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The Art of Sacrifice in the Great Gatsby

Summary:   Through the use of techniques such as juxtaposition, imagery and symbolism, Fitzgerald has successfully portrayed the art of sacrifice by showing the various characters' crafted and planned out sacrifices.

The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald which portrays the art of sacrifice performed by the various characters in order to accomplish their own versions of the American Dream. Sacrifice is the act of giving up something of value in order to achieve some higher advantage. It is an art in the way that it is something crafted, and contains an element of planning. The end result of the sacrifice, whether it be enlightenment or loss, is a moulded creation. Towards the end of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald mentions the Dutch sailors who first sighted the "new world" of America. These sailors saw America as a new life of freedom, holding a promise of spiritual and material fulfilment. The period after World War I, also known as the Roaring Twenties, is usually associated with money and gaiety. This quickly overcame the spiritual side of the American Dream, leading to its corruption. Fitzgerald, combining the use of Nick as an honest narrator and language techniques such as simile, imagery, juxtaposition and symbolism, presents the different characters' dreams and the sacrifices they make in attempt to achieve them. Three such examples are: Daisy's sacrifice of her love towards Gatsby, Myrtle's sacrifice of her marriage, and Gatsby's sacrifice of his morals and his life for Daisy.

Fitzgerald demonstrates Nick as a reliable narrator in the first chapter when Nick recalls on the advice his father gave him in his "younger and more vulnerable years." The advice led Nick to "reserve all judgements", proving that he is a trustworthy narrator for the readers. When readers are first introduced to Daisy from Nick's perspective, imagery is used to describe her appearance: "they were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house." The use of simile refers to Daisy as a butterfly: beautiful, attractive and desirable. Symbolism is used in the mention of the colour white, as it signifies purity and innocence. The techniques used present Daisy as an elegant and innocent woman. As readers later find out, Daisy is morally bankrupt and judges a person's worth by their materialistic values, which emphasises the concept that her beauty and innocence is only skin deep. It is revealed that Daisy was once in love with Gatsby, but the intervention of the war led to her marriage to Tom, whom she thought was more worthy than Gatsby because of his immense fortune. This judgement of worthiness based on a man's wealth is illustrated in the mention of the expensive pearl necklace Tom gave her the day before their marriage. When Gatsby re-enters Daisy's life with a lot more material wealth, she became aware him again. Her prejudiced judgement of a man's worth is once again shown in the way she "cries stormily" about Gatsby's silk shirts, which is a symbol of Gatsby's material wealth. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful shirts before." Her renewal of interest towards Gatsby further emphasises her superficiality. Although Daisy seems to love Gatsby, she never left Tom and allowed Tom to take control after the manslaughter of Myrtle in order to escape trouble. Daisy showed no concern for Gatsby, even though he took the blame for her murderous act. This demonstrates that she was willing to selfishly sacrifice her feelings towards Gatsby in order to hide from the responsibility she had after her immoral doings. Nick views Daisy as a "careless" person, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things...and then retreated back into their money...and let other people clean up the mess they had made." Daisy's egotistic and uncaring character is further displayed in the way she abandons Gatsby and shows no remorse for his death. "She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby - nothing." "Daisy hadn't sent a message or a flower." Daisy sacrifices her love for Gatsby, choosing protection and material wealth that Tom could provide her with. The sacrifice she has made is unethical and reflects the corruption of the American dream through its lack of morality.

Myrtle is a flamboyant woman of the average social class with a poor husband. In having an affair with Tom, she dreams of their eventual marriage which would bring her social status higher. She scorned upon people of her own class, including her husband, because she believed that Tom would leave Daisy to be with her. Much like Daisy, Myrtle judges a man's worth by the amount of wealth he has. The way she dearly treasured the costly dog collar Tom bought for her is symbolic of the happiness Tom is able to offer Myrtle through material goods. "She had it wrapped in tissue paper on her bureau." This dog collar is juxtaposed against the expensive pearl necklace that Tom gave Daisy. This juxtaposition portrays the false hope Tom gives Myrtle, since Myrtle is satisfied with merely a dog collar while Daisy is receiving gifts of much higher value from Tom. This fulfillment leads her to unwisely sacrifice her marriage for material wealth. Again similar to Daisy, Myrtle hopes for a 'perfect life' with a dream husband and material wealth. Her sacrifice, in the end, brought her nothing. This sacrifice is linked with the corruption of the American Dream in the way that it is based on materialistic values and contains no spiritual meaning.

Gatsby dreams of gaining Daisy's love and the two of them live happily ever after. This simple dream, unlike all other dreams represented in the novel, has not been corrupted by the hunger for material wealth and is a true and pure dream. Nick shows the pureness of Gatsby's dream by comparing Gatsby to the Dutch sailors who first sighted America. "I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new world...as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock...Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us." The colour green represents life, and is used to symbolize the spiritual side of the American dream. Gatsby's belief in it made his dream authentic. In order to achieve his dream, he becomes involved in illegal practices to attain the money which he thought would win Daisy. His involvement with underground criminals demonstrates his sacrifice of righteousness and honesty for Daisy. This is related to the corruption of the American Dream because Gatsby believed that material wealth would allow him to achieve his dream. For many years, everything Gatsby did was to gain worthiness of Daisy. Fitzgerald uses ironic contrast by exposing the treachery and qualities of corruption Daisy really possesses, demonstrating her unworthiness of Gatsby. Gatsby's dream seems to become more and more out of reach towards the end of the book, where he is left standing alone outside Daisy's house waiting to be the hero to save her from Tom, not realizing that he was actually "watching over nothing." When Gatsby takes the responsibility of killing Myrtle, he willingly and literally sacrificed his life for Daisy. Gatsby sacrificed so much time and effort in hopes of winning Daisy's love, but he failed nevertheless. Although his dream was pure, the corruption of the American Dream led him to believe that by having material wealth he would ultimately achieve his dreams. In the end, his sacrifices brought him nothing in return.

Through the use of techniques such as juxtaposition, imagery and symbolism, Fitzgerald has successfully portrayed the art of sacrifice by showing the various characters' crafted and planned out sacrifices. Daisy's sacrifice of her love for Gatsby and Myrtle's sacrifice of her marriage link to the corruption of the American Dream in the way that their dreams lack morality and spiritual meaning. Although Gatsby's sacrifice of his morals and his life were for the purpose of achieving a pure and true dream, the corruption of the American Dream has led to Gatsby's belief that material wealth could fulfill his dream.