Barrie Panayi
UNIT THREE “Contemporary Study” Item 1.
How far do you consider Gatsby to be the epitome of the American dream and its _ failure?
Gatsby is shown in ‘The Great Gatsby’ to be the personification of the American dream because he is the typical self made man, he had come from being a nobody into being the most wealthy man on the neighbourhood and able to buy what he wanted “champagne...Rolls-Royce” which was in a way the aim of all American’s and had been achieved by Gatsby. But the real aim of Gatsby was never achieved and that was to be with Daisy. So the failure of his dream was not in the materialistic side of it but in the spiritual side of it. This is also the case of the American dream which wasn’t, in the 1920s, spiritually reached in terms of the “pursuit for happiness” (Thomas Jefferson: declaration of independence).
Gatsby showed in his character an unrelenting aim for the satisfaction of his love for Daisy, which makes us feel sympathy for him and by him thinking he will achieve his goal makes him heroic. This is also done by the use of a first-person narrative through Nick because if there was a third person narrator than the reader would be “in possession of all the ‘facts of the case” (‘The Great Gatsby’: Nick Carraway’s story? Henry Claridge) which would go against Gatsby and the heroicness of him and wouldn’t derive as much sympathy from the reader because they would learn more of his dealings with Wolfsheim and other illegal activities. The reader could also take a more offensive stand on the adultery of Daisy and Gatsby if it wasn’t delivered in such an unobtrusive way “leaving them their together” which hints at the sexual relations but doesn't linger on it. This would have annoyed a few people back in the days that Fitzgerald wrote this because society was still quite on the religious side so they would have been surprised to show adultery so constant throughout his novel. He shows his loneliness at his parties by being remote, which is due to his contradictive character, and also the fantastic atmosphere that surrounds him makes him sometimes unapproachable. This was when people didn’t really know him but they didn’t go up to him and ask they just made up rumours.
