In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents readers with an enthusiastic outlook into the life of the populace during the 1920’s, mirroring the Jazz age years and the American Dream.
Attractive appearances serve to cover distasteful reality, in the world of East Egg. Tom and Daisy’s marriage is seemingly threatened by extreme anxiety beneath its pleasant exterior. Tom, unlike Nick, is smug and untruthful, carrying on a relatively public love affair with Myrtle. Jordan Baker “who seemed to have mastered a certain hardy skepticism”, contrasts pessimism and dullness with her wealth and beauty, and as with the Buchanan’s’ marriage, her glamorized facade covers an inner meaninglessness.
Tom becomes known in the party scene of chapter 2 as ill-mannered and intimidating, who uses his societal position and physical force to control those around him, as shown in “breaking her nose with his open hand”. Tom cunningly mocks Wilson, while indulging in an affair with his wife. In comparison, Fitzgerald portrays the character of Wilson as an attractive, honest man but who instead happens to lack in wealth, freedom, and vivacity.
The mystifying division between that of what is the truth, and what is a lie, heavily essences the novel. Tom must ensure his affair with Myrtle is kept somewhat low-key, although in New York they can appear in public, without the worry of causing shame. At the party, readers acknowledge Tom’s hypocrisy and lies, as Fitzgerald depicts him as feeling no remorse for his corrupt ways by betraying Daisy, yet feels obliged to maintain power over Myrtle.
Moreover, Fitzgerald persists in constructing a sense of secrecy around Gatsby throughout the party scene of chapter 3, of which has not yet made a full appearance in the novel. He surfaces as a focus of rumour amongst everyone, of whom is also incredibly notorious; nevertheless nobody seems to hold any confirmable information on him. How Catherine results in spreading a supposed ludicrous rumour about him, suggests the degree of public interest concerning him which gives a picture of him as more intriguing to both readers, and other characters of the novel.
The parity of admiration and friendship is illustrated further into the novel. Despite the fact that Nick highly admires Gatsby, Gatsby is representative of everything Nick disapproves of about New York. It is obvious that Gatsby is a test to Nicks’ usual views regarding the world. Gatsby’s puzzling history concerns chapter 4 principally, which proves to Nick an overwhelming mystery. Gatsby creates a seemingly unbelievable account of his background, resulting in Nick finding it difficult to “restrain his incredulous laughter”, but when he sees proof of the photograph and medal, Nick appears to believe at least some of Gatsby’s account.
Nick notices Jordan, after the lunch in New York, who happens to finally inform him of the subject of the talk with Gatsby, at the party. Jordan exposes Gatsby as a humble, young officer longing to keep hold of Daisy’s heart, who of which instead eventually married the tremendously affluent, Tom Buchanan of Chicago, “with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before”. Nick succumbs to feelings of conflicting admiration and disgust for Gatsby which becomes apparent in the chapter, highlighting the strange inner clash that enables these feelings.
Whereas Gatsby, infatuated by his love for daisy, is an attractive figure, significant of optimism and genuineness, Gatsby the dishonest entrepreneur, significant of greed and moral corruption, isn’t.
M Chacko
Well done M.! This is a sophisticated analysis of the discrepancy between appearance and reality in the novel. Your comments are closely linked to references to and quotations from the novel and you show a flexible knowledge of the opening chapters of the novel. You have also started to interrogate Fitzgerald’s purpose in portraying a society that is at odds with itself, but this is an area which you could explore further. What is he saying about his characters and the society they inhabit by presenting them in this way?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you make some interesting points which are begging for further development. For example, why does Fitzgerald construct ‘a sense of secrecy around Gatsby throughout the party scene’? Why is it important that Nick succumbs to feelings of admiration for Gatsby when he ‘is representative of everything Nick disapproves of about New York’?
Thoughts below please.
I believe Fitzgerald is simply reinforcing the fact that the characters in the society only have the option to feed off each other in a time of hardship and difficulty, to make the most of themselves. It is suggestive of society at the time, portraying it as superficial as the exteriors of many of the characters are depicted as having a degree of shallowness to them, presenting their pride and exaggerated affluence.
ReplyDeleteI think he not only ‘constructs a sense of secrecy around Gatsby throughout the party scene’ to excite readers more into wanting to find out more about him, but also as a reminder to readers that Gatsby is not merely a simple character, and is extremely complex, as we are suspicious of the facts stated about him, but also aware there is more to him, than we are told at first.
As Nick and Gatsby have formed an interesting, newfound friendship with one another, Nick may feel obliged to admire Gatsby, but he is also unaware of his and Daisy’s history at this point. However, it’s important his admiration for Gatsby is described, as it suggests there is something about Gatsby, which Nick is very fond of, and he’s quite capable of forgetting what he disapproves of, because of his respect for Gatsby. This highlights the significance of their friendship, which may have been very rare amongst the population during 1920’s America, so is seemingly special and should be distinguished.
M Chacko
I really like this piece of writing M Chacko. It's really analytical and I like the part where you talk about the friendship between Nick and Gatsby and how Gatsby is everything that goes against Nick's views. I've never really thought about that before! I also like how you give the views of Gatsby that are seen at the end of your writing. That's good because personally, I never look at the two sides of the character, I usually just see the one side that I want to see!
ReplyDeleteA.P ~