The Great Gatsby Controversy

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As essayist Lionel Trilling states, Gatsby “comes inevitably to stand for America itself”. Trilling comments that F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the highly respected book, The Great Gatsby, intentionally reflects his personal vision of America during the 1920’s through the character of Jay Gatsby (Trilling 2). In this sense, Gatsby is a representation of the American people during the 1920’s. It was a decade when America as a nation was booming and Americans were enjoying life, perhaps at the expense of their European equivalents who struggled to return to life like it was before the Great War. It was a time of luxury and excess for the growing privileged class who benefited from the exploitation of natural resources, Westward expansion,…show more content…
In pursuit of Daisy, Gatsby adopts the misplaced values of the 20’s that she herself practices. These include materialism, dishonesty, and carelessness. Gatsby fully involves himself in the upper-class lifestyle in the attempt to win over Daisy. We see just how much Gatsby reinvents himself when Nick describes the transformation of James Gatz into Jay Gatsby. “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year- old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (Fitzgerald 91). In recreating himself, Gatsby sets the stage for his social ascent soon to follow. Gatsby both counts on and flaunts his wealth to win Daisy back knowing that she would only marry someone in her same class. It is this motivation that drives Gatsby to reach her status and embody the same behaviors as she. When Nick encounters Owl-Eyes in examining Gatsby’s library, we see how important appearing extremely wealthy is to Gatsby. "Absolutely real - have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they're absolutely real. Pages and – Here! Lemme show you" (Fitzgerald 42). By his owning a…show more content…
The other factor is her capriciousness, seen when she fails to attend his funeral only two days later. Nick notices that despite the large turnouts to Gatsby’s grand parties, only one guest is in attendance at his funeral. “The minister glanced several times at his watch so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came” (165). Nick assumes that Gatsby’s generosity in entertaining would result in a respectable number of mourners at his funeral. Nick assumes that Gatsby’s life has impacted many, Daisy in particular. However, not only does Daisy fail to pay her respects, but Nick himself quickly loses sight of Gatsby. “I tried to think about Gatsby then for a moment, but he was already too far away” (Fitzgerald 165). Nick’s, Daisy’s, and Gatsby’s former party attendee’s fleeting memory of Gatsby demonstrates the 1920’s shallowness that Gatsby himself displayed with his overly affluent and monetarily-focused lifestyle. While the irresponsible lifestyle that Gatsby lives resembles the common way of life of the 20’s, his abrupt death serves as a metaphor for the stock market crash. No one is there for Gatsby, and no one was there to restore financial stability
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