Hamed 1 The Great Gatsby: a Masterpiece for Every Generation Writers usually set their prefatory words on separate pages. My foreword may not merit such formality. I have simply this to say of myself: if my name on my title page has already suggested an outsider’s perspective, if the early pages of my thesis also suggest an outsider’s perspective, then you will have been reading perceptively. I did not grow up in this country, yet I want to understand all that I can about this very American story. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) went to make his masterpiece after having been one of the Lost Generation. With this disposition, he dramatized how the Great War (1914-1918), and likewise how Prohibition (1920-1933), had shaken the American Dream to its foundation. From these two perspectives, The Great Gatsby (1925) remains one of the best studies of the national myth at perhaps its lowest ebb. Schools since then have routinely taught this novel. Scholars have explored its artistry. Film companies have made adaptations. My thesis is that Gatsby simultaneously critiques and defends the promise of America. The novel does this, early on, by ambitiously—even colorfully—demonstrating a wreckage of social norms. The novel then shows the nation picking itself back up, catching its balance. These two parts may go a long way toward explaining Gatsby’s remarkable durability. The American nation, like many other nations, sometimes has to pick itself back up, shake itself off, and go on. From the novel’s first page, Fitzgerald said that his story would temporarily suspend what many think of as ordinary and necessary judgments. This begins with father Carraway's advice to Nick: "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one. . . . just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had" (1). Although Nick condemns the others, calling them "careless" or "incurably dishonest," Fitzgerald nonetheless proposed through the wisdom of Hamed 2 Nick's father that Gatsby does not try merely to discover human flaws. Instead, the novel addresses events and circumstances during the first quarter of the 20th century that assist in creating characters who deserve such unpleasant labels. Furthermore, these events and circumstances significantly changed Americans' deep-rooted beliefs and weakened Americans' willpower. Fitzgerald finished writing Gatsby about seven years after the Great War, which had been the most terrible global conflict up to that time. Those who participated in the Great War and those who lived its aftermath are often called "The Lost Generation," as Gertrude Stein famously called it. This epithet became a label for some writers, such as Fitzgerald. Schoenberg and Trudeau have come up with a succinct explanation for the connection between those writers and the Great War: Some of them had participated in various capacities in World War I, while others had been affected by the war through the loss of friends or relatives; all of them shared a deep aversion to the violence and chaos produced by the war, as well as disillusionment with what they perceived as the corruption, hypocrisy, and provincialism of postwar American culture. (2006) Fitzgerald fit this description because, after failing out of Princeton, he decided to join the U.S. Army, briefly hoping he would distinguish himself on the battlefields of Europe (Donaldson 180). However, the war ended before his deployment, and Fitzgerald soon used his talent to make plain his dislike of the war. Fitzgerald responded accordingly to what he saw as a modern decline. Marc Dolan, the author of Modern Lives: A Cultural Re-Reading of "The Lost Generation," notes: "The Lost Generation was a way for a certain type of early-twentieth-century American to ask questions about her/his own life and its relation to history, society, and culture" (2006). Through his writings, Fitzgerald examined the country's greater materialism and the decline in moral standards by taking Hamed 3 into consideration the American history, particularly the method that the colonists and then the Founding Fathers used to establish themselves and to build a new country. Gatsby would not have worked as well without Fitzgerald's generalizations about a corrupt East and a virtuous Midwest. Specifically, we may think of the East as an expression of Wall Street and of speculative greed. Likewise, East Egg represents the American gentry and old money: "Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water" (5). However, West Egg signifies new money. Nick describes the two Eggs of Long Island as: "two unusual formations of land. Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay" (4-5). East Egg and West Egg have similar shapes, but they are divided because of their inhabitants. Nick rents a house in West Egg, which is less stylish than East Egg, but for a time he thinks they are the same: "I lived at West Egg, theـــــ well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them" (5). West Egg is "less fashionable" because of its newly rich people like Gatsby. In this way, Fitzgerald set the tone for the difference between East Egg and West Egg. Fitzgerald placed his characters in East Egg or West Egg based on the degree of their corruption, James Miller believes: "It is perhaps subtly significant that Tom and Daisy live in the East Egg, since they are really better adopted to Eastern life than Nick and Gatsby, who live in West Egg" (31). At the end, Fitzgerald declared his preference for West over East by sending Nick back to the righteous Midwest. Gatsby answers many questions about that period in America and serves as a witness to that episode after the Great War, the Jazz Age. This began right after the Great War and ended with the stock market crash in 1929. Fitzgerald wrote as though he had been afraid that the country would lose its founding myth, the American Dream. Therefore, he sought to remind Americans of Hamed 4 what they had lost because of the Great War and its aftermath. Moreover, he tried to assure them of their capability again to find their way. The American Dream had stood for independence and an opportunity to make one's destiny through hard work. However, in Gatsby, Pearson asserts: "Fitzgerald's unique expression of the American Dream lacks the optimism, the sense of fulfillment, so evident in the expressions of his predecessor" (638). Furthermore, Fitzgerald's critique of the American Dream focused more on materialism, false fame, and pointless lust, which were very relevant to that era of extraordinary prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald presented many negative examples of the American Dream and thereby dramatized many threats to that Dream. In order to successfully deliver his criticism, Fitzgerald infused his characters with different patterns of the Dream. Naturally, Gatsby represents the first mistaken model, poser with ill-gotten fortune. As I hardly need to add, Gatsby does not fulfill the American Dream because of his materialistic objectives and also his naive romanticism. While talking to Nick, Gatsby's father explains that his son had a plan to change his unfortunate circumstances. Young James Gatz's plan of self-improvement is a schedule from September 12, 1906 that gives his daily activities, including wake-up time, sports, studies of electricity and needed inventions, and work (173). Fitzgerald drew this Gatz on the model of Benjamin Franklin, whose name Americans readily associate with the American Dream. Franklin had demonstrated that regardless of obscure origins, people can work their way up, and he mentioned a similar daily agenda in his Autobiography (88). Moreover, Franklin and Gatsby share similar interests, such as "electricity" and "inventions." Through constant daily actions, Gatz sincerely intended to achieve all his goals: No wasting time at Shafters or [a name, indecipherable] No more smokeing or chewing. Hamed 5 Bath every other day Read one improving book or magazine per week Save $5.00 [crossed out] $3.00 per week Be better to parents. (173) These resolves affirm that Gatz once attempted to follow the most admirable principles of the American Dream. But, at age of seventeen, when he changed from Gatz to Gatsby, he actually switched his plan from self-improvement to self-promotion. This shift happened "when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior" (98). This symbolizes wealth that Gatsby and his family do not have. Likewise, upon witnessing Dan Cody's yacht, the boy began to set aside honest work and to watch for the "main chances." Ironically, Gatsby is murdered in his swimming pool, which also symbolizes the wealth that he pursues to attain for himself. Although Cody's wealth misleads Gatsby, his love for Daisy, a girl from the upper class, that specially motivates him to acquire his suspect fortune. In Louisville, they meet when he is an army officer, and they have a wonderful time, yet her family disapproves of their relationship, even going so far as to prevent her from saying farewell to him when he leaves to fight in the Great War (75). Predictably, Daisy marries one from her own class, Tom Buchanan. The Great War practically denies Gatsby the one who is his one true love. Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby's illegal business partner, describes Gatsby's condition after the war: A young major just out of the army and covered over with medals he got in the war. He was so hard up he had to keep on wearing his uniform because he couldn't buy some regular clothes. First time I saw him was when he come into Winebrenner's poolroom at Forty-third street and asked for a job. He hadn't eat anything for a couple of days. Hamed 6 'Come on have some lunch with me,' I said. He ate more than four dollars' worth of food in half an hour. (170-171) The Great War leaves Gatsby penniless and hungry. His military rank and medals are worthless. His heroism neither improves his life nor helps him to recover Daisy, who represents his dream of romantic success. Thus, he runs as fast as he can to become a rich man and competes once more to win his love. Gatsby therefore joins the wave of young men and women in search of fast money, which came as a consequence of the Great War. Ultimately, he becomes involved in bootlegging with Wolfsheim. Fitzgerald not only dramatized illegitimate wealth in Gatsby's faulty pattern, but also drew attention