Literary Analysis of The Great Gatsby
20th April, 2019
Literature
Adarsh Pal Singh
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” Scott Fitzgerald starts his masterpiece with this quote and I feel like I should follow in his footsteps while starting this review because it straightaway warns us that the story would be filled with diverse characters entangled in complicated situations and in the end, we would be left with a list of characters divided into like and dislike categories. After reading the novel twice, I can firmly say that no two readers would have an identical list as I found myself contradicting my first list after my second read. That being said, I feel that the Great Gatsby is one of the most interesting and informative pieces of fiction I’ve read in a long time. “Informative” is not a common adjective for a fictional story but the way Fitzgerald juxtaposes the imagery of the roaring twenties in his fictional narrative, one cannot deny absorbing some part of America themselves. In its core, the story is a romantic tragedy which revolves around a character who shares his name with the title of this novel. A plethora of themes, symbols and metaphors are employed by the author throughout the story to tickle our brain cells which we shall try to uncover in the paragraphs below.
The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s which is now fondly remembered as the “roaring twenties”. The Great War was over and America was roaring along the route of economic prosperity. This was the time when the jazz and flapper culture actually grew momentum. The sale of alcohol was not permitted during this time but since humans and alcohol have a bond older than time perhaps, bootlegging business was rampant. Fitzgerald plausibly depicts this era in the background of his story giving us a feel of the America then. A major part of the story takes place in the summer of 1922 in the New York City and Long Island, specifically the fictional towns of East and West Egg which were separated by a sound and housed the wealthiest of families. The route from the West Egg to the New York City was through a town known as the Valley of Ashes which served as the dumping ground of the rich. This contrasting town layout is similar to the upper and lower decks of the ship in the Hairy Ape. The entire novel is written in first person and narrated by Nick Carraway who is essentially an outsider looking in. At times, you’ll find Nick present at the scene and talking about the scene through his eyes whereas at other times, the scene is described by Nick without him being present there. This transition between Nick and Fitzgerald is really subtle and gives a unique flavor to the novel. The tone of the novel keeps shifting from joyful romance to melancholic drama. By the time you finish the novel, you’ll feel as if you’re getting down from an emotion-filled roller-coaster ride.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph itself, the Great Gatsby is a romantic tragedy similar to Romeo and Juliet and would have perhaps been identical in terms of the main plot line had Juliet married Paris whilst she was in love with Romeo. The story starts with our beloved narrator, Nick Carraway, moving into a cottage beside Jay Gatsby’s mansion in the West Egg. In the early parts of the story, Nick’s information about Gatsby is limited to that fact that he is a millionaire who throws extravagant parties for all. Their bond slowly builds up over the course of the story until they become the very best of friends in the end. Nick has a cousin sister by the name Daisy who lives in a mansion in the East Egg along with her husband, Tom Buchanan who serves as the primary antagonist of this story. Now here’s where things get complicated. Tom is cheating on Daisy with another married girl, Myrtle and our protagonist, Gatsby, is madly obsessed with Daisy and wants to win her over at all costs. Consequently, the entire plot hinges on Daisy’s dilemma and can go either way based on her decision. Every good piece of fiction has a climax and so does this story. As you may have already guessed by now, there occurs a battle between Tom and Gatsby with Daisy being the prize. No, not a battle with swords and guns but with words and secrets which we all know can get just as ugly and messy. The climax of this story is the event when Daisy accidentally kills Tom’s mistress. So what happens in the end? I’ve already spoiled the reader of my review enough but I’m sure that the comparisons that I’ve made to Romeo and Juliet as well as the Hairy Ape give you a fairly clear image of the tragedy that befalls our protagonist.
