An Analysis of an Extract from the Novel The Great Gatsby

Question Based Analysis about the Novel The Great Gatsby

    

 Essay Question: To what extent are characters disillusioned and/or satisfied with their lives (e.g., their relationships, employment, social status, wealth, families, etc.)?

Gatsby’s Dissatisfaction in The Great Gatsby

Dissatisfaction is the condition observed in those who feel that their desires are not yet fulfilled. In The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby and James Gatz could be regarded as two distinct personalities who are in a constant state of discontent. While Gatz is mainly unhappy because of monetary issues, Gatsby’s displeasure comes from him being haunted by his past and disillusioned; however, it is both who despise their family and strive for Daisy, their shared source of dismay, in delusion.

James Gatz’s dissatisfaction could be examined through his disregard for his social stratum and improsperity. Throughout the novel and in primely chapter 6, there are exemplifications of Gatz’s inclination to abandon his old-life and venture into a new one, proving that his former life standards had not satisfied him enough. First of all, in chapter 6, the readers are provided an insight on who James Gatz is and how he evolved into Jay Gatsby. It is implied that Gatz was in a ceaseless look for new opportunities that may grant him better life standards, hinting that his erstwhile life was not satisfactory. For instance, after realizing that Dan Cody’s yacht “represented all the beauty and glamour in the world” (pg. 82) for him, Gatz tries to act graciously and “smiles” (pg. 82) in order to gain Cody’s awareness, which he knows would later lead him to the life of the affluent. Gatz’s willingness to orient to his new life as Jay Gatsby is also another significant point. After setting his target, to become Jay Gatsby, Gatz relinquishes his family and his hometown; that is, retrospectively, a challenging choice and step to take for many as the bonds you have with the past may be the hardest to break. However, Gatz’s enthusiasm, and his underlying discontent, is so great, Gatz almost does not even falter on his way and is “to this conception (…) faithful to the end” (pg. 80). Furthermore, monetary affairs are one of the problems Gatz has to face in the road of becoming Gatsby. It is stated that Gatz had to do every job he found such as “clam-digging” or “salmon-fishing” that “brought him food and bed” (pg. 80). The reference to the basic requirements of humankind, “food and bed”, illustrates that Gatz strived for even the plainest living conditions. Notably, this conceptualizes Gatz’s dismay for his former life further.

Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby’s unhappiness is underlined with allusions to him being haunted by his perplexing past and his disillusionment with Daisy. Despite having fulfilled his goal of jumping to a much higher socio-economical stratum and “becoming a new man”, Gatsby is haunted by his past. These words from Nick qualify this notion: “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something” (pg. 90). Gatsby’s “talking a lot about the past” implies that some part of him is still stuck in the past and, thusly, has not been able to align with his new lifestyle. Moreover, Gatsby’s disillusionment is another prime factor contributing to his overall dismay. He thought, and kept thinking almost until he was decimated, that he could reach Daisy through his newly acquired money. And after all that striving, when Gatsby tried to “bribe” Daisy—by throwing off luxurious parties, flaunting all his richness by making a house tour, etc.— he realized that it did work at first; however, it can be inferred from Daisy not telephoning Gatsby at the end of chapter 8 that Gatsby’s efforts were haphazard and Tom Buchanan was the triumphant side, maintaining Daisy’s love. Therefore, it is evident enough that Gatsby should have felt himself disillusioned after recognizing that he had struggled all his life for money he expected to convince Daisy, while in fact it did not. Most significantly, when Gatsby ceased to “believe it [the telephone from Daisy] would come” (pg. 132) his perseverance, his ever-lasting contingency on his money to allure Daisy, should have multiplied his disillusionment.

Apart from the slight variations in their causes, Gatz and Gatsby share common grounds for their dissatisfactions. First of all, both of the characters despise their family’s socio-economical level and their former lifestyles. This relentless denial of identity leads them into being perplexed and vigilant for any remarks to their real past; therefore, augmenting their angst as reinforced by this instance from Gatsby and Tom’s confrontation: after Tom reveals Gatsby’s past and his illicit doings, Gatsby loses control and starts fickly “defending his name against accusations that had not been made” (pg. 110). The second positive is, both Gatz and Gatsby strive capriciously in order to acquire Daisy. Ergo, it can be concluded that they are in a vital need for a partner, signalling to their loneliness and its ensuing displeasure. Parallel with this concept, Gatz and Gatsby act deluded, speculating that they can revoke their past and recapture it at the same time. Initially, Gatz, to his delusion, believes that it is possible for him to put aside his whole past and move on with his intentions. Conversely, this is impossible as these words from Tom highlight: “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (pg. 106). And for Gatsby, he unrealistically presumes that past memories can be reinitiated at any time. Regardless, him thinking that way is an example of mere delusion as underlined by his unsuccessful reunion with Daisy.

To sum up, meanwhile Gatz is unhappy with his life predominantly for monetary issues and their related consequences, Gatsby’s dissatisfaction comes from more spiritual affairs. Regardless, both of these characters have some shared grounds for their discontent in the end. Above all, as seen with Gatz’s gradual evolvement into Gatsby, sometimes the conditions that cause one to be uneasy may change with respect to time; however, in similar cases, the overall state of dissatisfaction may be bound to preserve.