to dishonest education through Gatsby's example. In his original self-improvement endeavor, Gatz strove to educate himself by "reading one improving book or magazine per week" (173). However, Gatsby ends up deceiving people about himself. In a conversation between Owl Eyes and Nick in Gatsby's library, Owl Eyes admires the "real books" in Gatsby's library: "Absolutely realــــــ have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard" (45). However, Owl Eyes inadvertently discloses Gatsby's illusory education as Owl Eyes tries to attest to the authenticity of Gatsby's books: "rushed to the bookcases and returned with Volume One of the Stoddard Lectures" (45). Historically, John Stoddard had published travelogues of European cities and scenery. He wrote in the preface of his lectures: "man's love of travel does not arise from any ordinary restlessness but rather springs originally from the universal craving of the soul for something different from its usual environment" (Ellis 470-471). By placing Stoddard's Lectures on Gatsby's shelves, Fitzgerald suggested that Stoddard's book belies Gatsby's story of having educated himself at Oxford and having come from a wealthy family who had traveled all over Europe. Evidently, Gatsby has taken just enough from Stoddard to make others believe that Gatsby Hamed 7 is an erudite man. Evidence of this is Owl Eyes' remark: "Knew when to stop, tooـــــ didn't cut the pages" (46). In fact, Gatsby has been using the volumes of Stoddard's lectures for decoration. This fools the naive ــــــ and just not Owl Eyes. Since Education had long been an important part of the American Dream, Fitzgerald used Gatsby's library to symbolize the pretense of education during the Jazz Age. Americans, too many of them, were no longer reading for self-improvement; rather, they had begun to read for beautification. Fitzgerald must have feared that the pursuit of education was vanishing, which would make education liable to fall apart just like Gatsby's library. Owl Eyes' reaction after handing Gatsby's book to Nick symbolizes a figurative expression of Fitzgerald's concern. Nick says: "He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse" (46). Many people were busy looking for wealth and neglected real education, which made Fitzgerald believe that education was getting weak and might collapse. Similar to Gatsby's library, education was getting fragile, so much so, if one "book," or one post, were removed, the whole would fall down. Fitzgerald emphasized the importance of education as a factor to help Americans retrieve their faith in the American Dream. Like the other guests of Gatsby's parties, Owl Eyes has come simply to eat and to get drunk. However, Owl Eyes admits to Nick: "I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library" (46). Owl Eyes' effort to clear his head seems a figurative expression of Americans regaining their faith in the American Dream through education. However, Owl Eyes answers Nick's question about whether or not he has dried out: "A little bit, I think. I can't tell yet. I've only been here an hour" (46). Accordingly, Fitzgerald intended to tell Americans that they needed to try much harder to sober up from their drunkenness and to restore through education what they had lost after the Great War. Hamed 8 Meyer Wolfsheim is the second crooked representative of the American Dream, who has achieved wealth through gambling and rackets. There are no indications that Wolfsheim has participated in the war, yet he carries with him a trophy: "finest specimens of human molars," which he has mounted on cuff links. Throughout the history of warfare, soldiers have too often taken body parts from their enemies as souvenirs. Wolfsheim, "the predator," as I like to call him, happens to collect teeth from his victims. Speaking to Nick, Wolfsheim explains how he met Gatsby and what he looked like: "I made the pleasure of his acquaintance just after the war. But I knew I had discovered a man of fine breeding after I talked with him an hour" (72). Gatsby was a perfect prey because "the predator" stated that the Great War rendered Gatsby hungry and weak. Furthermore, "the predator" was very interested in his victim because Gatsby appeared to have been "a man of fine breeding." After Wolfsheim brags about his cuff links, Nick thinks Wolfsheim is a man with a stylish profession, like an actor or a dentist (73). But Gatsby says: "'No, he's a gambler.' Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: 'He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919"' (73). Gatsby believes that Wolfsheim is ambitious and has taken advantage of the opportunity. Moreover, he is not in jail because "they can't get him. . . . He's a smart man" (73). Fitzgerald made it clear that the values of some Americans during the Jazz Age had become too corrupt. Those misguided people thought brutal criminals like "the predator," who had played with the faith of fifty-million people and brought a scandal to the American national sport, were actually smart and praiseworthy. Through the example of "the predator," Fitzgerald unconditionally pointed out the rise of organized crime after the Great War. The Roaring Twenties were an era of rebellion against the older social norms. Many groups of American activists primarily blamed liquor for what they saw Hamed 9 as dissolution in American society. In an effort to return the country to its morality, the United States Congress passed the Prohibition Act, the 18th Amendment, outlawing the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol. However, Prohibition was a major legislative failure because it turned many Americans into criminals by creating underworld industries such as gambling and bootlegging. Fitzgerald actually depicted Wolfsheim's personality based on a real character who fixed the 1919 World Series, Arnold Rothstein, as Thomas Pauly notes: "Critics usually assume that Fitzgerald channeled the model of Arnold Rothstein into his characterization of Meyer Wolfsheim" (227). Rothstein and his fellows organized criminal networking in the big American cities with the help of crooked cops and politicians. Fitzgerald was keen to capture this rise of organized crime. After Gatsby's murder, Henry Gatz compares his son to a prominent man who actually helped the American economy through railroad transportation business: "If he'd of lived he'd of been a great man. A man like James J. Hill. He'd of helped build up the country" (168). In fact this comparison is not random, Stephen Brauer states: "James J. Hill was a well-known figure to early twentieth-century Americans, especially to those with roots in the Northwest or the Midwest, such as Fitzgerald" (52). Putting Mr. Gatz's mournful feelings aside, Fitzgerald then suggested though the comparison between Gatsby and Hill that during Prohibition the meaning of the American Dream was in transition from the traditional concept that connected hard work with virtue to an incorrect perception, which tied dishonest work to organized crime. Furthermore, the association between Gatsby and Hill also reveals the corrupt social values during the Jazz Age. Jordan Baker embodies the third immoral portrayal of the American Dream. She exemplifies false celebrity through sporting fame. Jordan is a golf champion; however, she has become an infamous athlete by cheating in her first big tournament by moving "her ball from a Hamed 10 bad lie in the semi-final round" (57). Jordan represents the modern woman, who does her best to keep her delicate reputation intact. Nick falls partially in love with her; however, he realizes that she lives in denial: "The bored haughty face that she turned to the world concealed somethingـــــ most affectations conceal something eventually" (57). Jordan mistakenly thinks that she gets away with her cheating; furthermore, she does not stop deceiving others. Through her lie about the borrowed car, Nick recalls her first tournament disgrace and labels her "incurably dishonest" (58). Consequently, Jordan keeps her golf championship for a while, but she loses what could have been a long-term victory, and that is Nick. Because of fraud, Jordan cheats herself and does not become a famous athlete. Furthermore, she does not realize that she becomes a notorious woman. However, during the Jazz Age, Americans in the East generally tried to make easy money through bonds and stocks or through bootlegging, and they did not care for other ventures that could bring them prosperity, such as sport. Ironically, Jordan thinks such people are careful. Nick criticizes Jordan's reckless driving, which also extends to her relationships. He fears that she may run into another irresponsible driver, but she assures him that careful people do not get in her way because they only care about making money: "They'll keep out of my way," she insisted. "It takes two to make an accident" (58). Accordingly, the emerging materialistic demands enabled deceitful people like Jordan to gain sporting fame based on dishonest behavior. The Buchanans are the fourth misrepresentations of the American Dream. They embody a thirst for satisfying their lusts regardless of consequences. Tom and Daisy both come from old money. The Buchannas' actions indicate that they believe they are entitled to do whatever it takes to quench their thirst for the good life to the detriment of others' lives. After one of them makes a mess in one place, they move to another place and start over again. Daisy is astonished that Nick Hamed 11 does not know about Tom's disgrace: "Do you know why we left Chicago? I'm surprised that they didn't treat you to the story of that little spree" (131). However, in the first meeting with Nick, Tom says that he finds the East a perfect place: "'Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you worry,' he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more. 