The Great Gatsby....the Green Light
Haley Watts
ENG11AP
May 19, 2008
The Green Light
America is thought to be the land of dreams and most believe that if you can think of it, then you will be able to achieve it. It is the traditional view of America, it is the reason people from all over the world travel here with just the clothes on their backs, and it is because they want to live out the “rags to riches” dream. This is a wonderful outlook on life just because it compels people to strive for more, want more, and accomplish more before their demise. This ambition is what has made so many things possible, like the automobile, the assembly line, and numerous other things that sustain America. However, not everything is possible and there are some social boundaries that few, if any, will ever be able to cross, and these simple limits can destroy lives. Although most consider love and the American dream to be untouchable by these ridiculous limits, F. Scott Fitzgerald proves this inaccurate, in The Great Gatsby , with the affair of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. When reading The Great Gatsby it is natural to assume that Gatsby will be the most miraculous human being on earth. Only because in the first chapter Nick says that “Only Gatsby…was exempt from my reaction….If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.”(2) This description makes him sound like a saint, as if he should be a part of the catholic religion. He talks about Gatsby as if he is what every American needs to be like. Then, in chapter three, this saint like perception is shattered when Nick ventures over to one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties, because as soon as he gets there, he hears guests’ talking in hushed tones about Gatsby’s supposed past, one man says that he killed a man(53). Sadly, this ridiculous claim cannot be nullified because no one knows for sure if he really has.
ENG11AP
May 19, 2008
The Green Light
America is thought to be the land of dreams and most believe that if you can think of it, then you will be able to achieve it. It is the traditional view of America, it is the reason people from all over the world travel here with just the clothes on their backs, and it is because they want to live out the “rags to riches” dream. This is a wonderful outlook on life just because it compels people to strive for more, want more, and accomplish more before their demise. This ambition is what has made so many things possible, like the automobile, the assembly line, and numerous other things that sustain America. However, not everything is possible and there are some social boundaries that few, if any, will ever be able to cross, and these simple limits can destroy lives. Although most consider love and the American dream to be untouchable by these ridiculous limits, F. Scott Fitzgerald proves this inaccurate, in The Great Gatsby , with the affair of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. When reading The Great Gatsby it is natural to assume that Gatsby will be the most miraculous human being on earth. Only because in the first chapter Nick says that “Only Gatsby…was exempt from my reaction….If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.”(2) This description makes him sound like a saint, as if he should be a part of the catholic religion. He talks about Gatsby as if he is what every American needs to be like. Then, in chapter three, this saint like perception is shattered when Nick ventures over to one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties, because as soon as he gets there, he hears guests’ talking in hushed tones about Gatsby’s supposed past, one man says that he killed a man(53). Sadly, this ridiculous claim cannot be nullified because no one knows for sure if he really has.
Cited: Fitzgerald, F.Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953 Works Consulted Ornstein, Robert. “Gatsby Is a Classic Romantic.” Reading on The Great Gatsby . Ed. Bruno Leone. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1998 Kenner, Hugh. “The Promised Land.” Gatsby. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991 “The Great Gatsby” Critical Survey of Long Fiction Volume 3. Wershoven, Carol. "Insatiable Girls." Child Brides and Intruders. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993, 92-99 Will, Barbara. "The Great Gatsby and the obscene word." College Literature. 32.4 (Fall 2005): p125. Stocks, Claire. " 'All men are [not] created equal ': F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby: Claire Stocks illustrates how the narrator 's bias towards this novel 's hero is central to the critique of belief in the 'American Dream '." The English Review. 17.3 (Feb. 2007): p9