Critical Essay on Themes Within The Great Gatsby

Introduction

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 fictional novel by the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. It narrates social events surrounding a cast of characters who live in the imaginary towns of West and East Egg in the summer of 1922. These towns are in the affluent Long Island, New York. The plotline primarily focuses on the young and enigmatic tycoon Jay Gatsby and his idealistic obsession with the beautiful Daisy Buchannan. Buchanan is a young upper-class lady who, as a young debutante, was extremely popular among army officers stationed near the West and East Egg community. The novel is one of the most popular literature works by an American author, and it has long been considered a masterpiece.

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Themes Within the Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby explores diverse themes, including the American Dream, the decline of the American Dream, social class, money and materialism, the emptiness of the upper class, morality and ethics, love and marriage, and the Roaring Twenties.

The American Dream

Throughout history, social scholars and other commentators have used the term American Dream to refer to the collective idealism that guides American society. It arises from the belief that all American can attain prosperity so long as they are willing to put in the hard work. The belief, itself, is born out of the idea that the US is the land of freedom. The hope that the Dream is meant to bring great wealth and success to the American society inspires the entire cast of characters in The Great Gatsby. However, Fitzgerald also uses these characters, notably Gatsby, as an assessment measure on the achievability of the American Dream.

The first visualization of Gatsby is him stretching his hand towards something within his sight, but too far away it was out of his reach. Nick's states:

But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. (24)

This image of the green light acts as the first allusion to the book's reflection on the American Dream. It portends to be within his sights but a little too far away for him to reach it as well as to the unhappy ending of his story. Gatsby also comes out as a dreamer, which contrast him to the likes of Daisy and Tom who were born to old money.

The Great Gatsby uses Gatsby failure to achieve the upper class to signifies the skepticism surrounding the American Dream. Gatsby has always believed that he will move up the social class ladder once he makes much money and become equal to the Buchanans. To his disappointment, the wealth he accumulates does not improve his chances of getting the recognition he craves from those of the upper class. In his failure to achieve the American Dream, the book appears to suggest that the Dream is both inaccessible and an imprudent objective for anyone to have.

On the alternative, Gatsby also depicts the Dream both in its original untainted form and as a corrupted concept. His failure to attain the Dream can, therefore, is attributable to him resorting to engaging in shady schemes. Thus, his failure does not necessarily point to the craziness of the American Dream but rather to the stupidity of under-cutting the Dream by allowing corruption and materialism to prevail over hard work, integrity, and real love. The novel thus leaves readers wondering whether there is even a slight chance of attaining the social advancement that the American Dream promises.

Therefore, The Great Gatsby is a philosophical reaction to the American Dream. In its closing pages, it concurrently presents it in a sorrowful, pessimistic but beholden tone. This assessment derives from Nick acknowledgment that Gatsby's dream to reach the social and class pinnacle was "already behind him" the moment he first saw the green light at Daisy's dock (193). However, he still admires Gatsby for grasping firmly at his hope for a better future. He alludes to the existence of the dream "...somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night" (193).

The Decline of the American Dream

As the first impression, The Great Gatsby comes out as a narration of a couple's disenchanted love. However, scrutinizing it deeper reveals a broader issue of less romantic inclination. Although the novel depicts events that occur in a geographically limited location within Long Island in New York, its plotline is an emblematic recollection of the entire American society in the 1920s. Unambiguously, Fitzgerald colorfully illustrates the tainted side of the American Dream at its peak to symbolize its eventual breakdown. During the 1920s, Americans were experiencing a period of unmatched prosperity. However, unparalleled materialism and decadence tangle this economically good times, representing the disintegration of the American Dream.

Excessive consumerism is the main reason for the decline of the American Dream. The imagery of how consumerism has expended the beauty of the Dream is succinctly put across by Fitzgerald in his description of the land between West Egg and New York City. He writes:

This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight. (26)

In this excerpt, Fitzgerald describes the land as the "valley of ashes," and it is grotesque symbolizing the decline of the genuineness and authenticity in America, due to the upsetting impact of consumerism. This land was once flourishing and full of life. However, it is now dead and turned to ash. The beauty that would be there has been overwhelmed by consumerism. Those who would have been farmers are now railroad laborers, serving the transportation structure of goods bought and sold in the area. Consumerist lifestyle has overtaken the area leaving nothing to desire. The trappings of consumerist lifestyle - big houses and cars - litter it (Pumphrey, 116).

