A Review Of: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is a story about a man who erased his past to reach a goal. When that goal was made impossible to meet, he had nothing left to fall back to. Even the friends and acquaintances he had made along the way were lost to him. This instinct that Gatsby has that you can outrun your origins if you want something badly enough is the lie that the novel exposes at the societal level as well.

At the surface this is a book about love and the American dream, but my assertion is that this is a trojan horse for some real criticisms of society that hold up even today. Even if you earn an ungodly amount of money via ill-gotten gains or otherwise, you cannot manufacture a past. In the same way that new money cannot become old money in one lifetime, Gatsby cannot escape his origins. The ever-watchful eye of the observer sees through all. Put simply, you are what you are. The ashen gray wasteland lives outside this world of absconded consequence. It encompasses the byproducts of industry and spoil. The rich manipulate the poor overtly to their benefit and the upper class elite disappear with no consequence. Tom’s obsession with Eugenics makes it crystal clear that the fear of degeneration and integration will be their downfall. The poor absorb the consequences of the elite’s spoils.

Nick’s self-description as one of the few “honest” people he’s known is a subtle irony. Nick is not a trustworthy narrator. While his actions are defensible, they are not virtuous. He facilitates this affair between his cousin Daisy and Gatsby. As the reader you sit there taking in the incredulity. Why would he do this? It starts to become clear as the novel carries on that Nick has a clear infatuation with Gatsby. For one reason or another, he cannot help but tend to the wounded ego of Gatsby, even though by all other measures, he would do just fine without him. Near the end of the novel, a conversation between Nick and Jordan elucidates this idea that she finally met another careless driver in Nick. Throughout the novel, Nick describes happenings that he is not present for. It brings into question, for me at least, if Nick is a reliable narrator, even though he is a self-proclaimed honest person at the top of the story.

I really think that this novel is a masterpiece. Like an onion the narrative layers keep peeling back. There are numerous criticisms being made of society and how we tend to think and function today. It remains incredibly relevant today. There is tragic beauty in toiling for a better future, but if we learn from Gatsby’s mistakes, our target must be moving, not a fixed moment from our past. Else we risk finding ourselves like Gatsby, with nothing left of us when we finally arrive.