'I'd be a God Damned fool to live anywhere else"' (10). Apparently, because of lax moral values in the East, Tom sees many vulnerable people who will satisfy his pointless lust. Much as Gatsby's poor situation makes him an ideal prey for "the predator," the Wilsons' unfortunate social class likewise makes them an easy target for Tom. Actually, Tom intends to achieve two goals by his affair with Myrtle, satisfying his sexual desires and showing that he has a mistress: "The fact that he had one was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomsoever he knew" (24). The attitude of Tom's friends toward his affair does not bother him; nevertheless, he becomes outraged when Gatsby informs him about his affair with Daisy (131). Tom already satisfies his sexual desires through his affair with a woman from an inferior social class. Moreover, he has another lust "revenge," which he fulfills by helping to murder a man from new money, Gatsby. Daisy is not only as careless as Tom, but she is also fickle because she loves two men at the same time: "I did love him onceــــــ but I loved you too" (132). Daisy's actions prove that she has never learned how to act as a responsible woman. When Tom has stepped away, she kisses her lover: "she got up and went over to Gatsby and pulled his face down, kissing him on the mouth" (116). When Tom comes back, she declares her love to Gatsby: "She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw that" (119). At the beginning, Nick believes that Daisy loves Gatsby; however, after the hit-and-run accident, Nick witnesses a situation between Daisy and her husband, Hamed 12 through which he realizes Daisy's real feelings: "Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement" (144-145). Thus, Daisy suffers little remorse and decides to go back to her husband. Daisy has recklessly gratified her lust with Gatsby, and she needs nothing further from him. Because of Tom's and Daisy's thirsts for others, the holocaust is complete: Myrtle's death, Gatsby's murder, and Wilson's suicide (162). The Buchanans' terrible behavior prompts Nick to say: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisyــــــ they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (179). Nick figures out the common traits that Tom and Daisy share: wealth and carelessness. However, Nick is not able to point out another trait, which is an incurable thirst for satisfying their pointless lusts. In Gatsby, Fitzgerald offered a powerful critique of America. Through the depiction of those four negative examples of the American Dream, Fitzgerald focused particularly on the collapse of the American Dream in the East. Easy money and corrupt social values played parts in that breakdown. Moreover, the unworthy objectives of people's dreams, such as greediness, unwarranted fame, selfish satisfaction of human lusts, and the pursuit of illusion, mainly ruined their dreams. Nick's excursion signifies another example of the American Dream. Part of learning about Nick's life is hearing Nick's father at the beginning urging tolerance upon his son through reserving judgments. We ordinarily respect tolerance and often praise it as a virtue, but in this case we discover the limits of tolerance. Nick acknowledges: "after boasting this way of my tolerance, I Hamed 13 come to the admission that it has a limit" (2). In his college years, he followed his father's advice, but that made him "the victim of not a few veteran bores" (1). Because Nick is non-judgmental, people tell him all kind of tedious things about themselves, and because of his circumspection, he says: "I was unjustly accused of being a politician" (1). Hence, Nick is trying to say that he took his father's advice of tolerance at college, but there were negative consequences. Nick takes the same tolerance to New York City, where, initially, he does not judge the Buchanans, Jordan, Gatsby, nor Wolfsheim. During the Jazz Age, people had an incorrect perception of tolerance because they had stopped criticizing wrong behavior as much as it deserved. Nick had embraced that mistaken tolerance in the East because he thought that would help him to get along. Moreover, Nick heard more than his father intended, or he decided to take advantage of his father's advice. Either way, he got himself into some dangerous situations, and he should count himself lucky that he gets out with as little trouble as he had. Through Nick's example, Fitzgerald intended to demonstrate the influence of the Great War on Americans and, most importantly, to reassure them of the survival of the American Dream. Nick returns to his home in the Midwest, after participating in the First World War, or in what he sarcastically calls "delayed Teutonic migration" (3). With this euphemism, Nick at once downplays the war and reveals his ambitions. The thrill of the Great War overcomes Nick's satisfaction of coming back home and makes him impatient: "I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless" (3). After taking part in a war, soldiers usually want to get back to their lives. Nick, however, feels restless. Obviously, Nick's feeling justifies his paradoxical description of the Great War because, it seems, he has not fully experienced its horror. The impact of the Great War not only makes Nick restless, but also changes his attitude towards his home: "Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed Hamed 14 like the ragged edge of the universeــــــ so I decided to go East and learn the bond business" (3). Before the war, the Midwest was a suitable place for Americans to make their fortunes. However, after the war, Americans' interest was shifted from the Midwest or West, where people worked hard, to Wall Street, where