I’ve always wanted to write something since I finished this novel. But there are actually so many things to write about, and I couldn’t find where to start. Let me first introduce this novel, and maybe some thoughts will come up later.
This book has only nine chapters and covers no more than 120 pages with a fairly small font size in my copy. But it nonetheless has been praised as one of the greatest novels in the history of American literature. The novel’s greatness is often associated with its cruel yet fascinating depiction of the American Dream. And as far as I could tell, everyone who has written about this novel has written about the Roaring 20s, the Jazz Age, the Prohibition, the Great Depression, the Lost Generation, or the American Dream. Yes, they are all interesting topics to talk about, but the thing that strikes me the most about this novel isn’t any one of them, because these questions, however profound they are, aren’t particularly easy to resonate for someone who doesn’t know a lot about that part of the American history, i.e. myself. 😂
However, every great literary work has its own universal value that is to be apprehended by various readers despite their differences in educational background, cultural context and life experience. Therefore so does The Great Gatsby. And I’m not going to talk about the Roaring 20s or the other big ideas, but rather how events in the story of The Great Gatsby very much resemble our modern life.
PS: The ideas and opinions I share in this essay will not be objective. They certainly are my personal views and interpretations. So please read with caution.
Nick Who?
Nick is the narrator. The whole story is told from his perspective. And with all of his description of events, feelings and thoughts combined together, we have this story. We are looking into that world through his eyes, and watching how he responds to what happens in it.
If you find out that his words almost matches your thoughts, then you may be very much like him. In fact, we are all like him: We want money, so we sometimes compromise in order to get more of it, like how Nick forsook his dream of becoming a writer and decided to move to New York and sell bonds in Wall Street; We adore beauty, so we often overlook what lies behind it, like how Nick describes Jordan Baker’s smile in the first chapter of the novel; And we desire pleasure, so we occasionally lose our principles just to catch that feeling, like how Nick couldn’t walk out of Tom and Myrtle’s ecstatic party that afternoon in New York.
However it’s not that simple to make a conclusion. We may enjoy pleasure, but many times we feel confused or guilty about what we did, like how Nick was “within and without, enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life”; We may love beauty, but in most cases we come to realize what really matters in the end, like Nick chose not to enter Tom’s mansion that night when Myrtle was killed, even with Jordan’s request; And we may crave wealth, but we are able to recover our true passion if we keep exploring, like Nick eventually went back to the Middle West and “wrote” down the story of Jay Gatsby, thus picked up his dream and finally became a writer, I assume.
The thing about Nick Carraway is how he very much resembles some of us. We too have our fair share of almost everything. The question is, which of those things will in the end outweigh that of the opposite side? I believe it can only be answered by how we choose to live our lives.
Jordan Baker, the Doll
If you think about it, Jordan Baker, this seemingly one of the most important characters in the story, doesn’t really take up many pages, especially being the woman that Nick, the narrator, fell in love with. So why the narrator didn’t say something more about this woman he once loved?
Maybe he didn’t actually care to elaborate, because this little crush, though perfectly beautiful, didn’t have a profound meaning if compared to other things that happened in that particular period of his life. All we can know from the novel is that Jordan Baker is a friend of the Buchanans, she is shimmeringly beautiful (to Nick), she is a golf champion (which she got by cheating in the game), and she likes parties.
I believe Jordan to be a perfect doll, someone who was once glittering like gold when Nick was pursuing it. But the moment Nick came to his own realization, these glitters fell off the surface of that “golden dream” like pale, withered skin.
Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!
Unlike her husband Tom Buchanan, who is a greedy, selfish coward and downright despicable, Daisy Buchanan on the other hand is more complicated. Daisy meant everything to Gatsby. She was the green light. She was the symbol. She was the “enchanted object”. And Gatsby did everything for her. But in the end on his own funeral, this love of his life was nowhere to be seen.
One may feel that we can’t really blame Daisy. After all, it was Tom’s abominable intentions, Wilson’s gun and Gatsby’s own “foolishness” in covering for Daisy that killed himself. But if Daisy is therefore deemed innocent, and morality is judged by this way, then the pass mark in the exam of morality would be so far below 60.
To quote Nick, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.” Yes, they weren’t cruel or malicious. They were just careless — they didn’t care so much about the rest of the world.
If we say that Wilson was the criminal who murdered Gatsby, and Tom was the accomplice who implanted the idea into Wilson’s head, then Daisy must be the indifferent watcher who indulged every crime and never tried to save the victim, just to keep herself safe and sound. The apathy stuns me.
Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! Do you still remember Gatsby?
Is The Great Gatsby Ever Great?
The moment I finished reading the novel, this question started to surface in my mind from time to time. And I have just figured it out in recent days. The answer is of course positive, and the reason goes as follows:
Indeed I was doubtful at first. It seems that Gatsby didn’t really do so many great things throughout his life. He never acknowledged his own parents and ran away from them; He didn’t come by his money honestly because he was an illegal bootlegger during the Prohibition; And he didn’t earn his love rightfully since what he was doing was having an affair with another person’s wife. With all these wrong doings, his final sacrifice may seem quite ironic.
However Gatsby’s greatness doesn’t really lie in the things he did, but rather in how he did all these things in those five years just to achieve one goal and one goal only: winning back Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby had this vision, that he was going to “fix everything just the way it was before.” And when Nick told him, “you can’t repeat the past”, he replied, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can.” He had “an extraordinary gift for hope”. He thought if he can just get this thing — the thing being an actual human being — he can finally be happy. Despite this idea of totally objectifying women, he did all he could do, striving to reach this goal.
He spent his whole life chasing the green light. When he thought the light was getting closer and closer, and if he can only run faster, stretch out his arms farther, then one fine morning… But he didn’t realize the green light was already so far behind him. He did nothing wrong in dreaming, but everything wrong in chasing an unworthy dream.
To quote another author (whom I’ve already forgotten the name of), Gatsby “is truly great by virtue of his capacity to commit himself to his aspirations.” So yes, Gatsby was a great man, but great people especially must be careful about what they worship.
So “Gatsby turned out alright in the end; it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”
What Strikes Me The Most
The thing that strikes me the most about this novel, which I thought at first was Gatsby’s extraordinary gift for hope and how the world failed him in an indifferent manner, is upon reflection actually how easily we ourselves can just fail someone like Gatsby in real life.
Almost every reader hates Tom Buchanan. After all, he was the one who intentionally avoided all of his own responsibilities and used them to frame Gatsby, and thereby contributed to Gatsby’s tragic death and disgraced his posthumous reputation. Tom’s wife, Daisy Buchanan, was just like her husband: she also tried to avoid every and each one of her responsibilities. The difference between Tom and Daisy may be that Daisy never meant to harm, although nevertheless she did in the end. Actually, at some point in reading the novel, I felt that Daisy was quite a tragic character and was probably able to be sympathized with. After all, she was just the production of that particular period of American history.
But this is exactly what strikes me the most, because although we may never become someone like Tom Buchanan, we sure can sometimes act like Daisy Buchanan, trying to avoid the consequences of what we have done, and ignoring what harm this kind of action could bring to other people. On small issues, we might call this kind of people child-like. But on big problems, people aren’t supposed to be child-like in the adult world. So everyone reading the novel should be reminded that although Daisy is to some extent pitiful, her carelessness and evasion of responsibilities are nothing remotely great, because everyone in the society has the ability to act differently from what is expected by the environment. But clearly Daisy didn’t choose to.
Moreover, do you think Nick, in Gatsby’s death, is guilty or innocent? And was he feeling guilty or innocent? I guess the truth is that although he knew he was perfectly innocent in Gatsby’s death, he couldn’t help but feel guilty because the person he originally disapproved of turned out to be the greatest one he ever met. That morning, after they talked all night, he told Gatsby to run away. Of course Gatsby refused. So he walked away.
But when the trigger was pulled, the gun was fired, and Gatsby’s life was extinguished, both Gatsby’s dream and Nick’s belief were dead. That morning before he left Gatsby and went to work, he shouted to him, “They’re a rotten crowd. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” And two years later, when he was recalling those days, he wrote, “I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.”
Maybe some of us have similar experiences: the person of which you didn’t think well at first turned out to be an impressive one in that period of your life. And if this person’s impressiveness was worn out by life, society or other people, the guilt of having not given this person enough compliment or attention would really consume you. So please cherish everyone around you who has a great character.
Maybe we are all like Nick, having our fair share of many different traits, but we can always use the good ones to outweigh the bad ones, thus become greater than ourselves.
Note: The movie adaptation starred by Leonardo DiCaprio is totally worth watching. My deepest impression about this movie is that he really pulled off that smile of Gatsby’s, a smile that makes you feel he’s irresistibly prejudiced in your favor.
PS: I hope to read this book once again sometime.
Jan. 21st, 2019
Shi Tao
Revised on Feb. 3rd, 2019
网友评论