marry the girl of his dreams. And Gatsby can and does move up that social ladder . . . to an extent.

He is wealthy, there is no doubt about it. Everyone wants to take advantage of his parties and his generosity, but his money is new. And because it's new, it's suspect. All the rumors circulating around Gatsby are because old money has an existing history, a family to point to. Buchanan and Daisy are from old money, and they see Gatsby's parties as vulgar. Gatsby's counterpoint is of course Myrtle whose party is more vulgar and distasteful. Compare both parties to the cultured ease of the opening dinner at the Buchanans. Buchanan doesn't have hydroplanes and a "circus wagon"--he has converted his garage to a stable, for goodness sake--how cultured is that? And the true social and cultural inroads made by Gatsby are revealed by his funeral. So he can be rich, but he cannot ever have what Buchanan and Daisy have. The money is Daisy's voice that both Gatsby and Nick admire is something you are born into.

And what does Daisy see in Buchanan that makes her love him? God knows that he is nothing but an ass to us readers. Gatsby's not the bee's knees, but he sure is more likable than Tom. But to Daisy, Gatsby, for all his charms is not of the same social standing as Tom, no matter how much money he has. It is a doomed love affair from the beginning. At 30, Daisy is not the 18 year old romantic girl ready to run off with Gatsby.

I love how Gatsby is not self-made, but that Wolfshiem takes full credit for making him.

Nick is fascinating to me as well, but since all my posts are too long as it is, I shall cut myself short. Where does Nick fall in this scale of wealth and social position? He seems both rich from childhood (as the opening sentence suggests) but also rather poorly positioned in his home on West Egg. I love how Nick gets disgusted with just about everyone.

And speaking of West Egg, what do you make of the Midwest v. East distinction? It seems to move from a comment about America to something about the East Coast. Is this East v. West distinction echoed in East v. West Egg?

I'd write more, but I hate to bore.

Happy readings!