people made easy money through speculation. Through Nick, we learn that the first and the second generations of the Carraways in America worked honestly and well: "My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. . . . but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today" (3). The Carraways, who did not participate in the Great War, had made their fortune by running a real job. Nevertheless, their third generation represented by Nick looks for effortless work in the bond business. Although Nick's aunts and uncles finally endorse his plan, they do not completely understand what Nick is getting involved into: '"All my aunts and uncles talked it over as if they were choosing a prep school for me, and finally said, 'Whyـــــــ ye-es,' with very grave hesitant faces"' (3). Moreover, the hesitant approval of Nick's aunts and uncles clearly indicates that they have misgivings because they still believe that the Midwest is the best place for Nick to make his home. Nick goes to the East to make his fortune; this business endeavor also represents something of a "moral holiday." Nick describes the place of this holiday as: "one of the strangest communities in North America" (4). This description signifies Long Island, New York, where the Buchanans live on the east side of the island. Nick's dinner with the Buchanans and with Jordan represents his first engagement with people from the corrupt East, through which he realizes that he is far away from his home in "Middle West" and may have landed where he does not belong. Nick initially betrays his awaking in a form of a spontaneous comment to his cousin: "You make me feel Hamed 15 uncivilized. . . . Can't you talk about crops or something?" (12). Jordan's and the Buchanan's conversation does not make sense to Nick and makes him feel like an outsider. Therefore, he wants them to change the course of their conversation to "crops" or something simple that people from Midwest deal with and understand. During his moral holiday, Nick adopts the mistaken tolerance of the Jazz Age and witnesses the four negative examples of the American Dream that prompt him to say: "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart" (2). Nick has had terrible experiences, which make him believe that this world should have no more of what he has witnessed in the East—or more importantly, this world has to recover its morals, which were fading due to the Great War. We also conclude from Nick's statement that mistaken tolerance does not work very well and that America has to clean itself up from the corrupt morals of the East; otherwise, it will become a country of glamorous illusions merely. At the end of his moral holiday, Nick realizes that the East is not a good place for him to fulfill his dreams. In the 1920s, the East represented a great destination for many people from the West, but the East was severely compromised to the point that it had become dangerous. Nick's joyful memories about coming back home from prep school and then college in the East prompt him to realize: That's my Middle Westـــــ not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from Hamed 16 growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family's name. (176) Nick's awakening, represented by his sober return from his moral holiday and by his grateful return to his middle-western roots are splendid expressions of the country recovering its balance and reaffirming its faith in the American Dream. Nick's awakening comes also as a result of having witnessed the others' frustrations as consequences of the Great War and of Prohibition. Happiness is an important part of the American Dream. As a young man who wants to realize his dreams, Nick notices a vacuum in what should be the happy world of the East. Fitzgerald captured the essence of the time by showing the hollowness of people's satisfactions and identities. My interpretation of Gatsby also reveals that the characters' empty ideologies were once responsible for weakening a lot of faith in the American Dream. Gatsby authentically captures the uproar of the age and the extravagant lifestyles of the upper class in New York City, represented by the bacchanalias that Gatsby throws at his magnificent mansion. The wild parties tell a lot about the Jazz Age. Because of Prohibition, Gatsby's place becomes a destination for many young men and women to get free and easy alcohol. Lucille and her companion come to party after party just to have fun: '"I like to come,' Lucille said.' I never care what I do, so I always have a good time"' (43). They have the benefit of Gatsby's hospitality, yet they gossip about him. One of the girls says: "somebody told me they thought he killed a man" (44). Lucille objects: "it's more that he was a German spy during the war" (44). The values of the two girls prevent them from realizing the happiness they strive for. Moreover, Gatsby's bacchanalias are a good study of troubled marriage. Couples seem happy as they come to Gatsby's parties, but as the evenings proceed, the couples end up fighting, Hamed 17 Nick says: "'One of the men was talking with curious intensity to a young actress, and his wife after attempting to laugh at the situation in a