-Bora

Important Quotations About Jay Gatsby (and James Gatz) in the Novel The Great Gatsby

Important Quotations About Jay Gatsby (and James Gatz)

Jay Gatsby:

Ø  This quotation serves as a delineation of Nick’s stances regarding Gatsby’s lifestyle and also that of the so called “polite society”: “Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn” (pg. 4).

 

Ø  Gatsby’s pretentious and plastic manners reflect themselves back on Nick’s conceptualization of him: “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away” (pg. 4).

·         The word “gestures” implies some sense of artificiality.

 

Ø  This quotation displays the charming nature of Gatsby, which makes him a great cover in Wolfsheim’s bootlegging business and also aids him in climbing the ladder of higher socio-economical levels: “It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself” (pg. 40).

 

Ø  Nick realizes that Gatsby had some relation to the working-class of the society and implies this through his word choice: “I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd” (pg. 41).

·         Roughneck: an oil rig worker—a person belonging to the lower social stratum. Therefore, “elegant” and “roughneck” signal to a contradiction in terms.

 

Ø  A great foreshadowing and simple illustration of a major theme in the novel; that is, “trying to recreate the past”:

“’I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ I ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the past.’

‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (pg. 90).

 

Ø  Tom Buchanan gives a short recapitulation of Gatsby’s true past and the following events: “I suppose the last thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (pg. 106).

 

Ø  After finally noticing that his long-pursued dreams were a lost call, Gatsby realizes that, contrary to his fantasies, the world is not as “warm” or welcoming as he thought it was. Moreover, this quotation advocates to the collapse of the American Dream: “[Gatsby] must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass” (pg. 132).

 

James Gatz:

Ø  James Gatz’s denial of his identity is presented: “I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” (pg. 80).

 

Ø  Gatz’s leaning towards becoming Gatsby is illustrated: “It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach that afternoon in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants, but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a row-boat, pulled out to the Tuolomee and informed Cody that a wind might catch him and break him up in half an hour” (pg. 80).

 

Ø  Despite the overt, Gatz cannot, at first, adapt to his new conception of himself: “But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot” (pg. 81)

 

The Great Gatsby, Notes on Chapter 8

The Great Gatsby

Notes on Chapter 8

Ø  “I couldn’t sleep all night” (pg., 120). Nick finds himself to be morally deprived, in contrast with characters like Jordan Baker, who are not the slightest interested with the ongoing conflicts between Gatsby and Tom, nor with Gatsby’s death as revealed in chapter 9.

·         Also, Nick’s inability to sleep foretells that a predicament will occur.

 

Ø  “’Nothing happened,’ he said wanly” (pg. 120). Advocates to how little Gatsby actually knows about Daisy.

 

Ø  “ghostly piano” (pg., 120). “Piano” is a reminiscent of the times when Daisy and Gatsby sat together and listened to the piano. But those days are long lost now in this chapter; therefore, the piano is delineated as “ghostly” (pg., 120).

 

Ø  “’You ought to go away,’” (pg., 120). From the beginning of the novel, Nick gradually starts caring about Gatsby and this remark here could be one of the highest extents of Nick’s concern for him.

·         Throughout the chapter, Gatsby feels weak and glum; he tries to convince himself that his dream that consists of him and Daisy could still come true.

 

v  Meanwhile Daisy thinks that she is in love with an affluent man of high social standards, Gatsby is married with the idea of proving himself apt to the luxurious lifestyle Daisy offers and becoming wealthier. He, as a result, does not urge back to Daisy after the war is over, for if his lies are caught then he would have no chance of being with her again. After Daisy breaks up with Gatsby while he was still at Oxford by sending him a letter, Gatsby no longer feels constrained to her real self as he has already created a dream of her –a projection that would even marry to a penniless man like he is– in his mind. In short, neither of them love the other for who he or she really is; they are in love with the other’s projection instead. Notably, this is why their love turns out to be hallucinatory at the end of the novel when Daisy chooses to be with Tom.

 

v  Daisy chooses herself a more predictable lifestyle in which she and Tom are together.

·         Daisy marries Tom mainly for his money. “and the decision must be made by some force – of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality – that was close at hand” (pg., 123).

 

Ø  After hearing Gatsby’s story and his real past, Nick becomes highly moved and his attitude towards the polite society complete changes.  He even abhors Jordan, as a result.

 

Ø  “Standing behind him, Michealis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night” (pg., 130). Doctor Eckleburg’s eyes represent the God’s eyes for Wilson.

 

Ø  By the end of the chapter Nick states that Gatsby has finally grasped that his dream had long died, and that he had lost “the old warm world” (pg., 132). After this realization, says Nick, Gatsby must have “shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is” (pg., 132), advocating to the fact that a rose is gorgeous only for those who give a meaning to it –those like Gatsby.  Gatsby’s death portrays the end of a dreamer, and this accentuates the collapse of the “American Dream”.

 

Questions

1.      How does Wilson come to the conclusion on pages 130 and 131 that God demands revenge?

2.      When the car hit her, was Myrtle running away from her husband or was she trying to bring Tom’s car to a halt, assuming that Tom was in it?

3.      In spite of the fact that he rarely goes to church, why does Wilson make a vivid connotation by likening the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s to those of God?

    -Bora