When people become corrupted and lose their moral compass due to excess money and success and they become corrupted by power and success it changes their outlook towards other people. In “The Great Gatsby” the upper class are depicted as short-sighted to what is important in life, family, moral values, honesty, and decency in their dealings with other people, their own families, and in business transactions. Tom Buchanan is shown as a careless, racist, small minded man who wields his power to control others in doing what he wants to do with no regard to what is morally and ethically right. Gatsby stops at nothing to become rich overnight in illegal dealings with mobsters such as Wolfsheim. Gatsby breaks the law as a bootlegger to find success to impress Daisy.
Jay Gatsby, the mysterious man living alone in the magnificent mansion is staring intently across the bay of water fixated on the green light on the dock belonging to Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway notices that Gatsby is deep in thought and in a moment of time in which he wouldn’t want to be disturbed. Later the green light and the meaning and symbolism behind it become all too apparent to Nick, but upon first seeing Gatsby, Nick doesn’t understand the significance of the green light.
To illustrate what a green light means we can refer to basic driving skills to know that the green light means GO! Continue! Proceed! Right of Way!—and Gatsby was cruising fast without stopping for 5 years now. Gatsby was not stopping for anything in his way, as he was pursuing Daisy and the dreams of wealth, glamour and privilege that she symbolized for him. In the same way, the fire at the top of the mountain, in Lord of the Flies and the importance it represented to the lost kids is symbolic of possibilities of being rescued and returning to the life which they desperately wanted to return. The fire was something the kids were drawn to for warmth, safety from unknown animals, the possible return to a regular life—it was everything to them just as the Green Light at the end of Daisy’s dock represents to Gatsby that he has located Daisy, who represents acceptance, love, and security to a man lost in his own world. As an illustration we see Gatsby and Daisy racing back to the West Egg from New York City and Daisy speeds up when she sees a stranger in the road running towards her car. Rather than slowing down or stopping, Daisy speeds up and ends up killing Myrtle Wilson. Daisy never slows down, never stops to assist the woman she hit and never accepts responsibility. Daisy just keeps moving ahead as if her life is full of green lights and she never has to yield, slow down or stop. Perhaps the green light symbolizes what was going on in the United States during the roaring 20s, the fast paced, never look back time period of fast paced, self-indulgent people racing to where they are going, never slowing down or stopping to see if they are harming anyone by racing forward to where they are going. Myrtle Wilson, trapped in the upstairs apartment on top of the gas station her husband George owns. Myrtle has aspirations, of glamour and success, yet she is trapped in her Valley of Ashes, in which everything is coated with a thin dust of ash. The ashes are trucked out of New York City, the refuse of the coal fueling the busy urban lives of the city before they are dumped in the wasteland where Myrtle and George reside.
To illustrate Myrtle’s dissatisfaction with her life we see her explain how and why she fell for Tom Buchanan. She liked his fancy shoes and his nice suit, she stared at him as she rode the train into the city to visit her sister. Tom used Myrtle like the city of New York used The Valley of Ashes—as a dumping ground, disrespected and left behind. Myrtle was not good enough for tom and he let her know this as they fought in their rented New York City flat. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the middle class despair of the residents of this dusty, industrial wasteland as opposed to the green lawns and beautiful bay of water and gorgeous mansions of The East and West Eggs. In similar fashion the theme of class despair and the working class being ostracized by the wealthy can be seen in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. It is a timeless theme which has been played out in novels throughout various cultures and time periods. In the same way The Valley of Ashes and East and West Eggs, and New York City all represent the various classes of wealth during this revolutionary time during the Roaring 20s, when money was flowing freely for many, yet some people felt left out of the success available for some of the other economic and social classes in the United States. The Valley of Ashes will forever represent George and Myrtle Wilson and the loss of their dreams, thinly coated with a layer of ash from the city. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses numerous references to Time in his novel. Consider the seasons, which are referenced as the story begins. Daisy invites her 2nd cousin, Nick, to her home and Daisy snuffs out the candles which were lit by the servants as she mentions that candles are not right leading up to the longest day of the year. The Summer Equinox, June 21st, is the longest daylight day in the year and Daisy said she was so looking forward to it and sometimes she might slip up and forget when it arrives. Time and seasons are related in the book to a person’s time of life, meaning that Spring=Childhood, Summer=Youth/Young Adulthood, Fall=Middle Age, and Winter=Older Adult. Daisy’s reference to time.
Additionally, Fitzgerald’s narrator, Nick Carraway, mentions that this story takes place during one summer. Again, the reference to summer relates to the characters’ age as they are young adults getting started in their lives and careers and they are in the prime or summer of their lives. Other references to time continue in the book when Gatsby made his fortune to buy his house and collect his material possessions in just five years. Five years was how long between when Gatsby and Daisy first met to when they reconnect during the summer of this story. Similarly, Gatsby is so nervous when he meets Daisy at Nick’s house that he leans on the mantle and knocks over the mantle clock, yet he catches the clock. This symbolizes how Gatsby is fumbling with time and trying to cheat the clock by turning back time and pretending that he and Daisy can reconnect like nothing changed in the five years, when big changes have occurred. Daisy has married Tom Buchanan and she now has a young daughter. Gatsby catches the clock, again symbolic of how he is trying to go back and save things and keep things from being ruined. In the same way, Gatsby realizes near the end of summer that he has not used the swimming pool all season and he asks the pool man to delay draining the pool. The pool symbolizes the time in his life, summer, and how he has nearly missed the entire season due to distraction. Gatsby’s distractions have been his job to make the money necessary to secure Daisy. If Gatsby has nearly forgotten to enjoy the pool then this symbolizes that Gatsby has forgotten to enjoy his young adulthood. To demonstrate how Daisy references time, she tells Gatsby that she could not wait for him and she just couldn’t wait since it took him so long to return from the war. Daisy’s reference to time is that she was impatient and wanted everything instantly and was not willing to be patient, despite the fact that she said she would wait for him to return. Subsequently Gatsby waited for Daisy to make up her mind after Tom knows about Gatsby and Daisy’s affair. This time Gatsby patiently waits for Daisy and she never calls him. Even after Gatsby is killed, Daisy never writes a note, calls Nick, or attends the funeral service. Daisy keeps waiting and never offers any condolence or sense of sadness over Gatsby’s death. The American Dream is the notion that anything is possible, in American. Many allusions to “the dream” are constantly made since Americans would like to believe that their fair share is available if they just work hard enough and smart enough to make the dream come true. It—the Dream—seems possible, but is it available to everyone who wants it and puts forth effort?
To illustrate the question of whether the American Dream is possible for everyone consider for a minute someone who is injured on the job, someone who has to care for a terminally ill family member, someone who is mentally ill, someone who is mentally retarded—what happens to their American Dream? George and Lennie have a lot of big ideas, mostly George, since Lennie just wants to pet soft things. We learn early on in the story that Lennie cannot seem to control his impulse to pet a small mouse, despite George chastising him for accidently squeezing them too hard and snapping their necks. George is in for the plan of buying a small ranch with George and George needs Lennie for his strength and ability to do ranch work to make the needed money. In the same way, think about Crooks, who was an African American man on a ranch in California during the 1920s, years before the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Crooks gravitated towards George’s version of the American Dream and as quickly as he was on board with the idea he just as quickly backed down when he was reminded by his encounter with Curley’s wife that due to racism it was not possible for him without an uphill fight—so he relented and gave up without being denied his dream. Is the American Dream possible for everyone who wants it or is it just for the select and favored few? In short the question remains for each person to answer this for themselves upon reflecting upon their own personal and unique experience. |
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May 2015
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