Week 11 - American Doubt

The Great Gatsby presents many themes, but what stands out to me the most is how it shows the hollowness of the American Dream. Behind all the stunning glitter and glam that is abundant throughout the novel lies a story of discontent, especially is the case of Gatsby. Money and love are things that the most of us desire, and this story throws the very nature of our desires into a harsh shocking light. No matter if we achieve our desires it does not mean that we will achieve or find happiness. Fitzgerald manages to create a sad bleak portrait of America while maintaining a sense of restrained optimism for the future. This can be found evident in the final line of the book. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. The Great Gatsby shows how we are shaped by our pasts and backgrounds no matter how hard we try to run away from them and re-invent ourselves. We can have optimism for the future even when we have a bleak past but the past will always be defining especially in the 1920s when old money was respected but not new money as it was often questioned how this new money came about.

Through Nick's narration we see a world that so many Americans dream of (a life of endless parties, delicious food, beautiful clothes) but only a select few achieve. The American Dream is depicted as being shallow, which Daisy demonstrates very well. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobed... "It makes me sad because I've never seen such - such beautiful shirts before." At the time men and women were locked in a frenzied and ultimately doomed race for speed, money and sin. Gatsby and Daisy's love is doomed because their values have been distorted by money, comfort and opulence. They can't see the depths because they are too easily distracted by shiny surfaces. There is a gap between dreams and reality, between reality and perception. Wealth is hiding moral decay underneath.

It could be argued that Gatsby was ahead of his times. If Gatsby had done what he did then now, he would have loads of Daisy types throwing themselves at him. This would suggest that today values and morals have further decayed as despite the many flaws and shallowness of the 1920s there was still respect and respectability for the way in which people earned their money. Whereas today those flaws and shallowness still exist but respect has been lost, as times have moved on, corruption has further developed and morals and values are continuing to diminish.