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The upper class couple, Tom and Daisy, represent the old money going downhill, while Gatsby as a self-made man represents the new money that ...
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Emma Johansson
Abstract The purpose of this essay is to explore the thesis that Gatsby’s dream in the novel The Great Gatsby, is to climb the class ladder and become a member of the upper class while members of that class feel threatened by the nouveau riche and tries to shut him out. Class identity is the main theme of the essay. Gatsby comes from a humble background but he decides early in his life that he wants a different life for himself and his aspirations are similar to the concept of the American dream. This essay argues that his dream undergoes a transformation when he meets Daisy and it becomes more aimed at becoming a member of the upper class, for which Daisy is a symbol. The upper class couple, Tom and Daisy, represent the old money going downhill, while Gatsby as a self-made man represents the new money that wants equal social status to that of the upper class.
Introduction The USA in the 1920’s was a society obsessed with rapid and easy acquisition of wealth, as pointed out by Dalton & MaryJean Gross in their book Understanding the Great Gatsby. People became famous for having become wealthy no matter how they had acquired their money (Gross 150). One might say that one of the messages conveyed in The Great Gatsby is that single-minded pursuit of wealth could lead to disaster, psychologically as well as materially. This turned out to be very accurate when the depression struck in 1929 which was one of the worst disasters in American history (Gross 150-152). It would be an overstatement to claim that Fitzgerald had foreseen the stock market collapse and the depression that followed, but perhaps he simply had a feeling that the obsession with easy financial success that surrounded him was a menace. The depression brought different attitudes to wealth as well as literature, and some people even thought that Fitzgerald’s depictions of the pursuit of wealth in the 1920’s were irresponsible (Gross 150,153). According to Veronica Makowsky’s article in Approaches to teaching Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , F. Scott Fitzgerald initially intended for his novel to have the title Among the Ash-heaps and Millionaires which would suggest that the author saw the issue of class as an important theme in the novel. Ash-heaps refers to the area of ashes where for instance the Wilsons live as well as other member of the working class. This area is a great contrast to that of the fashionable East Egg where the Buchanans and other members of the upper class live (Makowsky 75). Throughout the story Gatsby is in pursuit of a dream. There are many claims for what that dream represents among scholars as well as readers, the most common ones being the love of Daisy Buchanan and the American dream. The concept of the American dream is closely related to the notion of class and although the American dream will not be the main focus of this thesis it will be dealt with to some extent. The American dream is a much wider
concept than class and was, according to Therése Johansson’s thesis: The Broken Dream , originally an expression describing the wish for a better life among the people who migrated to America. Later on it would include aspirations towards a better life for those already living in America as well (Johansson 2). To be more precise the American dream is about anyone in America being able to become successful, earn a good deal of money and have a comfortable life. The American dream includes factors such as wealth, equality, freedom, individualism, family and ideal home. The desire for wealth and equality among American citizens may be applicable to this thesis but class identity will be the focus of it. The idea of equality in the American dream implies a wish of not being judged by your class background (Johansson 7, 11). Gatsby does not want to erase class differences and he is not sympathetic to those of lower class. There is a similarity between Gatsby’s dream and the American dream but I will not argue that the two are the same. I will instead argue that the dream started out as the American dream and still has some of its characteristics, but that it transformed into a dream of belonging to the upper class. Jay Gatsby is presented as a somewhat mysterious character in the novel that carries his name. In the beginning of the novel he is known to the reader and the narrator, Nick Carraway, by his reputation as a man who hosts fabulous parties. Some say he is a relative of Emperor Wilhelm, which could explain his fortune, while others say he was a spy during the war. When the reader eventually becomes more acquainted with Gatsby, he is still a mystery but one that will gradually unfold itself, although only to some extent. When Gatsby has fallen and only the narrator and Gatsby’s father attend the funeral one cannot help wondering what motivated him and how such a successful man could fall so hard. The thesis that will be explored in this paper is that Gatsby’s dream is to belong to a higher social class and that the members of the upper class, primarily the Buchanans, guard
old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (105)
Gatsby’s dream of being something other than he is and belonging to another context seems to have begun when he was a child. The quotation above makes a comparison to Jesus who used this phrase at the age of twelve. There is a passage in the Bible where Jesus has been lost for some time and is found in the temple that relates to the quote above. He then says “How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (The Holy Bible – Authorized King James version , Luke 2.49). Although this varies depending on which Bible version you read (in many other versions Jesus says “in my Father’s house” instead) there is clearly a link between these passages. Although Jesus Christ was born into poverty as the son of simple people he turned out to be the son of God, divine and raised above all others. This could be a metaphor for what happens to Gatsby. He reaches out for great things and wants to be accepted as great among his “peers” but ends up being rejected and sacrificed for the benefit of others. Gatsby never gave up on his dream either but held on to it until the very end. Jay Gatsby turns out to be a persona made up by the 17-year-old James Gatz long before Daisy entered the picture. He wanted to create an identity of his own far away from where he came from and began by becoming the protégé of a millionaire by the name of Dan Cody (Fitzgerald 105). “My family died and I came into a good deal of money” (71), Gatsby told Nick on the car trip. This was perhaps not a lie but an exaggeration. When Dan Cody, who he viewed as a father in a way, died, he did inherit some money although he never actually received the money due to legal reasons he did not understand (107). Gatsby believed in the identity that he had invented for himself so strongly that it became the truth.
