Summary:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald expounds on the social classes and mentality of people during the Jazz age of the 1920s. Focusing on similarities and variations in the individuals' circumstances, Fitzgerald shows that behaviors and morals can be drastically altered within a decade. The individual personalities, values, and lifestyles of the characters are significantly unique and exhibited as the characters respond to the incidences of life during that time.
Incidences of life can cause outwardly perfect individuals to fall to pieces and realities to merge with dreams. Sometimes an individual's outlook on life differs than those around him. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald expounds on the social classes and mentality of people during the Jazz age. He focuses on the similarities and variations in the individuals' circumstances and shows that the behaviors and morals can drastically be altered within a decade. Characters such as, Tom, George, Nick, Gatsby, Myrtle, and Daisy go through similar situations but differ in the way they deal with them. Their individual personalities, values, and lifestyles are significantly unique and exhibited as relationships grow and crumble. Before long, each life has changed almost beyond recognition.
Tom Buchanan, an immensely wealthy and arrogant man hailing from a socially solid old family, and George Wilson, a lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the Valley of Ashes, are affected by the power and moral decay of the1920s. Both characters are troubled when they find out that their wives are unfaithful to them. When Gatsby, a wealthy West Egger, casually mentions that he knows Tom's wife, Daisy, Tom becomes alarmed and suspicious. Nick, the narrator, observes that, "Tom was evidently perturbed at Daisy's running around alone," (110). Tom's need to be in control of Daisy makes him feel uncomfortable when Gatsby acknowledges his wife. With his power and wealth, Tom is able to find out about Gatsby's past. He tells Gatsby, at the Plaza Hotel, "I've made a little investigation into your affairs" (141). His tactics allows him to persuade Daisy to let go of Gatsby and return to him. Similarly, George becomes suspicious of his wife, Myrtle, when he discovers a dog leash in a drawer and Myrtle tries to cover it up with lies. When George is absolutely sure of Myrtle's affair, he becomes sad and shocked. He says, in his garage, "I just got wised up to something funny... that's why I want to get away" (130). Unlike Tom, due to lack of resources, George is unable to investigate his wife's infidelity, and thus unable to convince Myrtle to stay with him. Also, both Tom and George feel money will fix their crisis and buy happiness. When Tom has an affair and Daisy is saddened by it, he buys gifts to lighten her day. This shows that Tom is materialistic and resolves his problems with his wealth. Similarly, George feels that if he sells Tom's fixed car with profit, he will be able to move out of the Valley of Ashes with Myrtle; which will resolve their marital problems. Unlike Tom, due to lack of wealth, George becomes desperate for money but is unable to pacify his wife. Although both Tom and George are typical gentlemen, their wives are unhappy with their behaviors and thus suffer from emotional and physical distresses. Tom hurts Daisy emotionally by having open affairs and not being ashamed of it. Nick notices his cousin as "her face is sad and lovely" (13). He describes Daisy as lovely and nice but her face reveals her inner turmoil and sorrow with her life events. Tom also hurt Daisy physically when he bruised her knuckle. George hurts his wife emotionally, but unlike Tom, he does not have control on his imperfections. Myrtle is distressed by George's low status in the community and his lack of desire to attain wealth and power. George is contented with his lifestyle and is not cognizant with his wife's discontentment with him and life. While both Tom and George are faced with similar problems, Tom has the ability to resolve them with his power and wealth and change them to reality while for George it remains a dream.
