Gatsby’s Pursuit Kaitlin McKinnon F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is about a man, Jay Gatsby, who is pursuing the American Dream. The story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a man who observes rather than lives and ends up being Gatsby’s only friend. Although Nick is one of the only people to show up at Gatsby’s funeral, he mentions that he had “unaffected scorn” (2) for everything Gatsby represents. Nick scorns Gatsby because Gatsby represents the pursuit of the American Dream, but not the achievement of it. The endless pursuit the Gatsby represents leads Nick to scorn him because he is not willing to accept that some dreams cannot be fulfilled. Gatsby represents the pursuit of the American Dream. Even before Daisy, …show more content…
James Gatz (who became Jay Gatsby) was unsatisfied with his life and fortune and chased a “platonic conception of himself,” (98) in which he had money that would lead to happiness. Gatz was able to “rise right out of the gutter” (171) and become incredibly wealthy, but he hadn’t completed his platonic self. Although Gatsby now existed, he wasn’t happy. Gatsby thought that Daisy was the key to his happiness, but he had idolized her in his mind, and the “he lived with a single dream too long” (161) so that when he finally found her, she was not the perfect being he expected and needed to complete his platonic self. Nick remarks that this dream “was an extraordinary gift if hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again” (2). Nick believes that he won’t ever see this level of hope again because it is so flawed. Gatsby’s lost relationship with Daisy showed Nick that the American Dream in its entirety- to become rich, leading to happiness, is an endless pursuit with no goal in sight. Although Nick wants to believe in the American Dream, he is an observer, a man who only trusts what he sees, and if Gatsby has shown him anything, it is that the American Dream is an unattainable goal.
Nick says that he is not a judgmental person, and yet, in order to be a narrator a person must have judgments so he can explain to his audience. Nick is certainly not lacking when it comes to describing people, he describes Tom as “a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner,” (7) a description that is very detailed and also quite judgmental. Nick also doesn’t trust people who lie. When Gatsby is telling him about Oxford, Nick narrates, “I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying…I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him after all” (65). Nick doesn’t trust liars because he watches people, he likes to fade into the background and only believes what his eyes can see or deduce based on people’s behavior. “I don’t’ like mysteries,” (71) he says. Gatsby confuses and irritates him because his entire life is based on a lie. However, it is not this startling fact that makes Nick scorn what Gatsby stands …show more content…
for. Although Jay Gatsby is a figment of James Gatz’s imagination, it is his personification of the American Dream that leads Nick to disgust.
When Nick says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us” he is intimating a point that becomes incredibly important to him, although the green light of hope and wealth and happiness does exist, it can never be reached, because it will always be across the Sound. At one of Gatsby’s parties, Nick says something that makes him incredibly proud of himself, he says, “there are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (79) because the pursued eventually start pursuing, then they get busy with their pursuit, until finally they finish with nothing to show for the wasted time, tired. Gatsby spent his entire life pursuing and busy so that “his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (180), but Nick saw the end result of all Gatsby’s work and lies and dreams. The last thing Nick writes is “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180) signifying that because the hope is there, because the Dream can be seen, people will never stop pursuing it, even though it can never be
reached. The Great Gatsby is an American Classic because it is all about the American Dream. James Gatz illustrates that it is possible for a poor rural buy to rise above his birth and become a successful wealthy man – the American Dream. But the Great Gatsby also shows that money does not lead to happiness, a common misconception of the American Dream, especially in the 20’s. Nick says that the green light is unachievable and that we will always be boats against the current, but he also says that as long as we can see the green light, as long as the Dream exists, we will continue to pursue it, in the vain hope that one day we might reach perfect happiness. Gatsby personified that hope, and it was the futility of that hope that led Nick to scorn everything that Gatsby was and believed in, because he couldn’t handle the thought that someone could devote their entire life to something they barely understand and could never reach.
The Great Gatsby is a difficult book to interpret, particularly because of the style in which it is written. Not only must the reader differentiate between the separate views of Nick as the narrator and Nick as the character, but he or she must also take into consideration at what time period, relative to this story, are these views being expressed. After all, Nick the narrator is presently evaluating the manner in which his character behaved the year before, as well as allowing his character to voice his opinion, as his opinion had been during that time frame. We learn to trust Nick as a narrator, because all the pieces of information he gives to us, received through symbolism, imagery, or personal reflection, lead us to make significant decisions regarding the other characters of the novel. His character, on the other hand, cannot be looked upon in the same manner; it can be seen as dishonest and hypocritical, yet it is these negative characteristics that humanize him, allowing readers to relate to him as a person.
In the beginning of the book Nick calls himself “One of the few honest people that I’ve ever known”. Throughout the book Nick gives examples that even though he is polite; he will tell people how it is. A few examples are when he talks about how dishonest his friend Jordan is, as well as calling Tom and Daisy careless people. Nick also says that Gatsby represents everything that makes him feel like an unaffected scorn. Nick proves throughout the story that he really isn’t as honest as he has thinks. Nick does not reveal he knows about Tom’s affair with Myrtle. He also pretends he didn't know Daisy was driving the car. Another example of his dishonesty is when Nick doesn't tell the police at the crime scene everything he knows, which would have saved Gatsby's life.
Even though he had some thought that the meeting would provoke harmful tensions between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he went along with it anyways, further demonstrating his own innate lack of reservation. Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
One of the traits of Gatsby that makes him truly great is his remarkable capacity for hope. He has faith that what he desires will come to him if he works hard enough. He does not comprehend the cruelty and danger that is the rest of the world. Gatsby, while a man of questionable morals, is as wide-eyed and innocent as a small child in his views of the world. These ideals are evident in Nick’s narration and in the words spoken by the other characters, including Gatsby himself.