Now that we’re familiar with the setting and the plot, let’s take a look at the diverse cast of characters that Fitzgerald cooked up for this story. We have to start with our narrator Nick Carraway since we’re seeing everything from his perspective. Nick, as most men in the early 1900s, participated in the Great War. His family hailed from the Mid-Western part of America and after his graduation from New Haven in 1915, he moved to the East to study the bond business. He is an epitome of a typical middle class working salaryman who had casual affairs by the side, especially with Daisy’s friend Jordan Baker who is a slender but stern sportswoman with a self-centered attitude and is portrayed as a regular 20th century flapper girl. Nick has a very friendly and understanding personality making people open up to him naturally. As he himself states, “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known”. He is one of those gifted people who stay by their friends even in the hour of need. The central character of this story is, no surprises here, Jay Gatsby himself. The main question that even the title subconsciously asks is, “Is Gatsby really great?”. When we are first introduced to Gatsby, he seems like a lavish, successful and extravagant person and has, as Nick says, something gorgeous about him. Not only does he reside in a grand mansion, he throws extraordinary parties even for strangers. Mysterious, ain’t it? In the initial pages of the novel, you can’t help but interpret “great” as used for successful historical figures like Alexander or Caesar. But as the story progresses, Nick and therefore we find out about his obsession with a married woman, Daisy and about the fact that his wealth resulted from his bootlegging business. At this point, many of us would have perhaps mockingly enunciated, “Oh! That’s just ‘great’!”, giving another interpretation to the title. All in all, Gatsby is a war veteran who has an extraordinary gift for hope and romantic readiness. He is so passionate about Daisy that we can’t help but award him with the title of Romeo, a quixotic Romeo perhaps. Even though he was born in a poor family, he never let his American Dreams out of his sight and died in pursuit of it. Throughout his life, Gatsby played many different roles and to perfection making us wonder whether Fitzgerald used the term “great” as a stage name like that of the Great Houdini. The story is incomplete without our beautiful Juliet, Daisy Buchanan. She is cynical about most people and acts in a rather superficial manner making it difficult for us to actually interpret her real emotions. She fell in love with Gatsby when he was an officer but moves on to marrying Tom after waiting several years for Gatsby to show up. The lack of responsibility she exhibits after killing Myrtle and her decision to leave Gatsby in the hour of need shows that she is in love with money and material luxury. She is capable of showering genuine affection towards others but not of sustained loyalty. Her husband, Tom Buchanan, unlike Gatsby, comes from a wealthy household and has a sturdy muscled body with an equally arrogant attitude. Arrogance is something that the rich inherit along with their wealth. His single-minded and racist comments puts off people like me who are reading this novel in the 21st century. Swinging his wife in one hand and Myrtle in the other seems natural to him. Myrtle is married to George Wilson who is, fortunately for Tom, a lifeless exhausted worker in the valley of ashes but like Gatsby, wants to pursue the fantasy of love and the American Dream. In my judgement, Myrtle is just trying to elevate her status in the society by running away with Tom.
Being a romantic tragedy, love, marriage and relationships constitute the central theme of the story. Fitzgerald explores many different types of relationships in his narrative. Tom and Daisy and George and Myrtle are the only two couples in the story and both the marriages lack the spark of love and feel more like an advantage than matrimonial unification. Both Tom and Myrtle are unfaithful to their marriage partners and Fitzgerald shows us the melancholic consequences that such relationships yield in the long run. On the sidelines, Fitzgerald also explores casual relationships that people strike up at parties through the lens of Nick. Then we have Gatsby’s all consuming passion for Daisy which is a consequence of their shared history. Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship explores the theme of how our past defines and shapes us. Gatsby’s childish whim of not letting go of the past and moving on with his life takes a heavy toll in the end. Another important theme which is not discussed explicitly but clearly shown in the background is on society and class during the roaring twenties. The diverse imagery that is described through the window of a train ride from the West Egg to NY City says volumes about the conditions that the rich and the poor thrived in. The Valley of Ashes, like the coal deck in the Hairy Ape, represents the moral and social decay that results from the single-minded pursuit of wealth by the upper class. This pursuit of wealth is a part and parcel of the American Dream that everyone wants to achieve but very few can. Gatsby came very close to achieving his dream but ultimately, succumbed to the wrath of the upper class. George, on the other hand, couldn’t even break the shackles that the society had imprisoned him in to take the first step. Clearly, both our hairy apes fail in their endeavor. One interesting thing to note is that almost everyone in the story wears a facade of some sort and lies for convenience. Even our beloved narrator, who tells us to be neutral to people’s characters, ends up clouding his own neutral lens towards the end. To be fair, if everyone in the story was an honest saint, we’d be reading a holy scripture and not a dramatic piece of fiction.
Every writer has some weapons in their arsenal and symbolism is Fitzgerald’s weapon of choice in this story. Symbols and metaphors give a very authentic and satisfying feel to the reader. Nick often finds Gatsby staring at a bright green light present at the dock of the East Egg with his arms trying to reach for it. For Gatsby, this light is the personification of Daisy herself who constitutes a big portion of his American Dream. When Daisy and Gatsby are together for a brief period, this light disappeared from Gatsby’s life. So in general, the green light symbolizes his hopes and dreams. Another very clear symbol that Fitzgerald points to multiple times is the billboard poster with the fading, bespectacled eyes of T. J. Eckleburg overlooking the Valley of Ashes. The Valley itself is a symbol depicting the social and moral decay through the plight of the poor resulting from the rich not paying any attention to anything but wealth and luxury. The eyes of T. J. Eckleburg may represent the all mighty God looking down upon the moral wasteland that America has embraced in pursuit of the American Dream. Fitzgerald also takes a lot of liberty with colors. The light that Gatsby chases after is bright green, a color often associated with hope and liberation. He drives a yellow colored car which which the author might have used to show his wealth and nobility. Moreover, we often see Daisy, Jordan and Gatsby in white clothes which is a striking contrast to their gray personalities. Speaking of gray, the Valley of Ashes is painted in black and white as though the author wanted us to observe the contrast between the rich and poor societies.
So will I recommend The Great Gatsby to another human? Yes, absolutely. Even though Fitzgerald pulls off a Shakespeare in the end and leaves the audience chasing after their idealistic fantasies, the novel provides an insightful view into the America during the roaring twenties and Fitzgerald does an impressive job of blending a dramatic narrative with artistic and informative elements making it worth every second of your time. The novel is well crafted and easy to read and relate to. A big thumbs up from my side!
Book Report, Book Review, Literary Analysis, The Great Gatsby