Gatsby - failure / isolation
● Suffering is deserved for Fitzgerald’s ‘Gatsby’ who blindly fails to recognise the blatant
fallacy that is ‘The American Dream’ - an ideal rooted in the 1776 American
Declaration of Independence, which falsely promised ‘unalienable rights’ to ‘life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness’
● The verb pursuit itself suggests an endless chase, making this flawed ideal a tragic
hamartia - one that compels individuals to strive for something fundamentally
unattainable from the outset
● In TGG, the eponymous character, Jay Gatsby, can be seen incessantly romanticise
the Am Dream, seeing it at his metaphorical oxygen, believing ‘he could climb to it, if he
climbed alone’ and once within reach of his desired dream he could ‘suck on the pap of
life and gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder’
● This overt romanticisation becomes synonymous with his desire to reclaim his
relationship with Daisy and an idealised past - a delusion Churchwell calls a ‘Great
error’
● Though he insists, ‘Cant repeat the past why of course you can’, his efforts are doomed.
just as a ‘star’ appears close to the ‘moon’, so too did Gatsby’s attempts reunite with
Daisy; however, in the same way that a star and the moon are lightyears apart, his
dream of a reunion is an idealised mirage, and the glow of his fantasy fades in the face
of the relentless reality
● His downfall becomes a powerful emblem of the American Dream’s individualistic +
isolating nature
● The image of Gatsby ‘shouldering the mattress’ as he is shot draws unequivocal
parallels to Christ carrying ‘his own cross’ to death, suggesting that Gatsby bears the
crushing weight not of humanity’s sins, but the unattainable ideal to his dream
● As Ernest Renan writes in ‘The Life of Jesus’, Christ - like Gatsby - was ‘faithful to
his self-created dream but sacrificed to the factual truth which crushes both him and his
dream’.
● Gatsby’s death elevates him to a tragic hero - a martyr not for the salvation of others, but
for the unwavering belief in his dream. His willingness to sacrifice all genuine
relationships + acquire wealth through illegitimate means to actualise his declared AD
highlights the corrosive power of the AM as his relentless individualism + morally
dubious behaviour - reflective of the disreputable morality that dominated the
hedonistic Roaring Twenties in which Fitz novel is set - culminates in grave isolation
● Indeed, he nonchalantly sacrifices all familial connections, merely rendering him as a
‘son of some wealthy people in the Mid East’
, ● Fitzgerald’s claim that Gatsby ‘paid a high price for living too long with a single dream’
warn that even the wealthiest elite in the highest echelon of society must face
consequences for their actions
● As Lionel Trilling observes, Gatsby ‘comes inevitably to stand for America itself’ ,
symbolising both its soaring ambition + tragic self-destruction
● Fitz highlights Gatsby’s isolation through his lack of stable family as Nick notes that he
has ‘no comfortable family standing behind him’ + Gatsby himself admits that his family
are ‘all dead now’
● His lavish parties symbolise a desperate attempt to create personal connections yet
these are superficial ‘he has no real friends’ (DiCaprio)
● In TGG Owl Eyes marvels at Gatsby’s library, calling him ‘a regular Belasco’, an
American theatre director known for his hyper-realistic set designs
● Yet, he is also aware that Gatsby’s books are uncut, suggestion that his sophistication
is only partly for show
● Indeed, the 1920s saw the emergence of a new class of wealthy individuals who
became known as the ‘new money’ elite and, like Gatsby, often sought to create a
facade of sophistication and opulence
● The metamorphosis of Gatsby’s sartorial appearance becomes a symbolic
representation of his attempts to create a new identity, with the introduction of his 'silver
shirt’ and ‘gold-coloured tie’ signifying his entry into the world of affluence
● Arguably, this facade purely serves to conceal his loneliness since he has ‘no
comfortable family standing behind him’
Myrtle
● In the final passage of TGG, narrator Nick Carraway reflects on Gatsby’s unwavering
belief in the ‘green light’, describing it as the ‘orgastic future that year by year recedes
before us’
● Throughout the novel, colour green functions as an emblem of hope + aspiration, a
force that not only drives Gatsby but also the ambition of others, including Myrtle Wilson,
whose brutal death contrasts Gatsby’s romanticised vision
● Ammons notes that this attempt is doomed from the start, as the novel “punishes
women who try to transgress class lines through sexuality.”
