The
corruption of The Great Gatsby
When we
think about the word corruption, we immediately think of careless, dishonest
and ambitious people. And that is exactly what Jay Gatsby was. His companions
and “friends” (if he had some) were corrupt people, they do illegal business
and their lives were based on lies, same as Gatsby.
However,
Jay Gatsby was not this type of corrupt people, he was an innocent corrupt, and
his corruption has to do with a false entire life, with a false identity and
personality. He was not the person he wanted others to see, he was a child in
love, he was a child playing at being rich. Although he did same illegal
businesses as his companions, he was not a dishonest and ambitious man in terms
of materialism, he was dishonest when he did not say the truth about himself,
and he was ambitious in the way of trying to achieve that shining green light
across the bay, trying to achieve at any rate Daisy´s love.
Moreover, can
we say that all innocent negative Jay´s characteristics were fault of others
corruption? Can we say that Gatsby´s failings were Daisy´s fault since she
always admired people´s wealth and that was the main reason for his false
identity? Or, can we say that others ambitions and hanger of wealth (Myrthel),
luxury (Daisy), lust (Tom) and curiosity (Nick), were the responsible of
Gatsby´s life and death? Well, we can say it. He was involved in a miserable
world where everybody was liars in some ways, where all did illegal business in
moral aspects.
Love
If we think
of how responsible can be someone in the life and death of a person, we can think
of Daisy, an indolent and immature woman, who just worried about herself and
was not even worried about her own daughter. Her heartbreak about an innocent
man could have the control of a fictional relationship and could have the
control of his entire life. This aspect
could be appreciated throughout the novel since “the novel traces the arc of a life as it begins in wonder, reaches for
the stars, confronts society´ spiritual emptiness and gratuitous materialism,
and ends in a tragic death” (Bloom, 2009) . All this
aspects can be observed in Daisy´s and Gatsby´s relationship, since it begins
like a dream, like Jay´s dream, they loved each other again, (at least that was
he believed). Then he faces the entire society´s thinking and nature just to
have Daisy´s love, and finally, he died trying to accomplish his innocent
dream.
His American Dream
Furthermore,
when we think of “American Dream”, we immediately think of Gatsby´s one,
however, what was exactly his American dream? According to Adams on The Epic of
America, the American Dream is a dream of social order in which each man and
each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are
innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of
the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” (Adams, 1931) In the case of Jay,
his American dream has to do with an illusion, he wanted to be recognized as a
person that he was not, he wanted to be recognized by Daisy as a well-to-do man
who has everything, however, he does not. He did have money and wealth, but he
did not have love, real friends, and identity. He just was a man in loved who
wanted to achieve a dream that would doom him to the death.
References
Adams, J. (1931). The Epic of America. En J. Adams, The
Epic of America. United States: Little, Brown and Company.
Bloom, H. (2009). The
American Dream. En H. Bloom, The American Dream. New York: Infobase
Publishing.
Hi Maca,
ResponderEliminarWhen I read your entry I visualized Gatsby as someone who is not able to "see beyond his nose", I mean, he is in the middle of the tragedy, in the eye of a hurricane, and while the others take advantage of his shine, he is finally swallow by reality and die. In a way, Gatsby is rather the food for others' corruption, just like you say, but he erroneously believe he controls what's going on, though he is controlled by his illusions.
However, I think that the Gatsby's attribute that encourages others to be corrupt is not (only) his wealth, his extravagance or his cynicism, but (also), as Nick told us in the novel, his "inexhaustible capability of hope". Gatsby is the only one in the novel who is genuinely brave and daring, because instead of just accepting his fate, he broke the chains of his original condition and embrace a new life, the life he feel suits himself, and that is something the rest of the characters couldn't do because of their enormous fear, fear to lose, to go so far that they wouldn't be able to go back. Nick preferred trying to become rich, forgetting his literary ambition, Daisy accept an unhappy marriage, Tom is constantly having affairs with women in whom he can find the lust he cannot in Daisy. As I see, no one resists their fates, but through small, subtle actions they attempt to challenge it, unlike the "Great" conversion of Gatsby.
Nonetheless, perhaps these are not the characters who are directly influenced by Gatsby's hope. I'd rather place Meyer Wolfshiem there, for example, as well as all people who are part of "the business". Despite this, it is possible that Daisy, Tom and Nick start considering his own actions as less outrageous in comparison to all the mysteries surrounding Jay, which soften their guilt and free them to continue being liars.
Nielsen,
EliminarI could not agree with you more. What you have established here, is exactly what I wanted to express. The world in which Gatsby lived was so full of secrets, falsity and corruption that everybody who was around him thought that they were not as liars as the other, so that they lived believing they were good people. Additionally, I would like to point out that what you said about hope in Jay´s life is the key element that kept him alive after loosing Daisy.
Macarena,
ResponderEliminarIt is quite interesting the way you interpreted corruption in Gatsby's character, a kind of corruption inspired by idealism instead of materialism, and maybe that is the reason why we empathise with him, because his light at the end of the dock is actually one worth following. When I think of this character, I like to see as the Hemingway Hero, since he did whatever possible to accomplish what he desired the most, he followed the rules of the game even though it did not mean being truthful. his ambition was to attain the American Dream in order to get Daisy back which lead him to death, but he did what necessary to keep faithful towards his dream until the very end.
When answering the question "can we say that others ambitions and hanger of wealth (Myrthel), luxury (Daisy), lust (Tom) and curiosity (Nick), were the responsible of Gatsby´s life and death?" I would dare say that is not the case because Gatsby wanted to live a completely different life ever since he was a young boy, the idea of the American Dream was attractive to him and so he decided to pursuit it. Maybe we can say that those people were the responsible of setting a lifestyle that was impossible for everyone to have (there is where the contradiction lays), but Gatsby made conscious decisions in his life that maybe were not the most accurate ones, that finally took him do death.
Belén,
ResponderEliminarI agree with you. May be Gatsby choose his life, for instance he actually choose his death, since he knew the risks in which he exposed himself to achieve all goals and dreams that he proposed, like getting Daisy back.