Classics Corner: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Welcome to the Public Domain, Old Sport

 

Classics Corner: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Welcome to the Public Domain, Old Sport

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Jay Gatsby has achieved a feat achieved by many before him such as King Arthur, Robin Hood, Don Quixote, Cinderella, Hamlet, Jane Eyre, Mr. Darcy, Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes,  Alice, Dracula, Huckleberry Finn, The Wizard of OZ (book form not MGM movie form) have received. He,Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Nick Caraway and the "whole rotten crowd" have entered the public domain. That means that F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic gets all that comes with it: academic interests, adaptation, remakes, alternate points of view, parodies, merchandise and the rest. (A zombie version is reportedly in the works.)

Many take The Great Gatsby at face value. They think it reveals the glamor of the Roaring Twenties, the parties, drinking, and what the hell fun before reality hit with the Crash of '29. It's a lot deeper than that.

The Great Gatsby is about the illusion of fame and celebrity and how the rich and famous look to the people underneath them. To them, they look attractive, carefree, and cannot possibly have anything wrong with their lives. The countless suicides, public meltdowns, and o.d’s of celebrities have shown otherwise. Inside every celebrity is a frightened suffering person that has to hide that suffering under the spotlight

Jay Gatsby, the eponymous protagonist Fitzgerald’s novel is someone who has an illusion of a rich and famous life but suffers a lonely existence. He is a wealthy mysterious man who throws the wildest parties that are attended by the best and brightest of the Roaring Twenties: gangsters, politicians, actors, producers, and scores of flappers.

The people drink, dance and have a great time and wonder about their mysterious host who throws the parties but is rarely seen at them. Is he a bootlegger? Is he a distant cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm? Did he kill a man? No one knows, but still they go to his parties. All they know is he is the  man who seems to have everything, wealth, splendor, fame, and the masses can’t help but enjoy themselves.

To them Gatsby is the embodiment of the Jazz Age: Live free, live rich, live large, and have fun. In this liberated freedom of the Jazz Age, many people felt free to experiment. Women in particular were free from corsets, wore short skirts, smoked in public, and were allowed to embrace their sexuality and that often involved having affairs. Fitzgerald captured that carefree and sexually liberated milieu that surrounds Gatsby perfectly.

Gatsby’s life is recounted by Nick Carraway, the naive narrator and Gatsby’s next-door neighbor. At first, Nick watches bemused at all the people who attend Gatsby’s parties. He watches the events next door with a detached admiration and perhaps some slight envy at his neighbor’s carefree seemingly easy adventurous lifestyle (some think maybe with lust for Gatsby). Until he realizes that he has a closer connection to Gatsby than he was previously aware. This connection comes in the form of Daisy Buchanan, Nick’s second cousin and her husband, Tom, an old friend of Nick’s.

While getting reacquainted with the Buchanans and their friend, Jordan Baker whom Daisy wants to “fling together” with Nick, Nick learns that Tom has a mistress in the city and that Daisy and Gatsby are former lovers. Nick becomes a go-between as Daisy and Gatsby are reunited and rekindle their love affair.

By far the most intriguing character in the book is Gatsby, whom Nick describes as “worth the whole damn bunch put together.” At the very least, he is a much better character than the narcissistic Daisy and the bad-tempered Tom whom Nick describes as “careless people. They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made.”

 As Nick gets to know his wealthy friend, he begins to piece together the events in his life that shaped him. He learns about Gatsby’s impoverished background and his drive to improve himself and his situation. Nick also learns how Gatsby obtained his wealth through his military service and making good connections with wealthy, sometimes shady characters. In learning about Gatsby’s backstory, Nick saw a man who was constantly trying to look upwards and always trying to achieve happiness.

Even when he has found wealth, success, and is surrounded by the “Bright Young Things,” Gatsby still isn’t happy. He purposely chose the mansion on West Egg, Long Island, because it overlooks the lake surrounding the East Egg where Daisy lives.  Jordan confides to Nick that the only reason that Gatsby began the parties in the first place was so by chance that Daisy would wander into them. It’s no surprise that once Daisy is back in Gatsby’s arms that the parties cease. Through all of his wealth, connections, and fame, Gatsby still yearns for his lost love, “The One That Got Away.”

What makes Gatsby’s story sadder is that Daisy is not really worth the attention Gatsby gives her. He is still caught up in his romantic juvenile fantasies of the young innocent girl that he remembers, not the vapid flirt that she has become. She is less interested in loving Gatsby than she is fascinated by his big house and shiny things and wants to get even with her husband and his mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Even when Gatsby forces Daisy’s hand by confronting Tom with their affair, she still can’t summon the courage to decide between them playing both men at once. Even after a violent occurrence which puts all matters upfront, Daisy avoids Gatsby entirely and poor Gatsby still believes that somehow, someway Daisy will come rushing into his arms.

Like the real-life celebrities who have come to violent ends, Jay Gatsby’s life is sadder and lonelier than anyone realizes. This is shown particularly in the final crushing scenes when despite all of the countless people that attended his parties, despite the love he held for Daisy, the only people in attendance at Gatsby’s funeral are a permanent house guest, Gatsby’s estranged father, and Nick, who is revealed to be Gatsby’s best, truest, and only real friend.