● Her body is described with shocking physicality, her breast ‘swinging loose like a flap’,
reducing her to mere flesh + stripping her of the autonomy + desire that once fuelled her
social ambition
● Suffering is deserved for Fitzgerald’s ‘Gatsby’ who blindly fails to recognise the blatant
fallacy that is ‘The American Dream’ - an ideal rooted in the 1776 American
Declaration of Independence, which falsely promised ‘unalienable rights’ to ‘life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness’
● The verb pursuit itself suggests an endless chase, making this flawed ideal a tragic
hamartia - one that compels individuals to strive for something fundamentally
unattainable from the outset
● In TGG, the eponymous character, Jay Gatsby, can be seen incessantly romanticise
the Am Dream, seeing it at his metaphorical oxygen, believing ‘he could climb to it, if he
climbed alone’ and once within reach of his desired dream he could ‘suck on the pap of
life and gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder’
● This overt romanticisation becomes synonymous with his desire to reclaim his
relationship with Daisy and an idealised past - a delusion Churchwell calls a ‘Great
error’
● Though he insists, ‘Cant repeat the past why of course you can’, his efforts are doomed.
just as a ‘star’ appears close to the ‘moon’, so too did Gatsby’s attempts reunite with
Daisy; however, in the same way that a star and the moon are lightyears apart, his
dream of a reunion is an idealised mirage, and the glow of his fantasy fades in the face
of the relentless reality
● His downfall becomes a powerful emblem of the American Dream’s individualistic +
isolating nature
● The image of Gatsby ‘shouldering the mattress’ as he is shot draws unequivocal
parallels to Christ carrying ‘his own cross’ to death, suggesting that Gatsby bears the
crushing weight not of humanity’s sins, but the unattainable ideal to his dream
● As Ernest Renan writes in ‘The Life of Jesus’, Christ - like Gatsby - was ‘faithful to
his self-created dream but sacrificed to the factual truth which crushes both him and his
dream’.
● Gatsby’s death elevates him to a tragic hero - a martyr not for the salvation of others, but
for the unwavering belief in his dream. His willingness to sacrifice all genuine
relationships + acquire wealth through illegitimate means to actualise his declared AD
highlights the corrosive power of the AM as his relentless individualism + morally
dubious behaviour - reflective of the disreputable morality that dominated the
hedonistic Roaring Twenties in which Fitz novel is set - culminates in grave isolation
● Indeed, he nonchalantly sacrifices all familial connections, merely rendering him as a
‘son of some wealthy people in the Mid East’
, ● Fitzgerald’s claim that Gatsby ‘paid a high price for living too long with a single dream’
warn that even the wealthiest elite in the highest echelon of society must face
consequences for their actions
● As Lionel Trilling observes, Gatsby ‘comes inevitably to stand for America itself’ ,
symbolising both its soaring ambition + tragic self-destruction
● Fitz highlights Gatsby’s isolation through his lack of stable family as Nick notes that he
has ‘no comfortable family standing behind him’ + Gatsby himself admits that his family
are ‘all dead now’
● His lavish parties symbolise a desperate attempt to create personal connections yet
these are superficial ‘he has no real friends’ (DiCaprio)
● In TGG Owl Eyes marvels at Gatsby’s library, calling him ‘a regular Belasco’, an
American theatre director known for his hyper-realistic set designs
● Yet, he is also aware that Gatsby’s books are uncut, suggestion that his sophistication
is only partly for show
● Indeed, the 1920s saw the emergence of a new class of wealthy individuals who
became known as the ‘new money’ elite and, like Gatsby, often sought to create a
facade of sophistication and opulence
● The metamorphosis of Gatsby’s sartorial appearance becomes a symbolic
representation of his attempts to create a new identity, with the introduction of his 'silver
shirt’ and ‘gold-coloured tie’ signifying his entry into the world of affluence
● Arguably, this facade purely serves to conceal his loneliness since he has ‘no
comfortable family standing behind him’
Myrtle
● In the final passage of TGG, narrator Nick Carraway reflects on Gatsby’s unwavering
belief in the ‘green light’, describing it as the ‘orgastic future that year by year recedes
before us’
● Throughout the novel, colour green functions as an emblem of hope + aspiration, a
force that not only drives Gatsby but also the ambition of others, including Myrtle Wilson,
whose brutal death contrasts Gatsby’s romanticised vision
● Ammons notes that this attempt is doomed from the start, as the novel “punishes
women who try to transgress class lines through sexuality.”
● Her body is described with shocking physicality, her breast ‘swinging loose like a flap’,
reducing her to mere flesh + stripping her of the autonomy + desire that once fuelled her
social ambition
