Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Chapter Eight
How does Gatsby's insistance to live in the past contribute to his eventual death? Based on Nick's reflection on page six, "..Gatsby turned out all right at the end..." did Gatsby accomplish his goal as discussed in class? Feel free to include any additional thoughts on the events in chapter eight.
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Gatsby's insistence on the past is part of a broader underlying weakness in his character. He refuses to live in reality and instead chooses to live in a dream world. His upbringing suggests the source of this abhorrence towards reality. Anyone forced to eke out his living through such dull and unfulfilling work would no doubt end up despising reality. Gatsby's disease, for that is what it is, was special because it found an outlet. If Gatsby had never met Dan Cody, it is possible that he could have conquered his dreams. Instead, his fate was much crueler: he was given a taste of his dream, and then walled off from it. Far from curing him of his desires, this ignited his hunger for a better life. He became consumed through his quest of self-improvement. When we as readers meet him, that quest has already begun its mad spiral downwards. He started out wanting respect, power, and love. However, his life story ends in total failure. He has no respect as "new money" and a "Westegger". He has no power despite his vast wealth (His failure to attain the social status, and consequent power; as well as his failure to maintain a stable financial position, exhibited by his constant calls from "Chicago" make this glaringly obvious). And his biggest failure is his failed affair with Daisy. This last failure is interesting. Paradoxically, he seems to have failed because he succeeded. His whole life was consumed by the pursuit of his dreams, which were symbolized in his mind by Daisy. So when he finally was able to realize his dream, the object of his fantasies became dull and mundane. The Great Gatsby is ultimately a tragedy because of this. Fitzgerald points out the impassable walls that 1920's American Society put in place through Gatsby's failures. These walls were so hopelessly high, that they defeated even the heroic figure of Gatsby. More than that, it is implied that there was a steep price for trying. Gatsby's personality becomes twisted and perverted, gradually sinking into a confused insanity. While his actions towards Daisy at first endeared him to the reader, when his life concludes, we are left with a sense of disappointment and even horror. He has refused to admit defeat and tries desperately to throw himself between Daisy and the law. He then is murdered, completing the fall. However, Fitzgerald puts in a twist. Gatsby is not murdered by Tom, shady outlaws, or divine providence (or maybe it was...); instead he was murdered by Wilson. Of all the characters to bring about Gatsby's end, Wilson would seem to be the least likely. In fact, Wilson and Gatsby seem to be very similar. Which raises the question, "Why would Fitzgerald make Wilson do it?". In my opinion this shows that Gatsby was committing suicide. If Wilson is looked at as a metaphorical representation for Gatsby, then Myrtle could be the symbol for his dreams. Even if those dreams were in fact base, and ugly, what drove Gatsby, and Wilson, into insanity was the loss of those dreams.
ReplyDeleteAlex brings up an interesting thought about how Gatsby’s “fate was much crueler” (Alex). Five years before his death, when he kissed Daisy, Gatsby destroyed his destiny. He made a deadly choice to not climb the ladder, “to a secret place above the trees" (Fitzgerald 117). He chose to “forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath” (Fitzgerald 117). Gatsby grounds himself, makes the “Platonic conception of himself” (Fitzgerald 104) weaker, more transparent, it tied him to Daisy’s “perishable breath.” Gatsby is giving up his immortality, or at least the fate of indestructible fortune he had invented for himself. When he loses Daisy to Tom, during the war, he becomes stuck in the past, he can no longer go forward, because his fate is “forever wed” to her. When Daisy makes it clear that she doesn’t love Gatsby, that she isn’t tied to Gatsby in the same destructive way he is tied to her, Gatsby is exposed to “A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about” (Fitzgerald 169). He is stuck in limbo, floating in the pool, with no dream guide his fate now that Daisy is unreachable. When Wilson shoots him the hanging world of the past Gatsby was determined to relive, the dream he was determined to live out, was shattered forever.
ReplyDeleteI also think it’s interesting how, although Nick has the ability describe personal aspects of Gatsby’s life throughout the book, he will never know the details of how Gatsby died. Nick’s entire novel has been devoted to Gatsby and his past, his dreams. Now Nick will never know how Jay Gatsby spent the final moments of his life. Did he yell for Daisy? Plead for mercy? Or did Wilson pull the trigger so quickly Gatsby was dead before he realized it? Perhaps Fitzgerald chooses to use the absence of Gatsby’s final moments as a way to preserve the importance of his past. How Jay Gatsby’s “Platonic conception” was crushed is not as important as the process by which James Gatz successfully transformed into Gatsby. Also there is a balance to Gatsby’s character. The book started with Gatsby’s past being shrouded in mystery and will end with the details of Gatsby’s last moments being lost forever.
Consider where Gatsby is eventually killed, the pool he wanted to swim in all summer. How does this relate to his refusal to live in the present? Alex introduces discussion on the bizarre choice of killer of Gatsby. Why did Fitzgerald choose Wilson to kill Gatsby? Could Wilson have been a representation of Gatsby, as Alex suggested therefore contributing to the idea of Gatsby’s “suicide” or does he represent something else? Relate this to the passage that closes out the chapter on page 170, “It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.” Consider the fact that Fitzgerald published this in 1925.
ReplyDeleteGoing along with Arjun's quote on page 6 that Gatsby "turned out all right at the end," the very next line is "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" (6). Nick is suggesting that Gatsby allowed the past to become his goal, and in pursuing this goal he only encountered an abyss of confusion and especially regret. Regret is the primary fuel of Gatsby's intensified love for Daisy because he doesn't want to make the same mistake he made before and let her slip away from his grasp. Gatsby shows an obstinate denial when he says that Daisy never loved Tom. We can assume that she is truly torn between her two lovers, and both Gatsby and Tom can see that. Gatsby, however, develops a primary focus of proving to himself that Daisy has always loved Tom more. In wanting "to wait her till Daisy goes to bed" and "standing there in the moonlight--watching over nothing" (153), he begins to recognize the abyss that is appearing at the end of his journey.
ReplyDeleteOn the analysis of Gatsby's character, deception is a mechanism Gatsby uses to create the illusion of his formidable image. As Sarah pointed out, he misleads people constantly in going by Jay Gatsby instead of James Gatz. The notion of self re-invention ties to deception in Gatsby's case because he not only feels the need to prove to others of his status, but to himself as well. Also, deception played a role in winning Daisy over in the past. Gatsby once questioned, "What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?" (157). Clearly, Gatsby finds it more practical to "climb the ladder alone" and live life to the tune of his desires, and this fallacious perspective led to the weakening of their relationship.
Additionally, the description of the ending scene Nick imposes is very appropriate because the many facets of Gatsby's personality become evident to us. "The holocaust was complete" (170) is a very bold, yet accurate statement in that three people are killed: Mr. Wilson, Gatsby's past self, and Gatsby's future self. Many of his dreams were shattered and the possibility of James Gatz's "reincarnation" became an impossibility to everyone except Nick. Because Nick became so involved with Gatsby's life and empathized with him so often, he seems to have the authority to claim that he "turned out all right." It is in this way that Nick is a biased narrator, and this perspective of the story is not consistent with the "greatness" Gatsby ACTUALLY possessed.