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The Jazz Age and the Theme of Innocence in "The Great Gatsby"

Summary:   F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is essentially a book about the end of innocence. An essay examining whether the book the Great Gatsby is a story about the end of innocence in 1920s America. The elite's lifestyle of decadance is ended by the harsh economic realities that followed.

'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald has many themes, such as the end of the American Dream, and one of these themes is the end of innocence in the period that the book was set in, the Jazz Age. Before I look at the importance of innocence in the book I must first look at the details of the Jazz Age and what sort of influence it had on the general public.

The Jazz Age was literally when Jazz music really came into its own and became the defining music of the people. The music played an important role in everybody's lives and the level of playing at the time surpassed in quality any other period in history, especially the compositions of Duke Ellington. But to bring the music closer to the types of people that are mostly portrayed in the book, young, rich and white people the music had to be watered down to make it more cheerful and fun for the people to dance to. Also at the time a there was a boom in production and the amount of money that many people 'had' was beyond belief. Even though prohibition had been introduced liquor was still available through the 'Mafia' bosses such as Al Capone. Daisy, Tom, Nick and Gatsby were the types of people who did buy liquor despite prohibition, they had expensive objects (Gatsby had his Rolls-Royce, Nick his books, Tom and Daisy their car) and they 'enjoyed' listening to the diluted Jazz music.

Now it is important to define what innocence is. Innocence is freedom from sin, moral wrong through lack of knowledge, freedom from guile, cunning or deceit, a lack of knowledge or understanding and freedom from harmfulness. This is very important as it gives three parameters that I can work with to see whether the story is about the end of innocence.

Firstly I will look at the first definition that I gave:

'Innocence is freedom from sin, moral wrong through lack of knowledge.'

To look at this definition I must take away the sin from the definition as, although it is very important, Daisy, Tom, etc. did not really cohere to the idea of sin they just did what they pleased without adhering to the 'rules of god'. Therefore the new definition is very interesting as it can be applied to most of the characters in the book. This is because most of the characters did commit many things that most people would see as morally indefensible yet the characters did not seem to have much remorse for their actions. For instance Tom has a mistress (Myrtle) who he seems to parade when he goes to New York and he has had many mistresses since he married Daisy. Most people would have seen this as a moral wrong but Tom does not, this is because I think that he does not believe that he is hurting anybody. He does not think that his actions are hurting his mistress or his wife. Although his actions do not hurt his mistress at first, they mostly 'hurt' Daisy as she felt that she was not really loved, which she overdramatically said to Nick on his first visit ('I've had a very bad time,'). But then when things come to a head when they go to the baths on a hot day and Daisy says 'I never loved you,' Tom seems to realise what he has been doing and how Daisy has turned against him, so Tom tries to assert his authority and say that Daisy will not leave him, which is correct and she stays with him. Then soon afterwards Myrtle was killed by Daisy when she was driving back with Gatsby as Myrtle thought that Tom was driving the car so she wanted to get away from her dull husband, Mr Wilson. Tom believes that it was Gatsby's fault and tells this to Mr Wilson, who in turn murders Gatsby. Even though, to the best of our knowledge, Tom does not blame himself for the murder of Myrtle he does see that through his actions he has hurt Daisy and has realised that he probably did do wrong by having mistresses. From this example we can see how through the book the innocence is lost, for initially Tom is 'innocent' as he does not have knowledge of the ramifications of his actions but then after Daisy expresses her disgust him he seems to have realised the hurt he has caused. So he has lost his innocence throughout the book and he can never be innocent from this anymore as he knows the pain that his actions cause and how close he came to losing Daisy.

The second definition (freedom from guile, cunning or deceit) can be applied mostly to Gatsby. This is because initially Gatsby comes across as being harmless; he does not seem to have any pretensions yet he is reclusive so people gossip about his personality and history. Gatsby comes across to Nick as being puzzling, slightly enigmatic and he seems to be hiding from the limelight, even though he is throwing the parties he does not seem to want to be the centre of the party or even take part in the party. This puzzles Nick as he wonders why Gatsby does this and makes him seem to question Gatsby's character. Gatsby does not really lie to Nick in a great way; he lies to protect his history, which if it got out could ruin his chances to be with Daisy. But then later on when he asks Tom to set up a date with Daisy he shows that he is cunning by trying to 'steal' Daisy away from Tom. He meticulously plans on trying to woo Daisy by inviting her to parties, he goes out on 'mini-dates' with her. He does all this to regain a love that he experienced whilst in his youth. This shows how Gatsby has lost his innocence, if we use this definition, as during the book as at the beginning he was not cunning or very deceitful but by the end of the book he had become all these things. Therefore he has lost his innocence for good as he is murdered, therefore this example shows the end of innocence in the book.

Using the third and fourth definitions of innocence (a lack of knowledge or understanding, freedom from harmfulness) it is easy to place these definitions on one character. The character is Mr Wilson; he is arguably the most innocent, using both definitions, person in the book. He minds his own business in the Valley of Ashes scrapping together a meagre existence, while his wife pretended to go and visit her sister in New York when she was actually having an affair with Tom Buchannan. He says about Mr Wilson 'Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He's so dumb de doesn't know he's alive.' this shows how Wilson is perceived to be completely stupid, which he probably is and he does not have a correct grip on reality. But later on in the book Wilson finds a dog collar that Tom bought for Myrtle and he realises that he has been bamboozled for such a long time and that Myrtle has been having an affair. So he mirrors what Daisy and Tom did, to get far away from where the affair happened, Tom had an affair in Chicago so Daisy wanted to move to East Egg in a hope that he would change, Mr Wilson was doing exactly the same. But then Myrtle is run over by Daisy, while she is driving Gatsby's car, Wilson is distraught and wants to know who did it, for he still loved her. When he is told that it was the car that Tom drove earlier to try and sell to him he suspects Tom but his alibi checks out. Eventually Wilson comes to see Tom and asks whose car it was, tom does not hesitate to tell and therefore Wilson comes to shoot Gatsby while he is 'relaxing' in the pool. This example shows how Wilson's innocence has been lost during the book, for originally he was innocent as he lacked the knowledge of what his wife was doing but then he finds out what she was doing. And this is then heightened by Wilson losing his innocence completely as he kills Gatsby.

Apart from the end of the characters innocence we can also look at the end of the search for innocence. By lusting after Daisy Gatsby does not actually want to be with Daisy because he is infatuated with her, even though he does love her, he wants to be with her because he wants to return to a simpler time, when he was innocent. Which was when he was ignorant about the harshness of life, that he undoubtedly witnessed whilst on duty in the Great War. So in fact his search for Daisy is just a search for innocence and a return to a time when he was younger and more virile. In doing so he wants to recapture his 'inseparable' bond between him and Daisy. But ultimately he fails in trying to do so as Daisy rejects him for the chance to be in a safe, secure relationship. But until the end he still waits for Daisy to phone him up and say that she has made a tremendous mistake. While he is waiting for the phone call that he expects must come, Wilson has been tipped off by Tom that Gatsby killed Myrtle. So Wilson comes to kill Gatsby, which ends Gatsby's quest to be with Daisy. Therefore Gatsby's search for innocence has ended so his innocence has ended, for as long as he was alive there was still a chance for him to regain his innocence but his death signalled the end of innocence for him.