dignified and indifferent way broke down entirely and resorted to flank attacksــــــ at intervals she appeared suddenly at his side like an angry diamond, and hissed 'You promised!' into his ear"' (51). Fitzgerald tried to draw a connection between Americans and every aspect of their lives in the 1920s. Although they were trying their best to please themselves, they lacked everlasting sense of happiness. Gatsby depicts a world of unhappiness, of shallow self-satisfactions, and of artificial identities. Base motives drive the characters, and they do not plan for their futures: '"What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon?' cried Daisy, 'and the day after that, and the next thirty years?"' (118). Before Gatsby's reappearance, Daisy professes her feelings to Nick: "I'm pretty cynical about everything" (16). Her feelings do not improve much after her reunion with Gatsby. In their first meeting at Gatsby's mansion, he tries to impress Daisy with his shirts by "throwing them, one by one. . . . shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray" (92). However, instead of being happy, Daisy cries and says: "'They're such beautiful shirts,' she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. 'It makes me sad because I've never seen suchـــــ such beautiful shirts before"' (92). This scene raises as many questions as it answers, yet it does reveal that Daisy is not melodramatic. If we examine Daisy from a psychological standpoint, we discover that she is capable of understanding and appreciating how hard Gatsby has worked in order to impress her. But her reaction also highlights her materialistic nature. Daisy's dissatisfaction makes her miserable because she will always crave more wealth. The depressed world in Gatsby is masked with splendid parties, silly flappers, luxurious cars, and expensive dresses. Nevertheless, this mask is lifted when the characters' artificial Hamed 18 identities dissolve. Most of the characters veil themselves. They make up personalities that do not fundamentally reflect their actual selves. Gatsby lies about his ancestry and pretends that he is from old money. He has even spread a rumor that he is an intellectual from Oxford (65). From his adolescence, Gatsby has despised his family's poverty and obscurity. He pursues what he thinks will make him a better person, wealth and fame. He not only strives by any means to improve his poor financial and social circumstances, but also wants to wipe out anything that reminds him of his underprivileged family background. This is no way to achieve the American Dream. Gatsby almost manipulates everybody into believing his prosperous claims. Nonetheless, Tom forces the truth from Gatsby about his fake education and class. Tom demonstrates that he knows a lot about Gatsby's history; therefore, Gatsby confesses: "I only stayed five months. That's why I can't really call myself an Oxford man" (129). Soon after that, he confesses the rest of his identity to everybody, when he tells Tom: "She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me" (130). Gatsby tries to conceal his identity, but his attempt only frustrates him and ultimately weakens his faith in the American Dream. The history proves that people, who had achieved the American Dream, such as Benjamin Franklin, did not hide nor feel ashamed of their backgrounds. In fact, our personal heritages can provide great springboards for us to accomplish our dreams because they remind us of unfortunate conditions that we want to improve. Even though Fitzgerald may have enjoyed the Roaring Twenties, he wrote Gatsby to critique those days. If Fitzgerald had ever turned down an illegal drink, we have yet to discover the record of it. If he had ever turned down an invitation to a speakeasy party, we have yet to discover the record of that. Therefore, some critics believe that Gatsby reflects Fitzgerald's character. In his criticism of Gatsby, Thomas Hanzo thinks: "Fitzgerald exaggerated the idea of society and his dependence upon it in order. . . . to provide a field for the activity of his conscience, Hamed 19 for the trial of his self" (61). Moreover, they believe that Fitzgerald wrote Gatsby to mirror his extravagant lifestyle. This impression also comes as a result of similarities between the events of Fitzgerald's life and some incidents in his fiction. However, if Gatsby represents one side of Fitzgerald’s character, the young man who had pursued and glorified wealth to marry the woman he loved, Zelda Sayre, then Nick symbolizes another side of Fitzgerald's personality. Nick is a Midwesterner who goes to Yale, a university that is as fashionable as Fitzgerald's, Princeton. Furthermore, Nick likes writings just like Fitzgerald (4). Fitzgerald exhibited two versions of himself, the first represents how people perceived him, and the second reflects his actual character (Donaldson 50-64). As Jordan's reckless driving betrays her lifestyle, Fitzgerald's tax return for his working life (1919-1940) reveals his actual quality and corrects a lot of misunderstanding about him. In fact, Fitzgerald was not a spendthrift, as it is widely believed, but unfortunate events made him spend most of his savings. Based