Like Tom and George, Nick Caraway, an honest, young man from Minnesota, and Jay Gatsby, a deeply flawed man whose dreams are merged with reality, are situated in a pool of troubles. Both young men are attracted to the ways of life in that decade. They arrive to the East in hope to separate themselves from the old traditions of their parents. Nick arrives as a restless young man to involve himself in the bond business. Since he is financed by his father for one year, Nick would like to gain experience in his new field rather than to attain wealth. Unlike Nick, however, Gatsby is eager to raise himself up in society. He feels that, "his parents [are] shiftless and unsuccessful farm people-his imagination had never really accepted them as parents at all" (104). After working for a millionaire, Dan Cody, he dedicated his life to the achievement of wealth. After arriving in the east, Nick and Gatsby have relationship with women whom they swank about. When Nick goes out with Jordan, he builds up an ego as she is a famous professional golf player and is happy that she chose him. Similarly, Gatsby feels unique about his relationship with Daisy. He says that, "It exited him too that many men had already loved Daisy - It increased her value in his eyes" (156). He loves her for her youth, vitality, and idolizes her social position that he lacks. As both love stories end, Nick sees Jordan as being selfish and self-centered while Gatsby continues to be blinded by his desire, to see any flaws in his "golden girl", Daisy. Unlike Nick, who ends his relationship, Gatsby holds on to strings of hope till Daisy shatters his fantasy when she leaves him for higher status. Just as Gatsby spends his life trying to get Daisy back, Nick spends his life observing others. When he turns thirty, he says, "I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade" (143). Unlike Gatsby, however, he realizes that if he does not live his own life, he will end up like Daisy and Tom, useless and pathetic. At the end of the novel, both Nick and Gatsby are alone. Nick's values, from his father, give him the ability to be the only who learns from the events, about the selfishness of people like Daisy and Tom, and the desire for an impossible dream like Gatsby and George's. Similarly, Gatsby is unappreciated for his hospitality and alone when no one attends his funeral. This is revealed as he tells Nick, "You've got to get somebody...I can't go through alone" (173). Nick is unable to get anyone to attend his funeral, except Gatsby's father and Owl eyes. Both Nick and Gatsby are westerners who are unable to adapt to the eastern life, but Nick is the one who learns from his and others' experiences and returns home.
Also, in the novel, there are characters that are self-absorbed and selfish, such as Daisy and Myrtle. Their innermost desires concern them with their own and other's romances; destroying lives. Daisy, Tom's wife and Gatsby's dream, wants a chance of reliving her childhood through a romantic fling with Gatsby. Daisy even "told him [Gatsby] that she loved him and Tom Buchanan saw" (125). She feels that since her husband has an affair, it is okay for her to enjoy with another man. She betrays Gatsby and his dream which eventually lead to his destruction. Similarly, Myrtle has an affair with Tom without pondering the effect it would have on her husband. Her desire to be the future Mrs. Buchanan leads to her and her husband's demise. Also both women are materialistic and selfish. Daisy relies on her status and wealth to get her through tough times. Nick observes that she, "smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into [her] money...and let other people clean up the mess [she] had made" (187-188). This is shown when Daisy allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle instead of her. Her selfish personality shows up when she drives off after hitting Myrtle, to save herself instead of stopping the car to see if Myrtle was alright. Daisy is shown to be materialistic when she is pacified with gifts from her husband excusing him for his affairs and when Gatsby shows her the custom made shirts of different colors symbolizing his wealth. In a vaguely similar way, Myrtle shows her materialistic personality when she decorates the apartment that Tom bought for her with "a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it" (33). This is another instance that shows her desire to become wealthy. Since she does not have the status that Daisy does, Myrtle becomes a mere play toy for Tom and is unsuccessful in attaining his status. Both Daisy and Myrtle face situations where only power can get them through thus enabling Daisy, to survive successfully while Myrtle ends in tragedy.
The quest for wealth and power, along with the moral decay of a time period can bring out the best or worst in people. Some like Tom and Daisy are able to conquer and survive due to their status and clout in society while the downfall and demise of George and Myrtle are inevitable due to lack of wealth and power. Some like Nick survive because they learn from mistakes while dreamers like Gatsby perish because of their inability to distinguish between reality and dream. Each person is unique in their response to the incidences of life based on their values and morals. The optimal responses to these incidents of life are the realistic and positive ones that everyone should strive to achieve.
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