SOCIETAL FLAWS IN GREAT GATSBY

SOCIETAL FLAWS IN GREAT GATSBY

            The Great Gatsby written by Scott Fitzgerald is set in the early 1920’s, a period in the history of America also known as “Roaring Twenties”. The book has its theme centered on the extravagant lifestyles adopted by the rich people in New York during this period of peace and prosperity. The story has been narrated by Nick Carraway, an enthusiastic salesman who has just shifted to a flashy but unfashionable West Egg society. Despite of lavish and wealthy setting of this society, the author manages to expose many social problems which are facing the inhabitants of Long Island. The author has used techniques of realistic writing, symbolism and first person narrative to convey his message successfully.

Societal setting can conform anybody into whoever they want the person to be. Throughout the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is an outstanding theme on the flaws of perception within the society (Fitzgerald et al, 56). This theme has been conveyed based on various characters in the book who seem to have their personal perceptions as to who the main character, Jay Gatsby is. For instance, as readers we can see how the society in this setting can misperceive somebody in a manner that no one really understands who Jay Gatsby is. When Nick, the neighbor to Jay appears to one of his house parties for the first time, he is told several stories in regard to personal and identity history of Jay Gatsby.

The novel goes ahead to criticize the American society through his main narrator Nick Carraway as he perceives the downfall of the society in the setting as well as the pathetic lives of what most people were considering as the achievers of American visions (Fitzgerald et al, 56). The criticism of this society is prominently proven by the harsh view of the American’s money-oriented living style, the tragic death of Gatsby, Negligence as shown by the associates of Gatsby, the disclose of Gatsby’s acquitted childhood and the Fitzgerald’s individual life experiences

All these enable readers to perceive the unforgiving hit towards the American society. Fitzgerald introduces the enigmatic Gatsby through Nick Caraway’s thoughts who states that “Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn,” (Fitzgerald et al, 56). setting the stage for a great attack demonstrating the impacts of materialism on the society. Gatsby is well known in the whole city for his phenomenal house parties in West Egg.

Caraway later on rambles for several pages giving a list of insignificant names that have been made insignificant as a result of inadequate information and mysterious nature of them all. “But I can still read the gray names, and they will give you a better impression than my generalities of those who accepted Gatsby’s hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him.” (Fitzgerald et al, 56). Through the presented list, Fitzgerald is able to demonstrate the fakeness and lack of direction in Gatsby’s lavish lifestyle

The novel also presents this notion by the vast alcohol amount used during in the Gatsby’s parties despite of alcohol being illegal during such a time. At one time, Gatsby is said to have been a bootlegger which made him gather a lot of money, but the consumers of his alcohol despised him for showing the hypocrisy of the high class people during the time. Nick goes ahead to compare the Gatsby’s party prospect to a Greco painting that depicts unglamorous the reality behind lives of wealthy people. Nick reveals a drunken woman of East who is being carried on a stretcher to signify their isolation, loneliness and their anonymity as a predicament of all Middle Western Easterners. In this setting, nobody seems to care about the woman even as his body is being dragged out of the party lifeless. Fitzgerald at this point in time successfully demonstrates how the high class life being chased by most of the Americans as just pretentious brag which is full of materialism (Fitzgerald et al, 56).

Characters in this novel such as Tom, Jordan, Wilson, Daisy and Myrtle have highly contributed to demonstrate Fitzgerald’s flawless perception of the American society due to their eccentric personalities and inexplicable lives. For instance, Jordan has described people in the society as bed drivers. In his statement to Nick, “You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver didn’t I?” (Fitzgerald et al, 76). Here, the metaphor of driver has been used by Jordan to show Nick how an awful and dishonest person can appear nice until compared to another person who resembles them. This interlink makes their abnormal nature to clash just like it is the case with two unqualified drivers in a car smash unable to diverge out of the way. In this scenario, Tom and Daisy are both outstanding examples of “bad drivers” and have been severally pointed out due to their materialistic bubble.

Gatsby is seen to have been living in constant attempt of winning the love of Daisy, however for Gatsby to be able to achieve this, he must acquire enough money for him to be in a position to accommodate Daisy’s “artificial world” love (Fitzgerald et al, 134).. Daisy at last kills Myrtle accidentally while driving Gatsby’s car. The perception however is perceived contrally, Tom tells Myrtles husband that the vehicle was being driven by Gatsby.

Following the misinterpretation of the accident, Wilson who is Myrtles husband goes to Gatsby’s estate and kills Gatsby before he turns and kills himself as well. “It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the Gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.” (Fitzgerald et al, 56). Finally, the rich Gatsby meets his death before reuniting with the lady he longed to impress. The term holocaust has been used symbolically to depict the end of fantasy life of Gatsby with which money has been presented to be having the ability to buy him Daisy’s love as well as his friends. Just after the killing, the people who used to pretend to be Gatsby’s friends appear to flee away even before the funeral. This depicts the false reality on which most Americans lived in during 1920’s

After Wilson kills Gatsby and commits suicide as well, the novel presents the real situation as evident during the burial ceremony of Gatsby.  None of his so-called die hard friends while he was alive is present during this occasion (Piper et al, 98). To describe this vacant funeral, Fitzgerald further criticizes the society of its hypocrisy. Nick frantically appears to mobilize people around the town to attend the funeral service of Gatsby when he lands on Wolfsheim who is a Meyer. He creates an excuse by saying that, “I cannot come down now as I am tied up in some very important business and cannot get mixed up in this thing now.” Wolfsheim declaration shows that Gatsby death is unimportant to him as well as the hypocrisy behind the American society of the time, appearing close to someone just for their narcissistic and social benefits (Piper et al, 98).

The only people who attended the funeral service of Gatsby were the Gatsby’s father, Nick and a drunkard person. The killing of Gatsby, an admired millionaire who used to throw best gatherings fuels Fitzgerald to further criticize American society by showing reality distortion and the carelessness of Gatsby’s “friends” (Piper et al, 98). In the novel, Nick at one point reveals the writings of Gatsby as a young boy which showed the general resolves of the boy, No time wastage at the Shafters, nor more smoking or chewing Bath. This reveals the innocence of the boy who is later killed out of mere mind corruption in the society (Piper et al, 98).

Alcohol abuse is rampant in the novel and specifically in the lives of Zelda and Fitzgerald who are both described as addicts of alcohol. Fitzgerald was once an innocent young boy just like Gatsby but was corrupted by the society and the false Dream of materialism at the time. Just like Nick, Fitzgerald has realized how the unglamorous class level society can be. Despite of Nick and Gatsby characters having been derived from different aspects of Fitzgerald’s personality, they have been successfully shaped his notion of the American society by both first and upper hand class experience (Piper et al, 98).

To sum up the whole scenario in the story, Fitzgerald seems to be very critical on the way he was living and criticizes American’s efforts to achieve certain life styles. The novel title Great Gatsby makes Gatsby the star of sideshow disturbance which exactly he was. The novel presents American society as a spectacle which makes Fitzgerald harshly criticize it. Additionally, the novel has shown the dangers of carelessness in the society as well as the ability of the society to corrupt innocence to interfere with what was once a valid dream of the American people, just for selfish gains.

Work cited

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott, Matthew Joseph Bruccoli, and Jackson R. Bryer. F. Scott Fitzgerald in His Own Time: A Miscellany. Kent State University Press, 2013.

Piper, Henry Dan, and Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s The great Gatsby: the novel, the         critics, the background. Scribner, 2012.