Futile Fantasies, Fatalistic Failure The Great Gatsby, the 1925 masterpiece by F. Scott Fitzgerald, chronicles Jay Gatsby’s pursuit of his American Dream: wealth, status, and love. Yet despite Gatsby’s accumulation of wealth, he falls short of his dream, dies, and never integrates into East Egg society or marries Daisy. While narrator Nick Carraway views Gatsby’s life as inspirational, the reader views Gatsby’s life as cautionary; the novel’s ending reconciles this contrast to emphasize ignorant and stubborn human nature as well as the impossibility of the American Dream. When reading the ending from Nick Carraway’s perspective, Gatsby becomes a self-made man who successfully achieves his American Dream, spurring Nick to remain hopeful of
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The novel makes references to sight and eyes constantly, including references to the eyes of God. To inhabitants of the valley of ashes, these eyes represent the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, but to the general cast of the novel, these eyes represent the eyes of the reader. Omnipresent, passive, and pansophical, the reader sees all, knows all, and considers all. Nick, as a character in the novel, lives in the moment and focuses on his future; readers, outside of the novel, focus on the past, or the story just read. Thus, while Nick focuses on accomplishments and potential, readers focus on consequences. Excess consumption and careless dream chasing result in “[vanishing] trees,” valleys of ashes, and even deaths (180). The “old island” seems “old” yet “unknown” because humans take no time to appreciate nature before initiating urbanization, and dreams that harken back to nature now have no place for humans to realize them (180). Furthermore, Gatsby does not succeed in asserting his vision over nature: “the grass on his lawn had grown as long as [Nick’s]” as nature begins to reclaim his mansion (179). Nature, time, and fate prevail against Gatsby’s valiant efforts. He passes his opportunity of being with Daisy as his imagined “orgastic future” recedes “year by year” with time (180). The concluding image of struggling against the tides of fate interrupts the …show more content…
Characters of the novel remain hopeful and persistent; readers understand that their tenacity will amount to nothing. With a childish determination of chasing a tide that keeps on receding, characters of The Great Gatsby continue pursuing their fantasies without considering consequences and reality. In particular, Myrtle, a lower-class working woman from the valley of ashes, latches onto Tom Buchanan to perpetuate her consumption and desired role in the upper class. Yet, her actions result in her husband locking her away; her dependence on Tom makes her desperate enough to “[run] out to speak to him” and she dies by a car crash (159). Gatsby brazenly pursues Daisy and structures his life to please her. His leniency towards Daisy’s desires enables her carelessness, his blind loyalty to Daisy enables Tom to place blame on him, and his conspicuous consumption enables George to find him. Gatsby’s absolute dedication to his dreams causes his own death. Both Gatsby and Myrtle do not realize that their dreams exist in the past, which anchors them from moving forward. They “beat on,” but they remain passive, “borne back ceaselessly into the past” that they cannot relive
The novel makes references to sight and eyes constantly, including references to the eyes of God. To inhabitants of the valley of ashes, these eyes represent the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, but to the general cast of the novel, these eyes represent the eyes of the reader. Omnipresent, passive, and pansophical, the reader sees all, knows all, and considers all. Nick, as a character in the novel, lives in the moment and focuses on his future; readers, outside of the novel, focus on the past, or the story just read. Thus, while Nick focuses on accomplishments and potential, readers focus on consequences. Excess consumption and careless dream chasing result in “[vanishing] trees,” valleys of ashes, and even deaths (180). The “old island” seems “old” yet “unknown” because humans take no time to appreciate nature before initiating urbanization, and dreams that harken back to nature now have no place for humans to realize them (180). Furthermore, Gatsby does not succeed in asserting his vision over nature: “the grass on his lawn had grown as long as [Nick’s]” as nature begins to reclaim his mansion (179). Nature, time, and fate prevail against Gatsby’s valiant efforts. He passes his opportunity of being with Daisy as his imagined “orgastic future” recedes “year by year” with time (180). The concluding image of struggling against the tides of fate interrupts the …show more content…
Characters of the novel remain hopeful and persistent; readers understand that their tenacity will amount to nothing. With a childish determination of chasing a tide that keeps on receding, characters of The Great Gatsby continue pursuing their fantasies without considering consequences and reality. In particular, Myrtle, a lower-class working woman from the valley of ashes, latches onto Tom Buchanan to perpetuate her consumption and desired role in the upper class. Yet, her actions result in her husband locking her away; her dependence on Tom makes her desperate enough to “[run] out to speak to him” and she dies by a car crash (159). Gatsby brazenly pursues Daisy and structures his life to please her. His leniency towards Daisy’s desires enables her carelessness, his blind loyalty to Daisy enables Tom to place blame on him, and his conspicuous consumption enables George to find him. Gatsby’s absolute dedication to his dreams causes his own death. Both Gatsby and Myrtle do not realize that their dreams exist in the past, which anchors them from moving forward. They “beat on,” but they remain passive, “borne back ceaselessly into the past” that they cannot relive