NOW I'M NOT SAYING SHE'S A GOLD DIGGER...

Nick Carroway, narrator and character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, comes back from the war and moves to New York to learn the bond business. Everyone he knew was making money selling bonds, so in the spring of 1922; Carroway heads out to get his piece of the pie. Post war America was marked by a period of consumption to the point of excess. The first time I read this novel, (1982, I think) the fact that the period of overconsumption and greed lead to the Great Depression was lost on me. Remembering The Great Gatsby was an uncomfortable read the first time around, and realizing that I’ve added a matured perspective since my high school days, I realized I was in for an unpleasant return visit to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story.


Anyone else having trouble blogging about an entire novel without writing a blog longer than the original novel?

Back to the novel. After some life experience of his own, Carroway decides that his home in the “Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe”. Early in the novel (page 5) we learn that he decides against renting an apartment in the city – the practical thing to do, and ends up by chance living on Long Island Sound, which is composed of two oval land masses, called East Egg and West Egg. East Egg is inhabited by old money, meaning families that have been wealthy for multiple generations. West Egg is inhabited by new money. Carroway rents a small house on West Egg, and again by chance, becomes a neighbor of the Great Gatsby’s. Carroway sees Gatsby for the first time on page 20, and delivers one of my favorite lines in the novel. “Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share of his of our local heavens”. Later in the novel, we learn that there is nothing leisurely or secure about Jay Gatsby. Much like Bill Cody transformed himself into Buffalo Bill, James Gatz transforms himself into The Great Gatsby. Bill Cody’s model was Wild Bill Hickok, and his inspiration was fame. James Gatz’ model (page 98) was Dan Cody. His inspiration: to reclaim a lost love. Gatz met Cody whose yacht was anchored on Lake Superior. It can’t be coincidental that Fitzgerald uses the name Cody here. Dan Cody is a hard drinking guy endlessly adrift. Carraway remembers that when he was in Gatsby’s library, he saw a picture of Gatsby with Cody on Cody’s yacht. Carraway describes Cody in the picture as “a gray, florid man with a hard, empty face- a pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon.” This must be Fitzgerald’s description of Bill Cody’s own gift to the east via Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

On page 23, we’re introduced to another important piece of geography. Half way between West Egg and New York, a “desolate area of land” known as the “valley of ashes” exists. It’s described as dark and crumbling. I thought about this area of land as already being consumed by the fire, knowing that the flames would eventually touch everyone.