The fact that he is an Oxford man is something Gatsby often mentions and likes to emphasize. The first time in the novel that Oxford is mentioned is on one of Gatsby’s parties. Jordan Baker says Gatsby told her he was an Oxford man but Jordan for some reason does not believe he went there (Fitzgerald 55). The second time Oxford is mentioned is when Gatsby himself brings it up during the car trip to New York with Nick. He then says he was educated at Oxford and that it is a tradition in his family to be educated there. Like Jordan before him Nick doubts that Gatsby is telling the truth about being educated at Oxford because “He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford’, or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before” (71). This makes Nick believe that Gatsby is lying but a moment later Gatsby shows him a group picture of some young men, among them Gatsby himself, he claims to be a souvenir from his time at Oxford. After seeing this picture Nick has no doubts that Gatsby went to Oxford. The fact that he went to Oxford is confirmed by Gatsby’s business associate, Mr. Wolfshiem, who says that “He’s an Oggsford man” (78). Wolfshiem probably received this information from Gatsby and is either participating in Gatsby’s lies or a victim of them. Either way Wolfshiem’s confirmation is not particularly trustworthy. The assertion that Gatsby was educated at Oxford turns out to be an exaggeration. When Gatsby is interrogated by Tom Buchanan about his past Gatsby is suddenly very humble about calling himself an Oxford man. In contrast to what he told Nick during the car trip he now says that he only went there for five months and that “it was an opportunity they gave to some of the officers after the armistice” (Fitzgerald 135). The claim that it is a tradition in his family to attend that university turns out to be a complete lie. Later Gatsby reveals to Nick that ending up at Oxford after the war was a mistake and that he in fact had wanted to get back to Daisy. Gatsby decides to tell the truth because he now realizes that
In the end Gatsby does turn out to be a bootlegger, a fact he has worked hard to hide. Bootlegging was a criminal offence and not something the crème de la crème wanted to be associated with. Gatsby wants people to see him as someone born into fortune at the same time as he wants to come off as a successful business man. To be born into fortune would mean that he is an equal to people like Daisy and Tom but being a self made man as well would mean that he is better than Tom. When Gatsby retells to Nick the story of how he met Daisy he admits that he made her believe that he came from a similar background to her (155). If he can manage to prove himself better than Tom, Gatsby sees a possibility that Daisy will leave Tom and marry him instead. If he can get Daisy that would mean that he would have finally reached his goal of belonging to a higher social level. All these lies and attempts to come off as something or someone he in fact is not, is a mean of reaching Gatsby’s dream.
The transformation of Gatsby’s dream Gatsby’s dream first began to take shape when he was a child and blossomed after meeting Dan Cody. At that time the dream was more or less the same as the American dream but his dream transformed and took a different direction after meeting Daisy. Daisy is not the dream in itself but represents something far greater that he began to strive for before he met Daisy. Gatsby’s view of Daisy when they first met suggests that what she represents is more important than who she actually is which is also the opinion expressed by Marius Bewley in his article Scott Fitzgerald’s criticism of America (46). Gatsby says that Daisy was the first “nice” girl he had ever known. Nice is probably to be interpreted as upper class. The first thing he was impressed by was the house:
It amazed him – he had never seen such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there – it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors, and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor-cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered. (154)
When seeing Daisy’s home he gets a glimpse into a new world. He is mesmerized by it and he begins to desire it. Daisy is one part in this vision of a new world and at this moment she becomes a part of his dream. Daisy becomes the symbol of the life he wants for himself, the Holy Grail as he calls it. Until then he had only wanted a good life for himself and to be a self made man like Dan Cody. By meeting Daisy and getting a glimpse of her extravagant upper class life he finds himself wanting that as well. Since Gatsby was afraid of being revealed as an imposter at any moment he “made the most of his time” and he “took her” (Fitzgerald 155). Initially he did not intend for him to become attached to Daisy but soon found himself committed “to the following of a grail” (155). At that moment a more explicit dream began to take shape and the person representing this dream of his was Daisy. Before, his dream was more like that of the American dream and was fuelled after the meeting with Dan Cody. That dream did not die but it took a different direction and altered after meeting Daisy and getting a glimpse into her world. The dream transformed into a dream that was more than the wish for a comfortable life. His dream became a dream of wealth and above all to be a part of the
