Janae’s Blog

“And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes-a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.” (189)

This is Fitzgerald’s opinion of the American dream; that it is something that every man desires, yet doesn’t completely understand. People see new oppurtunities as ways to advance them in life, and oftentimes overlook how the journey through the new experiences will ultimately shape their outcome.

“And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” (189)

As well, Nick develops and sees his view of the American Dream, and realizes that people, namley Gatsby, become so caught up in their pursuit they often miss what is right in front of them. Nick as changed and matured through his experiences in New York, and views the world diferently now.

Fitzgerald makes the point here that at the end of the day, even if you’ve obtained what you thought you wanted, if there is no one to share it with, it’s really wasted a worthless. That’s a theme common throughout the whole novel. As clichéd as it sounds, no matter the opinion of what the American Dream is, it isn’t as sweet or wonderful unless you have someone who cares about it the same way you do, and supports you in it.

“I don’t think she ever loved him.” Gatsby turned around from a window and looked at me challengingly. “You must remember, old sport, she was very excited this afternoon. He told her those things in a way that frightened her-that made it look as if I was some kind of cheap sharper. And the result was she hardly knew what she was saying.”

He sat down gloomily.

” “Of course she might have loved him just for a minute, when they were first married-and loved me more even then, do you see?”

Suddenly he came out with a curious remark.

“In any case,” he said, “it was just personal.”

What could you make of that, except to suspect some intensity in his conception of the affair that couldn’t be measured?” (159)

Fitzgerald mentions that Gatsby might have perhaps recognized his mistakes, earlier in the chapter, but this just shows that Gatsby was so consumed with everything that he just can’t let it go, and that his entire life has been permanently altered by this, and doesn’t truly grasp the reality of the situation, or if he does, blatantly chooses to ignore it. It speaks for Gatsby’s character that he is incapable of letting go of the past and moving forward, no matter how clear it is made too him that he can never relive what once was.

The yellow car is of interest to me, as it is eventually Gatsby’s downfall because Wilson seeks him out to kill him after recognizing it. Yellow is a murky color, especially pale yellow. Gatsby’s car is yellow; the car that he and Daisy were in when their fate was sealed. It has been previously mentioned that the car they drove when five years prior was white. Metaphorically speaking: their relationship was white at first; pure young and innocent. However, little things happened to dilute the whiteness on their relationship to a pale yellow; still pretty, but not what it once was.

“What do you want money for, all of a sudden?”

“I’ve been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go West.”

“Your wife does,” exclaimed Tom, startled.

“She’s been talking about it for ten years.” He rested for a moment against the pump, shading his eyes. “And now she’s going whether she wants to or not. I’m going to get her away.” ” (130)

Fitzgerald is commenting on the basic principle that makes up the typical American Dream – money. It’s also commenting on how one’s view of the American Dream can be drastically altered. Tom had what he wanted – a pretty wife, the surface image, and then a mistress on the side. Yet all that is being yanked out from under him. Fitzgerald is commenting on the subjecctivity and continual changes that accompany the American Dream.

Nick is discovereing that he doesn’t like the lifestyle that his friends are living. He doesn’t like the lies and callousness and flippancy that they have, and the innate selfishness. He grew numb to it, but after this wake up call, he  realizes that he is not impressed with it and wants to escaoe it.

Through all he said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something-an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago. For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man’s, as though there was more struggling upon them than a wisp of startled air. But they made no sound, and what I had almost remembered was uncommunicable forever.” (116-117)

Gatsby’s dream is achieved here – he has Daisy. Hoewever one word that Fitzgerald uses is interesting, incarnation. It shows Fitzgerald views that obtaining the final package of the American ideal leads to imprionment; something that can’t be reversed or if it is, leaves lasting scars.

Fitzgerald sums up just how disillusioned Gatsby is in this chapter. At first he seems a little strange, but not totally off his rocker, and seems to have some sense of reality. Alas, he does not, and the readers discover that Gatsby is so consumed with having what he wants and desires, he has lost sight of reality.

The whole chapter, really, is centered on Fitzgerald’s opinion and argument of the American Dream. It sets up the fact that Gatsby worked so hard to achieve everything he thought was success to win back Daisy’s affection. Yet when he has her back, it’s not all he wanted. The track to the American Dream was more than actually obtaining it. The tone is one of sort of a let – down; there is no flare huge I’ve done it. It’s extremely anti – climatic.

“As I went over to say good-by I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon whe Daisy tumbled short of his dreams-not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” (101)

Fitzgerald reveals just how deep Gatsby’s fascination with Daisy goes in this chapter.

Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.”

Green is the color that has the most significance in this chapter.  The phrase “the grass is greener on the other side” is applicable to Gatsby. He spends 5 years of his life striving to reach that green light, yet when he reaches it, it isn’t all that he thought it would be. As well, there is foreshadowing with this, as Fitzgerald makes the point that oftentimes what we perceive to want isn’t as magnificent as we want it to be, and the extremes that we go to, to obtain it, we loose something valuable.

Fitzgerald paints what happens to Daisy, young and in love, heartbroken, then meets Tom and thinks she’s found her happily ever after. But the happiness doesn’t last long as she realizes that her husband is unfaitful. It allows the reader to sympathize with Daisy and she that she is more complex than a flighty trophy wife. She’s coping and surviving the best she knows how.

“A wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby’s house, making the night fine as before, and surviving the laughter and the sound of his still glowing garden. A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host, who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal gesture of farewell.” (60)

Gatsby’s house stands for what his dream is – wealth, power, social standing. His elaborate parties fill the house with the appearance of having it all, but after everyone goes home, it becoems empty and shell like, very much a metaphor for Gatsby himself. Gatsby appears to have the American Dream, but at what cost?

Fitxgerald begins to develop and further the complexity of the American Dream.

“Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body.”  (63)

Jordan is really nothing more than a clever and deceptive woman, used to getting her way, but only with men who can’t see through her façade. She becomes a more solid and realatable characte for people, because she actually isn’t that perfeect sweet woman. Fitzgerald’s goal was to write the Great American Novel, and by creating characters that are complex and relatable, such as Jordan, pushes his work in that direction.

“I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,” she said finally. “I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” (pg. 39)

Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, married for a dream. She wanted a loving husband, the fairy tale romance. But she realized that it didn’t turn out that way. It’s debatable if she grew tired of the situation and wanted more, or if she walked into her marriage without really knowing him.

Fitzgerald’s re – accruing theme in this novel is how one’s perception of the American dream can change. Myrtle wasn’t happy with her lot on life, but she now enjoys the privileges of being a mistress – the fine clothes, apartment, etc., as well as the thrill of excitement that comes with sneaking around. But neither Tom nor Myrtle are very good at keeping their relationship a secret.