on Fitzgerald's tax return, Quirk says: "No one could call Fitzgerald frugal, but he was always trying to save moneyـــــ at least until his wife Zelda's illness, starting in 1929, put any idea of saving out of the question" (96). Fitzgerald strived to save money, because "saving meant freedom to work on his novels without interruptions caused by the economic necessity of writing short stories. The short stories were his main source of revenue" (96). He worked hard to keep his annual income consistent in order to care for his sick wife and little daughter, Scottie. Before the Second World War, the government of the United States could not track the exact income of each citizen, but Fitzgerald was very honest in reporting every penny of his income. I think Fitzgerald referred to himself through Nick's comment: "I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known" (59). Accordingly, Fitzgerald was more similar to Nick than to Gatsby. Hamed 20 Fitzgerald was a sincere author who wrote his masterpiece to serve as a reminder not only to his generation, but to future generations everywhere. He believed in the ability of Americans to revive their national myth. Furthermore, Fitzgerald recognized his responsibility to inspire his people to regain their vision and to carry on their quest. After understanding everything that I can about Gatsby, I want to tell the world about this very splendid novel. My ambition is to become a teacher, and I want to teach my students everything I have learned. I will say that there is something universal and timeless about The Great Gatsby because it reveals human nature, its common problems, and its possible solutions. Hamed 21 Works Consulted Barbarese, J. T. "The Great Gatsby and the American Dream." The Sewanee Review 100.4 (Fall 1992): cxxi-cxxiv. JSTORE. Web 9 Jan. 2014. Berman, Ronald. The Great Gatsby and Modern Times. Urbana, Illinois: U. of Illinois P., 1994. Print. Brauer, Stephen. "Jay Gatsby and the Prohibition Gangster as Businessman." The F. Scott Fitzgerald review 2.1 (January, 2003): 51-71. Wiley Online Library. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. Decker, Jeffery. "Gatsby's Pristine Dream: The Diminishment of the Self-Made Man in the Tribal Twenties." NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 28.1 (Autumn, 1994): 52-71. JSTORE. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. Dolan, Marc. "The Lost Generation and Modern Life: Myth and Discourse for an American 1920s." Modern Lives: A Cultural Re-Reading of "The Lost Generation". West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue U. P., 1996. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 178. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Feb. 2014. Donaldson, Scott. Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Congdon & Weed, 1983. Print. Hamed 22 Ellis, James. "The Stoddard Lectures in The Great Gatsby." American Literature 44.3 (November, 1972): 470-471. JSTORE. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography and Other Writings. Ed. Kenneth Silverman. NY: Penguin, 2003. Print. Hanzo, Thomas A. "The Theme and the Narrator." Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Great Gatsby. Ed. Ernest Lockridge. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1968. 61-70. Print. Lockridge, Ernest, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Great Gatsby. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1968. Print. Long, Robert. The Achieving of The Great Gatsby. East Brunswick, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, 1979. Print. Meyers, Jeffrey. "Scott Fitzgerald and Edmund Wilson: A Troubled Friendship." The American Scholar 61:3 (Summer 1992): 375-388. MLA Bibliography. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. Miller, James E. "Boats Against the Current." Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Great Gatsby. Ed. Ernest Lockridge. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1968. 19-37. Print. Pauly, Thomas H. "Gatsby as Gangster." Studies in American Fiction 21.2 (1993): 225-236. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. Pearson, Roger L. "Gatsby: False Prophet of the American Dream." The English Journal 59.5 (May, 1970): 638-642+645. JSTORE. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. Piper, Henry. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: The Novel, the Critics, the Background. New York: Charles Scribner, 1970. Print. Hamed 23 Quirk, William J. "Living on $500,000 a Year: What F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tax Returns Reveal About His Life and Times." The American Scholar 78:4 (Autumn 2009): 96-101. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. Rohrkemper, John. "The Allusive Past: Historical Perspective in The Great Gatsby." College Literature 12. 2 (Spring, 1985): 153-162. JSTORE. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. Schoenberg, Thomas J. and Lawrence J. Trudeau. "Writers of the Lost Generation." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 178. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. Voegeli, William. "Gatsby and the Pursuit of Happiness." 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