important part but this time it merely functions as a symbol of hope for a better life. According to Ornstein Gatsby is a spiritual descendant of these sailors in that “he set out for gold and stumbled on a dream” (Ornstein 57) but even if Gatsby’s dream started off as the American dream it changed and transformed into a dream of belonging to a higher class. Nick talks at one point about Gatsby’s extraordinary gift for hope. The green light could be the symbol of hope that he carries with him even in the end of the novel when everything seems lost and he sits for hours outside Daisy’s house waiting for a sign that she wants him. Gatsby’s dream, the dream of belonging to the upper class and living a perfect life with Daisy, was actually doomed almost from the start. Before Gatsby met Daisy he had come in contact with upper class people “but always with indiscernible barbed wire between” (Fitzgerald 154). No matter how magnificent Gatsby’s house may be or how fabulous parties he can host he is simply not a member of the upper class. His house is not even located on the more fashionable of the two eggs, which probably is used to symbol of the fact the he is not a part of the same world as the upper class. There is still a difference between Gatsby and the exclusive club. That is why Daisy is so important. She is his key to membership. David L. Minter speaks of Gatsby’s dream as the “last and greatest of all human dreams – the dream of building a new and perfect life in a new and perfect world” in his article Dream, design and interpretation in The Great Gatsby (82). Yet again one can see a link to what is popularly referred to as the American dream. Gatsby’s dream initially was more or less the same as the American dream but it became his very own dream of winning Daisy and thereby becoming a member of the upper class. Gatsby however does not see any signs that his dream is bound to fail. When Nick tells him that one cannot repeat the past he simply replies “Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 117). He believes Daisy to be the girl he once met and fell in love with and thinks that he can continue to woo her as if nothing has happened since he left for the war five years earlier. This to some extent proves Gatsby’s
naivety about his pursuit. Roger Lewis says in his article Money, love and aspiration in The Great Gatsby , that “because the dream is unrealizable, the past becomes increasingly important to the book, for it is in memories that the dream can live” (54). Deep down Gatsby must have realized that Daisy would never leave her husband and her daughter but he ignores this by living in the past and treating Daisy almost as if five years had not passed. He cannot abandon his dream yet the dream cannot live in the present since it is doomed to fail. He therefore takes his escape to the past since that is the only place where his dream can be nourished. On one occasion Gatsby says that “Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 126). By saying this he reveals himself, his intentions and his view on Daisy. Nick comments on this by saying “That was it. I’d never understood it before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it... High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl.. .” (126). According to Lewis this proves that for Gatsby money and love hold similar attractions (Lewis 50). Gatsby is enchanted with the romance and splendour of money more than the money itself. Lewis furthermore says that Gatsby “knows himself well enough to see that his own attraction toward wealth is tied to his love for Daisy. The fact that Gatsby’s money, like his love, should be self-made gives his description of her voice authority and depth” (51). Lewis argues that Tom could never say something like that of Daisy’s voice since he is so accustomed to having money. It does not have the same meaning to him as to Gatsby since it is not something he has to chase after. He has already got money, old money, and it is just there to be used. Gatsby, however, represents new money and the newness gives it purpose: to win Daisy (Lewis 51). What Daisy then represents and what his dream is actually all about can be hinted in the following sentence:
his wealth. When Daisy fails to show up he decides to use Nick as a mean of getting closer to Daisy. When he does get the chance of showing his house to Daisy he goes out of hand and begins to throw out shirts from his wardrobe so that she will see the high class clothes he can afford (Fitzgerald 99). It is as if he wants to say that she could have fine clothes as well if she were to marry him. While Gatsby and Daisy are apart, Daisy becomes a legend in Gatsby’s memory according to Bewley (48). This is supported by Lewis who says that the love for Daisy grew the most intense while they were apart and that this love largely is a result of his imagination (Lewis 49). After all those years Gatsby is bound to be disappointed since he expects her to be the way he remembered her not realizing that people change. “’I feel far away from her’, he said” (Fitzgerald 116). He continues by saying “’And she doesn’t understand... She used to be able to understand. We’d sit for hours – ” (117). He is disappointed when she is not the same as he imagined her to be. Gatsby does not realize it himself but Daisy is just a minor detail in his dream and works primarily as a symbol for it. The Daisy he knows is a creation of his mind that only has some things in common with the real Daisy. It is not Daisy as a person that he desires but what she represents, although he does not spot the difference. Gatsby’s dream fails in the end for a number of reasons. One of them is that he fails in winning Daisy. According to Ornstein’s article Scott Fitzgerald’s fable of East and West , it was never Daisy’s intention to leave her husband but perhaps have an affair, which bored rich wives in the east sometimes had (58). When Tom reveals that Gatsby is a bootlegger an affair is impossible as well. A woman of her position cannot afford to “wink at the illegal and the criminal” (Ornstein 59). Thomas A. Hanzo says in his article, The theme and narrator of The Great Gatsby , that Daisy is repelled by Gatsby’s illegal connection which is a quite credible claim (Hanzo 66). Daisy would never have left her husband for Gatsby and Gatsby
would never have been accepted as an equal to Tom and his peers since his money is the wrong kind of money. In writing The Great Gatsby , Fitzgerald wanted to have a theme of embracing the notion of dreams in a general way, according to Lewis. In letters Fitzgerald wrote that the novel is about “those illusions that matter so much that you chase after them, because even though they are illusions, nothing matters as much as they do” (Lewis 55). No one except Fitzgerald could know for certain what he meant but perhaps he wanted to say that without dreams, no matter how unrealistic they are, life would be quite empty. Even though Gatsby’s dream lead him to a tragic death he at least had a dream and a rich life in comparison to the Buchanans and their peers who live rather empty and dreamless lives as I will examine further in the upcoming sections.