...lf “one of the most honest people I[he] have[has] ever known”, being honest of course (59). Although this over honesty could make him a bad narrator, he is better than a narrator that lies. Most of the time nick is a reliable narrator who tells the truth, especially when it comes to Gatsby. His thoughts about Gatsby’s character are very just, because he is suspicious about the same things that regular people would be. Also Nick is from a rich family and so he has been around rich people for all of his life. Because of this fact one would think that he is very capable of judging all types of rich people. To be overly honest, as what Nick would say, Gatsby is great and is seen as great in the eyes of Nick, but his suspicions still stand. The reader knows that those suspicions and Nick’s overall ideas are true through the characteristics of Nick and his experiences.
The Great Gatsby is a story of the American Dream. The Great Gatsby is a view into the society of the 1920's masterfully created by Fitzgerald. In this society, the one and only Gatsby falls right into the middle. Gatsby is an exemplary example of one trying to live out the American Dream.
It is not long after attending his first party at Gatsby’s that Nick confesses that “Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known’ (Fitzgerald, 59). The level of Nick’s idealism and virtuousness begins in such an innocent place that it is inevitable that he will have a transformation throughout the story.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Indeed one of the unique features of this novel is the mystery surrounding it’s main character ‘Gatsby-the man who gives his name to this book’ This sense of inscrutability which is omnipresent with Gatsby is cleverly achieved through the narrative techniques which Fitzgerald employs. The most obvious, and also most effective of which is the narration from Nick’s perspective. Throughout this novel it is Nick’s views of Gatsby which we read, not Fitzgerald’s and not anyone else’s. Only Nick’s. And even Nick seems to be some what in the dark as to Gatsby’s character, he often switches tact throughout the novel on his impression of Gatsby. This seems to insinuate that he has been ponderous over Gatsby for some time. The reader gains the impression that Nick has made calculating decisions throughout the novel, in terms of what he allows us to know about Gatsby. He is after all writing in retrospect. The very fact that Nick still has an ambiguous attitude towards Gatsby even after his death, endorses the readers opinion of Gatsby as a character who can not be categorised. He is uniqu...
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a tragic tale of love distorted by obsession. Finding himself in the city of New York, Jay Gatsby is a loyal and devoted man who is willing to cross oceans and build mansions for his one true love. His belief in realistic ideals and his perseverance greatly influence all the decisions he makes and ultimately direct the course of his life. Gatsby has made a total commitment to a dream, and he does not realize that his dream is hollow. Although his intentions are true, he sometimes has a crude way of getting his point across. When he makes his ideals heard, his actions are wasted on a thoughtless and shallow society. Jay Gatsby effectively embodies a romantic idealism that is sustained and destroyed by the intensity of his own dream. It is also Gatsby’s ideals that blind him to reality.
In the book “The Great Gatsby” we have the character Nick, which at first, gave the impression of a nice person, because in the book he states that keeps all judgments to himself, stated in, this quote, “ In consequence I am inclined to reserve all judgments.” This gives an idea that Nick while knowing the character of another keeps his ideas to himself, in addition, it shows that Nick is aiming to keep the judgments that his father gave him with out giving up, even though it has caused Nick a lot of trouble. That make Nick boring, nonetheless, he continued showing an ambition to keep his fathers advise, ...
At the beginning of the book, Nick's dependability is demonstrated as he recounts various information about himself. He is “inclined to reserve all judgments”(1), a trait that implies objectivity and therefore reliability as a narrator. However, he continues to say that this reservation of judgment has certain limits, especially recently in his life. These limits, apparently, do not apply to Gatsby, as evidenced in the next line. Nick says that only Gatsby “was exempt from [his] reaction”, even though Gatsby “represented everything for which [he has] an unaffected scorn”. He then continues to praise Gatsby's “heightened sensitivity to the promises of life”, and his “extraordinary gift of hope”(2). This beginning excerpt from the book in the first two pages sets the tone for the rest of the book and foreshadows the events that are going to happen. It is one of the most important sections of the book, as it lays out ...
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, is one of the few novels he wrote in 1925. The novel takes place during the 1920’s following the 1st World War. It is written about a young man named Nick, from the east he moved to the west to learn about the bond business. He ends up moving next to a mysterious man named Gatsby who ends up giving him the lesion of his life.
The Great Gatsby, a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its impossible goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is used in many novels. This dream is different for different people; but, in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness. To get this happiness Jay must reach into the past and relive an old dream; and, in order to do this, he must have wealth and power.
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. Jay Gatsby, the cryptic main character from F. Scott. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a man who has traveled through many rough roads throughout his life. These troubles that Gatsby had to overcome range from fighting in the war, losing the love of his life, and many shady dealings to obtain finances. Despite Gatsby’s life of controversy, many unanswered questions, and a plethora of luck, Gatsby is considered a man of many successes. Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor and close friend, considers Gatsby to have achieved greatness. Nick sees a greatness in Gatsby that he has never seen in any other man; unfortunately, all great characters do not always have happy endings. Gatsby’s
“The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a world filled with rich societal happenings, love affairs, and corruption. Nick Carraway is the engaged narrator of the book, a curious choice considering that he is in a different class and almost in a different world than Gatsby and the other characters. Nick relates the plot of the story to the reader as a member of Gatsby’s circle. He has ambivalent feelings towards Gatsby, despising his personality and corrupted dream but feeling drawn to Gatsby’s magnificent capacity to hope. Using Nick as a moral guide, Fitzgerald attempts to guide readers on a journey through the novel to illustrate the corruption and failure of the American Dream. To achieve this, Nick’s credentials as a reliable narrator are carefully established and reinforced throughout the story.