The Great Gatsby American Dream

Notes on The Great Gatsby [The End of the American Dream] By David F. Trask The Great Gatsby is about many things, but it is inescapably a general critique of the “American Dream” and also of the “agrarian myth”–a powerful demonstration of their invalidity for Americans of Fitzgerald’s generation and after. The American dream consisted of the belief (sometimes thought of as a promise that people of talent in this land of opportunity and plenty could reasonably aspire to material if they adhered to a fairly well-defined set of behavioral rules–rules set forth in a relatively comprehensive form created by Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac. In addition, American easily assumed that spiritual satisfaction would automatically accompany material success. The dream was to be realized in an agrarian civilization, a way of life presumed better–far better–than the urban alternative. Thomas Jefferson firmly established the myth of the garden—the concept of agrarian virtue and the urban vice–in American minds. During the turbulent era of westward expansion the myth gained increasing stature. James Gatz of North Dakota had dreamed a special version of the American dream–“a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing.” When Gatz lay dead, his father told Nick Carraway that “Jimmy was bound to get ahead.” As a child, Gatz set about preparing to realize his dream. He early decided that he could contemplate future glory so long as he scheduled his life properly

and adhered to a set of general resolves–resolves derived from Poor Richard’s Almanac.* “No smoking or chewing.” “Bath every other day.” “Be better to parents.” Yes James Gatz was bound to get ahead, bound as securely to his goal as was Captain Ahab to the pursuit of the white whale. The Great Gatsby is the chronicle of what happened when James Gatz attempted to realize the promise of his dream. Gatz thought himself different, very different–from the common run of mankind. We learn that his parents were “shiftless and unsuccessful”–and that “his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” He possessed a “Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God.” As a son of God–God’s boy–he “must be about His Father’s business.” What was that business? It was “the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.” Gatz plainly imagined himself a Christ–one of the anointed–born of earthly parents but actually a son of God. This is what Fitzgerald sought to convey in establishing that “Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” That conception moved him to seek out goodness and beauty–certainly a prostituted goodness and beauty, but goodness and beauty nevertheless. When his moment came at seventeen, James Gatz changed his name. The question of the name change has not received attention it deserves. Some believe that Fitzgerald derived “Gatsby” from the slang term for

pistol current during the Jazz Age–gat. Others see in the act of changing names an intimation of “Jewishness” in the hero, a view supported by the frequency of the name “jay” among the Jews. Jay Gold comes immediately to mind as do Jay Cooke and J. P. Morgan. Also it is know that the inspiration for the novel came from Fitzgerald’s chance encounter with a Jewish bootlegger. It is, of course, conceivable that Fitzgerald had some or even all of these things in mind, and it is also possible that he had still another thought. Could it be, however unlikely, that he was rendering the literal “Jesus, God’s boy” in the name of Jay Gatsby? This conjecture might appear hopelessly farfetched, were it not for Fitzgerald’s discussion of Gatz’s “Plantonic conception of himself,” and his direct use of the phrase “son of God.” In any case. Gatsby began his pursuit of goodness and beauty when he changed his name, and that pursuit ultimately ended in tragedy.

The virtues of Jay Gatsby based on Benjamin Franklin’s writings in Poor Richard’s Almanac. The keys to the American Dream. [Rules for SelfImprovement] 1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation 2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit other or yourself; avoid trifling conversation 3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time

4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform with fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to other or yourself, i.e., waste nothing 6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty 9. Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve 10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation 11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. 12. Chastity: Rarely use very but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation. 13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.