Consumerism personifies the extent of Gatsby's self-indulgence behavior. In his pursuit of pursuit for personal gratification (winning Daisy and approval of the upper class), Gatsby drives a flashy Roll Royce, shows off his collection of posh, and the large mansion he lives. Despite having had some hope of leading a happy life once he gets rich, Gatsby ends up filling the void that lack of acceptance to the upper class has left in his heart by buying extravagant clothes, a big house, and a big car. His flamboyancy is in Nicks words,

He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table. While we admired he brought out more and the soft rich heap mounted higher. 99

Gatsby even brags, "I've got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall" (99). Apart from consumerism, the novel paints the decline of the dream by depicting an amoral society whose love for hollow pleasures has eroded its societal and ethical standards. It depicts the high level of moral decay within this community by representing it as an exceeding skeptic and materialistic group of people with an insatiable hunger for ridiculous empty desires. The parties that Gatsby throws each week in the summer creates an image of how careless the American society was at the 1920s.

The book's description of the wild and decadent parties that Gatsby throws every weekend exemplifies a reckless public whose excessive affinity for material things, pleasure, and infinite love for money and keeping social appearance have overcome any resemblance of dignity. This breakdown in social awareness symbolizes the contamination of the American dream. Specifically, while the guests who attend the parties eat and partake alcohol till wee hours, Gatsby takes refuge somewhere in the mansion away from the quests. The revelers, some who show up just to be seen or get into tabloids, do not bother to look for their host to greet him. Nick captures the hollowness of the situation when he says, "In his blue garden people came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne" (43). This statement shows the carelessness of the hollowness of the events and the careless nature of the society the book portrays. Their excessive gluttony also comes out when Nick also states, "Every Friday five crates of oranges and Lemons arrived from a fruiterer In New York- Every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his backdoor in a pyramid of pulpless halves" (43). The use of the term 'pulpless halves,' in itself, forestall that the people who attend these patients are hollow, a soulless indication of the extent The Great Gatsby characters have tainted the American Dream.

The Roaring Twenties

The Great Gatsby does not use Gatsby only to illustrate the distortion of the American Dream. Meyer Wolfsheim, who is Gatsby partner and collaborator, also engage all form of illegal dealings to make his money. According to Gatsby, Meyer is "... a gambler. He is the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919" (79). The other character is Jordan Baker. Nick recalls the time she manipulated results of a football game by stating, "There was a row that nearly reached the newspapers- a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round" (63). Both Meyer and Jordan commit the wrongdoing to gain unfair benefits, which significantly contrasts the traditional concept of the Dream - working hard for one's accomplishments.The Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald came up with the term "Jazz Age" to describe the 1920s as a period of debauchery and economic affluence that the US and the globe enjoyed. Social observers refer to this period as the Roaring Twenties. They coined this term because the end of World War I saw America and the rest of the world undergo a period of significant economic growth. The favorable economic environment resulted in many people making easy money, which turned individuals over their heads and made them too self-centered, heavy drinkers, and too much into partying. Despite the portrayal of the Roaring Twenties as a time when many people were full of optimism, The Great Gatsby portrays a much bleaker reality. It presents a materialistic society that is absorbed in careless merriment, debauchery, self-centeredness, and overindulgence. As a result, they exist within a whirlwind of risky lifestyle that occasionally results in lethal consequences.

The book captures the ways of the 1920s among Americans. The christening of this decade The Roaring Twenties or The Jazz Age, undoubtedly indicates the twenties were the unruliest era in the history of the United States. This characteristic originates not only from the expansive economic grow the country witnessed but also it came after World War 1. As a result, people must have been experiencing a euphoric sense of enthusiasm for the new social lifestyl...