However if one looks deeper into the novel a different opinion can be formulated. Although the book is called ‘The Great Gatsby’ it actually focuses around Nick Carraway and his experiences. When Nick first meets his old friend Tom Buchanan and his wife Daisy (a distant relative of Nick) he is astounded at what he finds. There is rife hypocrisy and a general lack of purpose.
“Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrevocable football game.”
Tom also shows signs of something even more incorrect with his bigoted comment:
“Civilisation’s going to pieces.. I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read this book ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard?”
“It's up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”
What compounds this effect is Daisy’s comment, a repeat of what Tom had said earlier. This shows that she is not only brainwashed by Tom, but has no capability / wish of making up her own opinion.
“We’ve got to beat them down”
The corruption of this family continues to envelop Nick when Jordan tells him of Tom’s adulterous affair, with this woman in New York (Myrtle). The full extent of the complete corruption that is Tom and Daisy’s marriage, is revealed to Nick when he finds out that Daisy is actually aware of what Tom is up to.
The second chapter includes Nicks symbolic vision of the state of the country. He describes the valley of ashes with such words as desolate, grotesque and ghastly. The valley of ashes show the decay of the American Dream as the ash represents corruption. The ash floats aimlessly around, much like many of the people in that area. As the men try to do their work, they are engulfed with this corruption, which impedes sight and the work trying to be done. Everything Nick describes is grey; the workers, the trucks, the track, the land and the air. The ash / corruption has engulfed everything in this part of the country. The huge sign of Doctor T.J Eckleburg’s eyes that look over the valley of ashes gives us a powerful image. Some say that it represents the eyes of God. Pessimism is drawn from the fact that the sign is very old and very faded, forgotten about. We can see this as God having left the valley of ashes and given up due to it becoming too corrupt and unnatural and no longer having an interest.
In contrast to Gatsby’s party mentioned earlier, when Nick attends Myrtle’s party he is surrounded by falseness and vulgarness. However even at Gatsby’s party Nick realises that the people there are all materialistic, except the one person who does not participate in his own parties. The people attending Myrtle’s party are all of lower class, but act as if it is a higher-class function. Myrtle changes into a dress that makes her appear upper class, which shows her to be phoney. The party is also full of horrible people such as Mr and Mrs McKee. Nick is quite compelled by the way the people act, but is also greatly saddened, by the way in which they feel they must act. Gossip is spread round the part like a fire. Needless to say all the gossip is false and lies of some sort or another. The party ends with an act of severe violence that inevitably follows Tom around with his corrupt lifestyle, and Nick wakes up the next morning with a hangover in a cold station.
Things do seem to become more optimistic when Nick learns of Gatsby and his dream. When he is told that Gatsby bought his house just so he could be close to Daisy.
“He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendour.”
The whole ideal that Gatsby has for Daisy, his hope, his optimism, his determination give Nick a sense of hope himself. He sees the purity of Gatsby’s personal dream, and the similarity of it to The American
,óßbe and cries.
“It makes me sad beÿß
aving it fail before him.
“If tha
00d to achieving the true American Dream, however he dies due to the corruption he brought upon himself by chasing it into reality. Gatsby failed to achieve his ideal. Even that of which he did, he was unable to keep, as Daisy’s materialism drew her back to Tom. Tom and Daisy are indeed the only two to come out of the situation unscaved in anyway, and much like they started.
The book shows us that the corrupt thrive and prosper, those who chase the American Dream inevitably end up failing. Everyone who does gain or already has the American Dream becomes a materialist. The pure that strive to reach the American Dream and succeed (Gatsby) end up dead. The gaining or maintaining or the dream also involves destroying many innocent lives along the way. The novel therefore shows us that the true American Dream is unreachable and incapable of being realised. It may already be a part of American history, and not a present day achievable dream.
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