“Great Gatsby” by Scott Fitzgerald Essay

â€Å"Great Gatsby† by Scott Fitzgerald is one of the best American novels owing to its thematic strength. There are many social themes in the story including Dream, vision, honesty, time, wealth, superficiality and shallowness, societal expectation, disloyalty, immorality and selfishness. The surface study shows that its about love relation between Gatsby and Daisy. But the story has much broader theme rather than big romantic scope. The most dominating theme of the story is that of â€Å"American Dream† or rather â€Å"Perverted American Dream†. It is very symbolic story of â€Å"Roaring Age† of 1920s America, particularly the story of shattering of American Dream in that era of economic prosperity and material abundance. The Great Gatsby is the biggest example of skilled narrative art as it is based on the principle of â€Å"double vision†. Everything in the novel is seen in two ways: on the one hand it looks a romantic  love story of Gatsby and Daisy, and on the other hand it is about   â€Å"perverted form of American   Dream†. Scott Fitzgerald  is successful in writing a fiction which carries two parallel stories at the same time. The writer himself once stated,† The test of   a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time , and still retain the ability to function†. The story offers the reader to form quality of double vision to see everything in two ways.The surface study of the novel shows that its about love relation between Daisy and Gatsby, but if we probe into the theme, its about corruption of American dream and a failure to achieve ideals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The writer attempted to make readers see through his eyes. The reader is made to believe in the possibilities of variety of opposed ideas. That’s why it is also called â€Å"an allegorical novel†. The reader forms different opinion about the novel when he starts reading, but he finds everything quite different when he reaches the end. The story shows that anyone in America can and can not achieve success to the best despite his level best efforts and hard work. The reader is trapped in enigma by thinking whether Gatsby would get Daisy or not. This is proved when Daisy rejects Gatsby and later accepts him and the reader is able to believe in both alternates.   Gatsby himself is the most real and the most unreal elite described in the story. The writer presents this principle of double vision more artistically by introducing character of Nick who tells us what he sees and gathers information about what he does not see himself. Everything in this novel is seen in two ways: on the one hand as glamorous , romantic   and exciting ,and on the other hand as crude, corrupt and even disgusting. This double vision applies to people, places and incidents of the novel. Gatsby, the protagonist of the story, struggles hard to achieve the desired American dream, but is also obsessed with  love of Daisy, his beloved. The most relevant scene to this double vision is the reunion between Gatsby and Daisy after long period of five years. Gatsby spends most of his time in earning wealth so that he would impress Daisy and get her love. Daisy, on the other hand, is highly indifferent to Gatsby and her marriage with Tom shows it clearly. Even their reunion has different effects on both of them. It seems as if Gatsby were having only one thing in mind: achieving American dream. But later we assess that he is only obsessed with Daisy’s love. The characters’ mind changes every minute and this change also affect the reader and help them expect any possibility. Some critic writes about Great Gatsby: â€Å"Fitzgerald called The Great Gatsby a â€Å"novel of selected incident,† modeled after Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.†What I cut out of it both physically and emotionally would make another novel,† he said. Fitzgerald’s stylistic method is to let a part stand for the whole. In Chapters I to III, for example, he lets three parties stand for the whole summer and for the contrasting values of three different worlds. He also lets small snatches of dialog represent what is happening at each party. The technique is cinematic. The camera zooms in, gives us a snatch of conversation, and then cuts to another group of people. Nick serves almost as a recording device, jotting down what he hears. Fitzgerald’s ear for dialog, especially for the colloquial phrases of the period, is excellent.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The reunion scene is the peak of dramatic point of the novel. The readers have been prepared to reach this point. The image of Daisy’s willingness is followed by an image of Gatsby seeing the greenish bay across from Daisy’ dock. colorful parties are followed by isolation in private life. The reader can’t realize at once what the characters already know. The reader reaching this scene takes interest to see whether Gatsby and Daisy renew their lost love. The reader is also interested in the response of Nick on whose intellectual prowess they depend on a lot. The clock scene also offers confrontation of ideas for the readers. The clock is the symbol of past which Gatsby ever yearns to  repeat so that he could again get love of Daisy. The breaking of clock indicates how awkward past moment looks when brought into the present. The facts that the clock does not work indicates flawed dream of Gatsby to win over Daisy. It is true that Gatsby can’t repeat his past and he can’t get best out of American dream and is rather disillusioned. The novel shows abstract philosophy that an idealist  reluctant to compromise can and can’t survive in this material oriented world. The principle of double vision is made more effective by using Nick as a narrator. The surface level study of the novel shows Gatsby’s thorough indulgence in love of Daisy. Nick is an ideal narrator in the story and is mouth piece of Fitzgerald. His physical proximity to the main characters proves that he is ideal narrator as he knows details of the story from many angels and observes everything quite clearly. It was rather impossible to keep two parallel stories in a single novel which had irreconcilable contradictions. The story of love has nothing to do with American Dream but the writer artistically puts them on right place. From the very beginning we find Gatsby prepared to get what Best America has to offer and he has staunch belief in the face that he will win over Daisy’s love, the  most loving woman he has ever seen. He can only win her if he measure up to the standards of old wealthy class. Nick holds the view that Gatsby’s dream was futile from the very start as he won’t be accepted by prejudiced old wealthy class and Daisy belonging to latter can never leave it resulting disillusionment for Gatsby. Here novel shows the fact that â€Å"American dream of equality for all† was a false promise. The story can be interpreted as juxtaposition of two opposed ideas. The ideals are shattered when they are confronted with reality. The ideals of American dream are shattered when  Gatsby gets love of Daisy, when he kisses her, and when he holds her in his arms. The ideal world, in Gatsby’s case, shatters in the face of the real one. The intricate weaving of the various stories within The Great Gatsby is accomplished through a complex symbolic substructure of the narrative. The green light, godly eye of Eckleburg,†brood on over the solemn dumping ground† which shows America as wasteland due to materialistic society and many other symbols make it easier for the writer to intricate stories containing opposing ideas. He also uses metaphors through which he hints at the standards of morality and immorality through out the novel. Daisy can’t change her luxurious living style and can’t accept the new wealthy class. Jordan Baker boasts of her careless driving. The proper utilization of dual symbolism and ambivalent expressions is truly profound and subtle art that Fitzgerald has mastered in this novel. There is no denying the fact that this beautiful novel offers the readers to form in them the habit to see things from more than one angle. The writer holds the opinion that seeing thing from one way may be faulty and it can be entirely different in reality. Thus it will be right to say that everything in the novel has got double meaning and the writer is successful in using principle of double vision in it.