Views of Entitlement in the Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby as Fitzgerald’s explanation of an American Reality which contradicts the American Dream
That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton.... However, I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works."
—F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters, ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Scribners, 1994. pg. 352.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been celebrated as one of the greatest - if not the greatest - American works of fiction. Of course, one could convincingly argue that Gatsby barely qualified as fiction, as it is the culmination of a trio of Fitzgerald’s work that traces his own experiences and emotions. Perhaps guided by his early life – in which the family lived a hard working life for many years before settling down to live from his mother’s inheritance – ( Prigozy, 13) Fitzgerald at once both idolized and despised the lavish lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald's conflicting thoughts can be seen in the contrast between the novel's hero, Jay Gatsby, and its narrator, Nick Carraway. Gatsby represents the naive Midwesterner dazzled by the possibilities of the American dream. Much the same can be said about Fitzgerald – a dreamer who came from upstate New York, and Minnesota. Carraway represents the Ivy League gentleman who casts a suspicious eye on that notion – and who eventually heads back to his native Minnesota. Carraway – literally and figuratively – provides commentary on Gatsby’s elusive American Dream.
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the
That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton.... However, I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works."
—F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters, ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Scribners, 1994. pg. 352.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been celebrated as one of the greatest - if not the greatest - American works of fiction. Of course, one could convincingly argue that Gatsby barely qualified as fiction, as it is the culmination of a trio of Fitzgerald’s work that traces his own experiences and emotions. Perhaps guided by his early life – in which the family lived a hard working life for many years before settling down to live from his mother’s inheritance – ( Prigozy, 13) Fitzgerald at once both idolized and despised the lavish lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald's conflicting thoughts can be seen in the contrast between the novel's hero, Jay Gatsby, and its narrator, Nick Carraway. Gatsby represents the naive Midwesterner dazzled by the possibilities of the American dream. Much the same can be said about Fitzgerald – a dreamer who came from upstate New York, and Minnesota. Carraway represents the Ivy League gentleman who casts a suspicious eye on that notion – and who eventually heads back to his native Minnesota. Carraway – literally and figuratively – provides commentary on Gatsby’s elusive American Dream.
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the