How does Fitzgerald justify his description of Gatsby as Great?

by sinjmeister (student)

Alex St John

Throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows Gatsby as ‘great’ by conveying his uniqueness, vitality, idealistic nature and perseverance towards his one main dream, Daisy. Fitzgerald also uses Gatsby to represent many aspects of humans on the whole such as the inevitable corruption that comes with wealth.

Gatsby’s uniqueness is shown very early in the novel on page 8 when Nick describes Gatsby as having ‘an extraordinary gift of hope’. This unique gift of Gatsby is shown throughout the novel such as when Gatsby’s dream of having Daisy is almost gone after Tom Buchannan had revealed his bootlegging to her he still retains hope that one day his dream will come true. Fitzgerald also uses the metaphor that Gatsby was like ‘one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away’ to convey how Gatsby was not only a very sensitive and caring man but had the unique gift of being a very sensitized character as he is aware of sensitivity around him.

Fitzgerald also conveys the vitality of Gatsby throughout the novel like on page 72/73 when Gatsby meets Daisy for the first time after he came back from the war. After being left alone with Daisy for a short period of time Gatsby is described as ‘literally glowing’ and ‘radiating’; Fitzgerald uses both these words to show how Gatsby was suddenly full of energy. His colossal vitality is also shown on p40 with his smile. Gatsby’s smile is described as having a ‘quality of eternal reassurance in it,’ Gatsby has the unique ability to cheer up everyone around him with such a small gesture as a smile. Fitzgerald shows this in the phrase by using the word ‘eternal’, showing that Gatsby’s smile is so full of energy that it can stay with the person that it is aimed at and pass on some of his vitality to them. Fitzgerald also justifies his description of Gatsby as great in the way he connects with people especially Nick. This is shown as he connects with Nick and changes Nick’s view of him from just being a fake and corrupt character to being in awe of him.

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Fitzgerald conveys arguably the greatest thing about Gatsby in his idealistic nature, Gatsby ‘heightened sensitivity to the promises of life’ is shown throughout the novel as he is constantly striving to do better and achieve his hopes and aspirations. This is best shown near the end of the novel on page 137-138 when Gatsby’s father shows Nick Gatsby’s schedule from when he was younger. Fitzgerald conveys Gatsby’s extraordinary work ethic in this as it is packed with work and other things like dumbbell exercises to make him physically stronger. In this Fitzgerald shows Gatsby is great as he succeeds in fulfilling the America dream as with his incredible work ethic he made his way out of his humble, poor background into the rich, fruitful life that he desired so badly. Once he had fulfilled this he turned all his energy into obtaining daisy. In this way Gatsby has to be admired simply because of his drive to better himself and improve his situation. Fitzgerald also justifies his description of Gatsby as great as although his corruption shows the bad side of Gatsby Fitzgerald makes it clear to the reader that it was actually a selfless act by Gatsby as it was not all for him but for Daisy. In this way Fitzgerald justifies Gatsby’s corruption. Gatsby’s selflessness is epitomized when Daisy runs over and kills Myrtle and he takes the blame for it. Even though Gatsby lies about how he obtained his wealth the fact that he made all of his wealth himself out of nothing makes him great. Gatsby’s greatness is also shown as Nick is cynical to the promises of life but even he has to admire Gatsby’s sheer drive and determination towards his dream.

Fitzgerald also justifies his description of Gatsby as ‘great’ by showing Gatsby’s perseverance towards his dream throughout the novel. His determination and perseverance are shown at the end of chapter 1 when we first see Gatsby and he had ‘stretched out his arms’ towards the green light on the end of Daisy’s porch. Fitzgerald shows in this that Gatsby is so determined to fulfill his dream that something as small and insignificant as a green light bears huge significance to him. The fact that he had stretched out his arms shows that he is yearning for something; he is not just yearning for Daisy but is yearning to go back in time to before the war when he was innocent before all of his corruption and bootlegging. Fitzgerald shows this yearning again on page 88 when Gatsby tells Nick ‘can’t repeat the past, of course you can!’ Gatsby’s aspirations are so high that when he actually gets Daisy he is shown to ‘question his happiness’. Fitzgerald epitomizes Gatsby’s perseverance towards his dream with the religious references on page 78 ‘Gatsby sprang from his Plutonic Conception of himself’ and page 88 ‘his mind would never romp again like the mind of God’; Fitzgerald uses religious references to show that had turned into an almost God-like figure to Gatsby, he worshipped her.

Fitzgerald also justifies his depiction of Gatsby as great as he uses him to convey the corrupt nature of humans on the whole. He uses Gatsby’s story to show how humans have dreams and aspirations but they all become corrupted by material things such as money. This is shown on page 54-55 when Fitzgerald talks about New York and how it was ‘all built with a wish’ but got corrupted by ‘non-olfactory money’. This corruption is shown later on in the page when the dead man in a hearse passes them by. Fitzgerald also goes back to this point later on in the novel on p 143 when he mentions the Dutch sailors who came from a corrupt Europe to a ‘new world’ with dreams and aspirations of a world without corruption but it is simply human nature so could not be prevented and this too became corrupted. Fitzgerald also uses the last line ‘and so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past, to show how, just like Gatsby, humans are idealistic and are always trying to reach out to achieve what we cant get and we are always trying to go back to a time where there was no corruption in the world.

In conclusion I agree with Fitzgerald in calling Gatsby ‘great’ as he not only brings out the best parts of human nature in his selflessness and determination but epitomizes human nature on the whole including the bad sides like corruption.