The Great Gatsby

Carelessness

One of the topics referred to in the book is the carelessness of the entirety of characters mentioned. It is obviously stated that this “life without a care” is not to be associated with a positive connotation in the given context. Fitzgerald even indicates this attitude towards life to be bound to crush - in his opinion it´s only a matter of when not if:

“[…] tomorrow we will run quicker, stretch out our arms farther… . And one exceptional morning-- “

Even the one person the author put out to be the one honest and unchangeable man as well as caring and affectionate – the narrator Nick Carraway – resigns his role as such in the end. The words

“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever acknowledged.”

which are written at the beginning of the book are withdrawn by the author close to the ending by writing

“I see this has been a story of the west, after all. Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps there was something missing in every one of us […]”

He sees nothing else left which could have set him apart of everyone else. Moreover, Fitzgerald even goes as far as to say that not even wealth nor prosperity in general are able to persuade someone to care:

“I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything […]”

The author’s cynicism peaks in a display of text passages in which he evidently proclaims his perception of identity in the 20s. At first, he expresses his scorn in a sarcastic way:

“James Gatz - that was definitely, or as a minimum legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen”

but later proceeds to more provoking means which even indicate that people which have this sort of carelessness within themselves are capable of unspeakable things when out of disguise even such as killing a man:

“You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody´s looking at him. I´m sure he´s killed a man.”

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The American Dream

Another and probably the main subject of Fitzgerald’s work is the “American Dream”. A term surely in no need of introduction. This dream is a promise of great things to come as soon as you touch American soil:

“`Anything can happen now that we´ve come over this bridge,´ I thought, `anything at all […]´ ”

The “American Dream is not something preserved for a specific kind of person or something that you can only reach with a certain heritage as stated in these lines:

“The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.”

Everyone is able to take part in Gatsby’s parties despite not being invited or not being known and so on, just like in the fantastic “American Dream”. It is something that goes beyond expectations and wishes, something that seems almost unreachable but supposedly is:

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life”

Fitzgerald doesn’t see it that way. He thinks people are looking at the world through a blurry veil figuratively one built up by excessive consumption of alcohol. To him it´s something hard to reach if even reachable and something not free of an expiration date:

"I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library."

In the author’s reality, only things reached by hard work and without living off of other people´s assets in order to have brief taste at the “American Dream” can lead to success:

“It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people.”

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Passing Time

Last but not least Fitzgerald covers the contemporary belief, that the outrageously perfect situation of the US is the epitome of perpetuity. Gatsby’s sole purpose throughout the entire story seems to be the trial of stopping times passage:

“On the train out of town he stretched his arms out of the window trying to catch a handful of the air she had breathed. But it was all going by too fast.”

Not only is he following dreams beyond his control, he also is desperate to restore the exact same position he and Daisy were in before he allegedly lost her.

“Can´t repeat the past? Why of course you can.”

Although Daisy is the only character in the book which has a relation to the future – figuratively her daughter – she isn’t intent to leave the present or even have the future interrupt her current life. Hence, this is why she has such a distant relationship with her little girl. She hopes her daughter will not have dreams and wishes or plainly said that she will be dumb, since Daisy’s life does not offer borders or lines to cross and therefore is a burden in its entirety, given that the sole reason of life is to develop oneself and work for ones goals:

“I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

Gatsby himself spent a lifetime thinking to successfully have held off the future while living in the present. Up until his death he reached out for the green light on Daisy’s property. What he didn’t know was that he had really been longing for something long gone and widely out of reach no matter how strongly he squinted his eyes to make it appear closer:

“He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close to him. He did not know that it was already behind him […]”

Fitzgerald who himself lived in the 20s expresses his deepest disrespect, scorn and regret towards the decade and the people who lived in it throughout the whole book. He thinks that with this behaviour only one thing can be achieved: the repetition of past mistakes and that at some point it won´t matter how hard you´re trying to fight it your actions are irreversible:

“So we beat on boats against the current carried back ceaselessly into the past.”

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Quick Review

A book for dreamers and realists alike.

I liked the book because I agree with Fitzgerald. On everything. He sees dreams for what they are: Just dreams and dreams are sooner or later going to lead you to despair and tragedy. The bigger, the more surreal the dream the worse the outcome and disappointment. Gatsby dreamt too big, but his dream never got shattered. He died believing it´d come true. So, maybe it was worth it. I´ll never know. Daisy never made that call. I guess in the end dreams aren´t real - that’s why they are called dreams.

A lot of people compare “The Great Gatsby” to “Romeo and Juliet”. I personally don´t see why. Gatsby wasn´t in love with Daisy, he was in love with the idea of her. He was in love with what she stood for, with what HE could have been with her not what they could´ve had. Also, Romeo and Juliet´s love had a purpose within the story, while Gatsby and Daisy´s alleged love followed the sole purpose of revealing the lack of purpose within the reality of the roaring 20s.

A lot about the story seems unreal and untruthful but set in relation with reality back than it really brings out the uncut mentality and carelessness of the people. However, I did not like the lack of excitement throughout the book.