Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Englisches Seminar

PSII: Modernism and the American Fiction

SS 2006

The deconstruction of the

american dream in The Great Gatsby

submitted by

Tobias Rösch

majors:

English (SE): 5

German (SE): 5

Table of Contents

0. The Deconstruction of the American Dream in

The Great Gatsby

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1. East Egg versus West Egg 4

2. Representatives of the upper class 6

2.1 Tom: Brutality unleashed 6

2.2 Daisy: Is she the real thing? 7

3. Gatsby′s Dream 8

4. Idealism meets materialism 11

5. Technology: Cold steel and cold blood 12

6. Dismantling the American Dream 13

7. Conclusion 15

8. Fußnoten 16

9. Works Cited 18

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0. The Deconstruction of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Robert Frost, a contemporary of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, once said that "poetry is a way of

taking life by the throat." In Fitzgerald′s fabulous novel

The Great Gatsby

, published in 1925,

this seems to be the author′s intention, when in a largely poetic tone he depicts life in the so-

called "Roaring Twenties". He took life by the throat and simultaneously pointed at social

injustices that were accompanying the economic prosperity of his time. Fitzgerald′s

masterpiece primarily deals with the American upper class in the 1920s and demonstrates

some of the internal processes of "high society."

In the novel representatives of the upper class are engaged in acts of egotism, self-

aggrandizement, and heartlessness. Their ubiquitous lack of empathy and understanding for

the concerns of others, their downright brutality and self-centeredness pervades the whole

storyline and gives prove of the author′s rather pessimistic view of what was then going on in

contemporary America.

In the center of things stands the character after whom the novel is named: Jay Gatsby.

He is a rather prototypical upstart American who within a short period of time has found ways

and means to make a fortune. His wealth is derived mainly from bootlegging and other

criminal activities that are left concealed to the reader. At any rate, Jay Gatsby comes in touch

with the seducing realm of opulence at a very early stage when aged 17 he encounters destiny

for the very first time. The event that would shape his whole life and leave an imprint on his

mind is a chance meeting with Dan Cody, a rich mining tycoon, who cruises across Lake

Superior in his yacht

Tuolomee

(named after the gold fields of Northern California1) some

day. From this day on Gatsby′s life will never be the same: the seed of aspiration has been

planted in the young man′s heart together with a deep conviction that in the future he might be

able to display his wealth in a similarly urbane fashion as Cody did. He is willing to model his

life on Cody′s and maybe even outstrip him if given the opportunity.

But wealth can hardly be obtained in North Dakota, where James Gatz (who changes his

name after the fateful encounter with Dan Cody) grows up. In order for people to make a

fortune and turn their lives into a success story as Benjamin Franklin or Abraham Lincoln did,

they have no choice but to travel east. New York City is the place to go. Not only does it

accomodate scores of rich people who have reached their goals in life, but also does it teem

with the glittering splendor of pompous villas, luxurious automobiles, and excessive parties

given by and for people who are

"being rich together," as the narrator in

The Great Gatsby

, Nick Carraway, so fittingly ­ and

surely ironically ­ puts it. This marvellous place becomes Gatsby′s home shortly after World

War I and it is then that his dubious career starts to take shape. Through the years he

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assembles a remarkable amount of money and is able to settle down in the trendy

neighborhood of West Egg, a part of Long Island (which in fact is seldom mentioned in the

novel; Fitzgerald reshaped the whole area into a kind of "earthly paradise"2 and a region of

wonder that seems to be taken from a fairy tale rather than from reality). However, his

endeavors soon are no longer directed to earning money only, because in the distance there is

a green light looming from across the bay from East Egg.

There lives his former love, Daisy Fay, who is now married to Tom Buchanan, a brutal stud

who cheats on her most of the time and does not care about her feelings, or anyone else′s for

that matter. She is the only missing piece in the puzzle of his life and therefore he desperately

tries to make her his woman.3

In the end, however, Gatsby finds that money can′t buy him Daisy′s affection and instead

of coming to rest in happy matrimony all that he finds is death; forsaken by his fellow human

beings (except for Nick Carraway and Owl Eyes who pay their last respects at his funeral),

deprived of the only hope he had clung to, disenchanted with a dream that for years had filled

his life with meaning.

It is the divergence between dreams and reality that I will focus on in this paper.

1. East Egg versus West Egg

If you think about the setting of the novel you will find that it takes place in the East,

or more precisely: in the Long Island area stretching from New York′s harbor into the

northern Atlantic Ocean. Although it is supposedly a "story of the West"4 (as Nick terms it,

pointing to the fact that all the main protagonists are originally Westerners), there is a clear

emphasis on New York and the East Coast of the United States. The residential areas of East

Egg and West Egg are exclusive neighborhoods, geographically separated only by a "courtesy

bay"; both of them are

egg-shaped islands that strikingly resemble each other [and it might not be entirely

inappropriate to be reminded of utopian novels such as Thomas More′s "Utopia" instantly

(published as early as 1516)]. The state of isolation as well as their inhabitant′s wealth make

them luxurious outposts of society where people can freely indulge in their extravagant ways

of life.

However, their state of separation indicates not only a geological rift but also an

ideological one: Whereas East Egg is home to an already established class of wealthy people,

the West Egg community is largely constituted by the so-called "

nouveau riche

" who have

gained a fortune through their own efforts and by the labor of their hands. They do not belong

to the caste of aristocrats who hand down their wealth and power from one generation to the

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next. Instead, they have "sprung from their Platonic conception of themselves"5, and had to

toil hard in order to reach their high state of prosperity and reputation. The newly rich profit

extensively from the booming economy of the twenties which enables them to make large

amounts of money in double-quick time and climb the social ladder with an amazing speed. If

a man (or woman) was ambitious enough and put all of his energy into an economic venture,

there was a good chance he (or she) could finally make his (or her) dreams come true. The

national myth of the American Dream, the rise "from rags to riches" as praised by writers like

Horatio Alger, necessarily meets with opposition from the older upper class whose

representatives hold that although ambitious upstarts may be able to hoard up a treasure they

cannot possibly level up with them culturally or intellectually.

In Fitzgerald′s novel it is made sufficiently clear that these two groups mix about as well as

oil and water and will always be anxious to maintain a distance. Living side by side and

talking to

arrivistes

at eye level seems to be downright unthinkable for members of the

American upper class. They cannot accept them as equals. This is basically why both parties

are located on islands in the sea, within visibility of each other, but always separated by a

sharp dividing line.

The Great Gatsby

elaborates on the destructive powers emanating from the conflict

between these rivalizing social classes which are so similar in terms of prosperity, but at the

same time so incompatible as far as their distinctive mentalities are concerned. Both groups

meet with such an aggressive opposition that peaceful coexistence seems to be altogether out

of the question;

instead, at the end of the novel we find Jay Gatsby floating dead in his swimming pool, and

Nick Carraway, his neighbor, making up his mind to go back home to the western regions of

his childhood and adolescence. Only Daisy′s and Tom′s lives remain more or less intact,

because their attitudes differ from those of others. In that they expose a peculiar trait of

character which makes them worthy East Eggers: selfishness.

Fitzgerald′s characters of course are more than just individual figures; they have an

exemplary function in pointing to the mindless upper class existing in the 1920s and should

therefore be conceived of as a bundle of patterns that have shaped U.S. society at that time.

We will therefore have a closer look at the life conditions of the Buchanans before we move

on to an analysis of the tragic flaw that ultimately leads to Gatsby′s downfall and death.

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