East Eggers – rich, fabulous, and seemingly untouchable, are represented by Carraway’s cousin, Daisy, and her husband Tom Buchanan. Daisy had promised herself to a young Jay Gatsby before the war, but decided to marry a sure bet, the wealthy Tom Buchanan. Now I’m not saying she’s a gold digger, but she aint messin’ with no west, no west egger. The man she marries, Tom is a wonderful fellow – if you like a good bully, racist, and elitist. Tom pulls his mistress, Myrtle out of the valley of ashes, puts her in a clean dress, and places her in a city apartment. At this apartment, Myrtle and her sister pretend to be something they are not. They feel to be somehow above who they really are. Fitzgerald, thru Nick Carraway’s eyes deeply explores the idea of social status. East Eggers look down their noses at the newly made West Eggers. While reading Gatsby, I was reminded of the character, the Unsinkable Molly Brown from the movie, The Titanic. Even though she had a ton of money, the “old money” passengers viewed her as crude and beneath them. It’s ironic that the motionless act of inheritance was held in higher regard than the arduous actions of the self-made man. (Only slightly borrowed from Dr. K’s site!)
Carroway doesn’t speak directly to Gatsby until page 47 of the novel, when he’s invited to his party. In the pages to follow, Gatsby is portrayed as a sort of producer of a play. He put the party together, but doesn’t necessarily participate in it. On page 61, it’s casually suggested by a guest of another Gatsby party that the source of his money was bootlegging. On page 65, Gatsby picks up Carraway for lunch and proceeds to tell him that he’s from a wealthy family from the Middle West and was educated at Oxford. Carraway, being a Middle Westerner himself, asks Gatsby specifically where in the Middle West he was from. When Gatsby responds, “San Francisco” we learn that Gatsby is indeed lying about his past, and probably isn’t educated at all. A little later in the novel, Jordan Baker reveals to Carraway that Gatsby had been in love with Daisy before he went off to war. She also tells him that Gatsby wants Carraway to arrange a meeting with Gatsby and Daisy at Carraway’s house. We now have the revelation that Gatsby builds his mansion and throws lavish parties in order to attract Daisy like a moth to a flame. Fitzgerald uses a great metaphor for this. At the bottom of page 92, and top of 93, Daisy tells Gatsby that she notices the green light that always burns at the end of his dock. She can see it from across the bay at night. I may be wrong, but I think Fitzgerald uses a green flame, suggesting the best bait to catch Daisy’s eye is the color of money.
Just like in the movie High Noon (recently viewed in class), the action in Gatsby picks up in the heat of a summer day. Gatsby, Carraway, Tom & Daisy Buchanan spend an afternoon in New York. There, Gatsby publicly confesses his love for Daisy, and tells Tom Buchanan that Daisy has always loved him, not Tom. On the way back to Long Island, Daisy, behind the wheel of Gatsby’s car, accidently strikes and kills Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Ironically, Myrtle’s husband planned to get her out of New York within a couple of days because he suspected that she was having an affair. Earlier in the novel, when we learn about the valley of ashes, there’s mention of a billboard which portrays an eye doctor peering down over the crumbling scenery. As Mr. Wilson agonizes over the sudden, brutal death of his wife, he replays a conversation he shared with her when confronting her about her marital indiscretion. At the bottom of page 159: “God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!” Mr. Wilson connects the billboard with the eyes of God, peering down in judgment. Wilson, deciding that the man who owned the yellow car that killed his wife (Gatsby), must have been the same man she was having an affair with. He figured that Gatsby hit her intentionally as a way to dispatch of her. Wilson passes some judgment of his own, and shoots Gatsby dead while in the swimming pool. Wilson’s dead body is found close the pool and we’re left to assume that he kills Gatsby and then turns the gun on himself.

Although Gatsby’s house was constantly filled with party goers, Carraway can’t find anyone to attend his funeral. Nobody in New York knew James Gatz, the man that was buried, and Jay Gatsby was only a character played by Gatz. In the PBS film on Bill Cody, we learned that later in life, he left the comfort and illusion of the Buffalo Bill character to spend time and sleep with the Indians he employed. There, he could just be Bill Cody. But Jay Gatsby could never be James Gatz again. Daisy would have never left Tom Buchanan for James Gatz. I can’t help wondering what would have happened if Gatsby had lived, and successfully won back Daisy. Would Daisy’s old money ties finally make the character of Jay Gatsby real and credible? Would they have seen their kids grow up to be senators, even President? Sorry…. I couldn’t resist!

Earlier in this blog, I made mention that East Eggers were seemingly untouchable. In the face of tragedy – the deaths of Gatsby, Daisy’s old love, and Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, and Myrtle’s husband, the Buchanan’s are seemingly unaffected. Although Carraway is disgusted with what the Buchanan’s represent, he suggests at the novel’s close, that we will continue reaching for the elusive green light at the end of the dock, not knowing that we’re reaching for nothing more than an illusion.

Nick Carraway, considers himself non judgmental, and completely honest. Throughout the novel, I couldn’t help but be bothered by his sense of moral superiority. After all, he describes the Midwest as the “ragged end of the universe”. He must have felt that New York was much more fitting for a refined intellectual. At novel’s end, he returns to the Midwest, single & disillusioned, with the remainder of his youth buried beneath the valley of ashes. I think I’m ready to read something a little less depressing, Sophie’s Choice perhaps.