Scott Fitzgerald Create An Ambivalent Response To The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby provokes an ambivalent response to the idea of the American Dream. The novel is able to parallel opposed ideas on the American Dream, one which the focus lies in prosperity and freedom for all, and the other in materialism and wealth. The novel mirrors the Jazz Age, depicting how the American Dream transformed into being greed-driven and largely unachievable. This stance is proven accurate when considering the context in which the novel is set, Jay Gatsby’s character, Nick Carraway as a narrator, he female characters being portrayed as objects of desire, and reference to the American Dream

Set in America, The Great Gatsby opens in the 1920s, somewhere between the end of World War I in 1918, and the Wall

Street Crash of 1929. The action of the novel takes place in a period known as the Roaring Twenties, a time of extreme economic growth and social change. This period, also referred to by Scott Fitzgerald as the Jazz Age, was the backdrop of a culture of consumerism, alcohol abuse and general carelessness by many Americans. The American Dream originally promised a golden land of opportunity and success for all those who worked hard for it. However, in the context of prohibition laws against alcohol and growing opportunity for easy money, the 1920s gave rise to a greedier, more corrupt version of this once hopeful ideal.
The Great Gatsby focuses on the consequences of such transformation, showing how people's actions, driven by an obsession with fortune, never bring lasting fulfillment to the lives of the characters.

The context of the novel reflects in what the characters’ say and in the decisions they make.

Nick Carraway opens the novel by quoting a piece of advice his father gave him when he was younger. Nick quotes his father, saying that “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:7). By introducing his father’s advice to have come in his “younger and more vulnerable years” (Scott Fitzgerald, 1925:7), Nick suggests that his view on opportunity has been instilled in him by his father since he was young. By opening with this statement, Nick voices that he has understood, since his youth, that not everyone is faced with the equal opportunity for prosperity, besides what the American Dream tries to claim. Nick later says that “The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:8-9). Nick finds a reason to reject or disguise the notion that his family inherited their wealth, and rather favors the fact that their success was well-earned. Nick’s claim is one of the first hints of ambivalence in the novel with regards to the American Dream. On the one hand, he argues that his family worked

hard and achieved their wealth but on the other, he explains that his great-uncle sent a substitute to the war who, while his great-uncle was making money, did not have the same opportunity. This analysis rejects the idea that the American Dream offered equal opportunity for all, while it agrees with the idea based on self-made success. This conflicting point gives reason to accept the notion that the Carraway's inherited their wealth rather than creating it.
With consideration of what Nick’s father taught him as a child, he goes on to say that “Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope”(Scott Fitzgerald 1925:7), suggesting that he should hold his negative judgements on others until given fair reason to make such judgements. This also hints at the world Nick would have been growing into when his father made this point. His father foreshadows the careless living in America during the 1920s, and urges Nick to continue to live in accordance with his values, while remaining hopeful that others are doing so too. Nick is “still afraid of missing something if he [I] forget that, … a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:7). It is here that Scott Fitzgerald foreshadows Nick and Jay Gatsby’s future relationship. Nick’s fear of judging someone too soon based on knowing too little about them, is what allows him, later in the novel, to know the most information about Gatsby than any of the other characters. Before Nick explains his stance on “Reserving judgements” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:7) with “infinite hope” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:7), he narrates that “it came about that in college he [I] was unjustly accused of being a politician …” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:7). Nick’s comment before serves as justification for the reason that he held his judgements. It was not intended as a way to remain under any suspicions and out of conflict. He kept his judgements with the hope of meeting someone who would prove them wrong, and he did. He met Gatsby.

Although Nick saved his judgements, “Only Gatsby, … was exempt from his [Nick’s] reaction.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:8).

Nick describes Gatsby as having “something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promise of life” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:8). He goes on to explain that “it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I [Nick] have never found in any other person and which is not likely I [Nick] shall ever find again.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:8). As the narrator of the novel, Nick speaks from his point of view, however, his tone is ambivalent in itself. Before describing Gatsby with such admiration, Nick states that Gatsby “represented everything for which I [Nick] have an unaffected scorn.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:8). Nick does not condemn Gatsby’s illegal bootlegging business, however he justifies his admiration for Gatsby by explaining that “Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short winded elations of men.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1925:8). Here, Nick makes an indirect reference to the American Dream, justifying not only his position of liking Gatsby but also justifying Gatsby’s unethical actions. He does this by saying that Gatsby, just as most in the 1920s, was blinded by desire.

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The Roaring Twenties put women in control of their own bodies, making women objects of sexual desire. Daisy Buchanan describes her hopes regarding how her daughter’s life will play out while giving insight into what it was like to be a woman during the 1920’s. Daisy says “I asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right’, I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Scott Fitzgerald 1924:23-24). Daisy comments not only on how women were regarded as nothing more than objects of attraction, but she comments too on the importance of wealth and status at the time.