Fitzgerald also uses the character of Tom’s wife, Daisy, to explore the decline of the moral family. Daisy grew up in an artificial world. Being rich she had many men and everything she wanted was handed to her on a silver platter. After dating Gatsby for a period of time she fell in love, but when he left she got impatient and required a new life right then and there. Fitzgerald’s novel states “She wanted her life shaped now; immediately- and the decision must be made by some force- of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality- that was close at hand” (page 159). This is when she meets Tom and marries him, still being in love with Gatsby. They then have their daughter together, with which neither spend any quality time with. Also Daisy drinks and smokes despite the prohibition. Best’s article states “the consumption of alcohol in America had not ceased despite the law that came into effect in January 1920” (page23). Daisy, Tom, and their friends were very often in New York (child left behind) dinking in a hotel or apartment. It seems for Tom and daisy this was an escape from reality for them. They didn’t want to face the fact that they were a family because of the cheating and the lies.
Fitzgerald also uses symbolism in his writing of “The Great Gatsby” to critique the moral decline of the 1920’s. One repeated example is the sign in New York of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.. His eyes peered down at everyone in the city as they drove by. It seems he sees all and knows all, reminding them of what they are doing wrong. The eyes are a reminder of the cheating and lying that is going on between Tom and Daisy’s relationship. The novel states “Then as Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s faded eyes came into sight down the road I remembered Gatsby’s caution about gasoline” (page129). He is a constant reminder to the group that what is going on is no longer a secret. Ernest H. Greuning describes New York as “Their outlook is eternally on stone or brick walls” (page 263). The outlook for the group is seen through the eyes on the sign of these “stone or brick walls”. They know what they are doing is wrong and compromising their relationships, they know everyone else knows as well, but still keep it going.
Another example of symbolism is the weather. Fitzgerald uses extremely hot weather in the scenes where Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship is in the open, to intensify the heated argument between them all. The reader states “The next day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of the summer” (page 120).
The setting of the novel also gives a clearer outlook of the moral decline. The novel takes place in the 1920’s. The characters have no moral concepts. Mr. Gatsby is the richest of the group, earning his fortunes through bootlegging. His neighbor Nick is not so well off, living in a much smaller home. There is Jordan, the golf champion who dates Nick; and Tom and Daisy who are a married couple both having affairs and not spending time with their child. As Henry Demarest Lloyd states it “That men’s hearts are bad and that bad men will do bad things has a truth in it” (page 503). They all live high class lives, traveling to the city on any given day just to drink and smoke, which must have been expensive. Andrew Carnegie says “Today the world obtains commodities of excellent quality at prices which even the generation preceding this would have deemed incredible” (page 452). They lived expensive lives which often led them to disappointment and arguments. The worst of this arguing occurs between Tom and Gatsby when Tom finds out about the affair. All this hostility leads to the death of his own mistress. Lloyd states “Believing wealth to be good, the people believed the wealthy to be good” (page 510). Tom, Nick, Jordan and Daisy were all friends with Gatsby, maybe because he was rich, although in the end Tom, Jordan, and Daisy have nothing to do with Gatsby.
The narrator of this novel is Nick Caraway. He is often viewed as an unreliable narrator in his position as a social commentator. In Fizgerald’s novel the narrator states “I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privilged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction- Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn” (page 6). He seems not to like Gatsby too well, but we see throughout the novel that he is drawn to him. He is always excited to be invited to his parties and to go places with him. He helps Gatsby restart his relationship with Daisy and in the end he is one of the only people to be at his funeral. He gives Gatsby one compliment throughout the novel, placing him higher than everyone else, but still goes on feeling disaprovement towards Gatsby. Nick is unreliable in his judgments of people, causing a reader to question truth and accuracy in what he has to say. Best’s “The Dollar Decade” states “city life finds a new thrill every week for every member of the family” (page 20-21). This statement exposes Nick’s unreliability as a social commentator of the 1920’s. Tom and Daisy never bring their daughter to the city with them on their many trips. Also when they go to the city all they do is cheat on each other and drink. There are no thrills for them except for their own thrill of arguing over their problem relationships.
Throughout his novel “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald critiques the causes of the moral decline during the twenties. He has done so through his use of character, symbolism, setting and narrator although we come to find the narrator is often viewed as unreliable. The twenties were a time of people getting rich, drinking too much and losing touch with their morals. Fitzgerald has exposed this life to us through “The Great Gatsby”.
Works Cited
Best, Gary Dean. The Dollar Decade: Mamman and the Machine in 1920’s
America. London: Praeger Pulishers, 2003.
Carnegie, Andrew. Negotiating Difference Cultural Case Studies for _ Composition “Wealth” (1894).Ed. Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Hertzberg. Boston and New York: Bedford/ St.Martin’s, 1996.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott and Bruccoli, Matthew J. The Great Gatsby: The _ Authorized Text. New York: Scribner, 2003.
Greuning, Earnest H. These United States: Portraits of America from the _ 1920’s- New York: I The City- Work of Man. Ed. Daniel H. Borus.
Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Lloyd, Henry Demarest. Negotiating Difference Cultural Case Studies for _ Composition “From Wealth Against Commonwealth (1894).Ed. Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Hertzberg. Boston and New York: Bedford/
St.Martin’s, 1996.