How Does Fitzgerald Present Identity In The Great Gatsby

How does Fitzgerald present identity in ‘The Great Gatsby’ Use ‘The Bluest Eye’ to illuminate your answer.

‘The Great Gatsby’ by F.Scott Fitzgerald is set in America before the Great Depression, and focuses on the aristocrats of “West and East Egg”; Fitzgerald explores identity through the characters and their greed for money, the search of love and the unachievable American dream. The novel is named after a young man who in by pursuing the love of his life loses his identity. ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison is a novel set in America in the era of the Great Depression. ‘The Bluest Eye’ focuses on an African American family and their struggle, in particular the struggle of their daughter Pecola and her abuse. Both novels capture the failure
of the American dream and how the failure of the dream can affect people’s identity.

Fitzgerald presents characters that aspire to change their identity and social class. In ‘the Great Gatsby’ Gatsby is kept from joining high-class society at first because he is born into a poor family; He changes this and becomes the millionaire that we are introduced to as the ‘gorgeous’ Gatsby, Nicks description of Gatsby being gorgeous before he even meets him portrays the naivety of Nick. Nicks sexuality is questioned many times throughout the novel, for example when we are told of how he follows Mr. McKee into the elevator the sentence after “I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear,” leaves the cliffhanger lingering in our minds as to whether Nick was actually there or if it was just his imagination. Gatsby, Instead of accepting his social class, devotes his time into making money through organized crime such as bootlegging illegal alcohol and securities theft. His identity is left as a mystery through the fact that none of his extravagant guests know where he acquired his wealth. All they know is that he was in the war, which causes a wide variety of rumors to begin to circulate about his past. Nick tells us of a few in chapter 3. He hears that Gatsby was a German spy during the war, that he graduated from Oxford University and that he once killed a man in cold blood. These rumors tell us as the reader that the socialites speculated dramatically about the true origin of his past. The lack of conformation about the rumors intensifies the mystery behind his upbringing and wealth. Gatsby’s identity changes throughout the novel, when we are first introduced to him, his reputation as a socialite precedes him. Nick hears of him through other people and his reputation becomes more precarious throughout the novel; our view of him changes gradually and by the end of the novel we realize that he is an innocent, hopeful young man who stakes everything on his dreams and sets his upmost attention of acquiring them. The irony of his nature being that, he tries too hard to fulfill his dreams but yet fails at changing the past and winning Daisy back. This idea is mirrored in ‘The Bluest Eye’ as we see the identity of Pecola and how although her identity does not change her lust for a better life through having ‘blue eyes’ is intensified throughout the novel. She wants to be able to move on from the abuse she has suffered and have a better opportunity at life. Like Gatsby she wants to get away from the class she was born into.

Fitzgerald presents the idea of identity being corrupt through Nick being an unreliable narrator; Nick starts the novel with the statement “I am inclined to reserve all judgment”, which gives us a respect for Nick.
Fitzgerald allows the reader to think that Nick isn’t part of the stereotypical young men living in West and East Egg. However this idea is shattered as Nick interprets people through their class throughout the novel. He is racist and a classist. An example of this is when he describes driving past a funeral procession for an African American man on the bridge with Gatsby; ‘three modish negroes…I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled towards us in haughty rivalry” this statement would have had Nick arrested for racism in present times but in the era of the novel it was perfectly acceptable. Fitzgerald presents Nick profound racism as an example of how even though modernism was overtaking most of America, and many Americans perceptions of race and status were changing, the people of the upper class were not going to change anytime soon. The reader feels let down at this point as we realize that although Nick is against the way Tom treats Daisy and tries to help her escape to a better life with Gatsby, he fails to see the audacity of Toms violence towards Myrtle. Tom’s beliefs mirror his old money stature. He expects to be able to do what he wants, for example have Myrtle as a mistress and have Daisy as a wife. However the moment he suspects Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship he decides to move Daisy away. Tom’s medieval approach to their relationship highlights just how different he was to the modernist era that was developing across
America.

The issue of the unachievable American Dream is highlighted in both ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘The Bluest Eye’ Gatsby involves Nick in his plan to win Daisy back, as he is Daisy’s second cousin. His dream is to win Daisy back after their relationship ended when he went to war. Gatsby’s failure at winning Daisy back is foreshadowed when Nick invited Daisy and Gatsby into his house for afternoon tea. At the house Gatsby knocks over a clock symbolizing the fact that he is trying to play with time in order to win Daisy over.
Nick describes Gatsby as ‘a little boy’ when he knocks over the clock showing the reader how although he behaves as a sophisticated man he is transported back to his younger self where he is in love with Daisy. This however shows us how even though Gatsby wishes to stop time he has an inability to do so, compared to Tom he is unable to provide Daisy with the upper class identity she hungers for.

Toni Morrison uses the same issue of the unachievable American Dream In ‘The Bluest Eye’. Pecola Breedlove has similar issue with the dream as Gatsby, she wishes she had blue eyes symbolizing the social class of a white girl in this era compared to a black one; she wants the “bluest eyes” in order to change her identity in the eyes of herself and other people. She is a symbol for the black community’s hate towards itself. People around Pecola all act out their hate upon her making her believe that it was her fault that her father abused her. The miscarriage of her baby relates to her believing that God is also against her lowering her self-esteem to almost nothing and causing her wish for a different identity to intensify.

Both Fitzgerald and Morrison end their novels with both the dreams of Gatsby and Pecola ending in tragedy, Gatsby is murdered by George Wilson as a result of daisy which is ironic as they were meant to be in love and she allowed Tom to influence Wilson in murdering Gatsby, Daisy not attending Gatsby’s funeral shows the reader just how selfish Daisy is. She failed to leave her husband because she was too afraid of losing her social status that she gained from being married to Tom, she couldn’t bare to lose her place as a traditional wealthy member of East Egg.
Pecola Breedlove’s dream is destroyed by her father, although in Pecola’s case her dream could have never been achievable as it is impossible to have changed her physical appearance. What Cholly really did was destroy her imagination and hopes at being different from all of the other African American girls in her community.

Fitzgerald uses many different methods to present identity, in the Great Gatsby; he uses the idea of wealth as a way of hiding your true self. Even with the amount of wealth Gatsby had he was not able to win Daisy from Tom, or prevent George Wilson mistaking him for Myrtles lover. Fitzgerald shows the reader just how much an identity can change through the failure of our dreams can influence how we and other people perceive us.