Gatsby and money Money is an important theme in The Great Gatsby and it is not a coincidence that Fitzgerald chose the colour green for the light on the opposite side of the sound near Daisy’s house. The colour green represents money as the American dollar bill is green. According to Ornstein, money is a crucial motive in The Great Gatsby although never the final goal for any of the novel’s characters (Ornstein 55). The colour green occurs on numerous occasions in the novel, for instance they are about to drink mint juleps at the moment when Tom reveals Gatsby to be a bootlegger. There is a difference between money and money. According to Ornstein it does not matter that Gatsby is good for millions of dollars since his money is not the type of respectable money that can be perceived in Daisy’s voice (Ornstein 56). Gatsby’s money is not inherited and its source is illegal affairs, which would mean that Gatsby has cheated his way into wealth. Lewis says that Gatsby fails to understand that the criminal source of his
novel, primarily Gatsby and his dream. Their motives are another thing that will be examined. The wealthy people from nice backgrounds in the novel lack the will and capacity to pursue dreams according to Ornstein (55-56). As Daisy says “You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow’, she went on in a convinced way. ‘Everybody thinks so – the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything” (Fitzgerald 24). Since Daisy and her peers have been everywhere, seen everything and done everything, they have nothing more to strive for. There is nothing to have dreams about. They do not see the value of the life they live since they have never had to fight for it. However, those who see the promises of life and allow themselves to dream do so because they are barred from the white palace of the king’s daughter. Tom Buchanan went to college with Nick where he was a successful athlete. He comes from a family of enormous wealth. Daisy and Tom lived in France for a year and are described as drifting here and there, wherever people can play polo and be rich together. When Daisy says they will be settling down for good in East Egg, Nick does not believe her. About Tom, Nick says that he “would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (Fitzgerald 12). Tom and Daisy come across as rather empty and dispassionate people, incapable of having dreams. They do not take anything seriously and are in a way like children which Nick also concludes by saying “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (186). Nick’s image of Tom and Daisy is one of two very selfish people who are so caught up in their own lives that they fail to see that others are hurt by their actions and they move on as if nothing has happened. Tom and Daisy do not realize how the whole situation with Gatsby being
rejected and killed, has hurt Nick. They fail to realize that Nick has become fond of Gatsby and that he is very upset about how they have treated both Gatsby and himself. Nick was the one who had to take care of the mess they had created in arranging a funeral and so on. Early in the novel when Nick is first invited to dinner at the Buchanan’s house Tom wants to tell him about an article he has read that has made him believe that civilization is going to pieces.
The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.... This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things_._ ‘We’ve got to beat them down,’ whispered Daisy, winking ferociously towards the fervent sun. (13)
This is a metaphor for the view of the lower classes from those of a higher social status such as the Buchanans. They find themselves threatened by self made men and the nouveau riche because they make the upper class less exclusive. They have not created their wealth and live from the idea inherited from Europe that old money is better than new money. This menace of the nouveau riche means the Buchanans and their peers feel threatened by Gatsby and reject him although Daisy does not do so until quite late in the novel. According to Jonathan Schiff’s book Ashes to ashes , Fitzgerald suggests that “while the old money members of society remain caught up in underlying grief for their decline in society, those who are ethnic, racial, or economic outsiders, such as Gatsby, struggle to receive acceptance” (101). In a way it is not even Gatsby himself who is struggling to be accepted. They do not have anything against him personally, even if Tom dislikes the idea of him running off with his
