Religion In The Great Gatsby

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In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald portrays a world where the characters are driven on money and status. The godless society is created by the characters consistently idolizing meaningless things above God, they incorrectly establish an old oculus shop billboard advertisement as "The eyes of God". Another incorrect religious perception is when Nick appoints Gatsby as a figure resembling Jesus. This society becomes so corrupted because of the characters ' delusions and inabilities to be satisfied create a dystopia. Although Gatsby is drowning in his wealth, he still longs to be part of the "Old Money" social class. The ultimate reason for Gatsby 's death was because he left the social class he was born into, which is impossible in this corrupt …show more content…

Eckleburg for faith which proves that in the binary utopia vs dystopia, dystopia wins. This shows the complete corruption of the lives they live. This old billboard is what the civilians in the valley of ashes are centering their faith in. Hermansson demonstrates that "that Eckleberg is not God, and in any case can 't "see" anything, the need to place faith in transcendence of one sort or another can find no purchase in the contenders offered for such roles in the novel." (Hermansson) The fact that it 's an abandon oculus store asserts an idea that the society cannot "see" the corruption that 's going on. This shows an improperly placed faith. Demonstrating the total corruption of their society. Wilson threatened his wife, who he assumed was cheating on him while “looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale... 'God sees everything, ' repeated Wilson.” (Fitzgerald 149) Fitzgerald illustrates that the citizens view the billboard as gods eyes. This gives the society a binary of Utopia vs. dystopia. The citizens believe they 're living in a Utopia because they are being holy and spiritual believing in this "God", when in reality it 's even more corrupt because they don 't see the corruption that 's taking place right in front of them. Concluding that the dystopia wins because it is the actuality of the situation. When Wilson asks for spiritual help he looks to the eyes, like he should be looking to God. Wilson from the valley of ashes isn 't the only corrupt character. Gatsby is one of the most delusional characters in the story, he truly denied the concept of time moving on and the inability to go back in time. This can be seen when he refuses to drain his pool for the fall. He tries to stay in the season of summer by procrastinating to drain the pool, attempting to push back time. This attempt decides his fate for him, when he dies in the swimming pool

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