English Literary Essay: The Great Gatsby
“The Great Gatsby is an immoral novel. It glorifies a criminal whose taste in women is as vulgar as his taste in shirts.”
The stance taken on this novel and the character called Jay Gatsby is valid to a certain extent.
A novel should not be labelled immoral as it is a creative artwork that seeks to tell a story. Whether the story revolves around an antagonist or a protagonist should not influence the reader so much for him to view the novel itself as immoral.
Although the glorification of a criminal (which is only one facet of Jay Gatsby) could - to some people - make the novel seem immoral, it does not seem as though F. Scott Fitzgerald’s aim was to glorify Gatsby. His aim was to characterise Gatsby in such a way that his flaws and his unattainable and overly-optimistic aspirations were what humanised him and what brought the story to life.
Fitzgerald tells a story of a man who starts off his life with absolutely nothing but falls in love with someone of a higher class. This class barrier forces Gatsby to do everything he possibly could to reduce this gap to become “worthy” of the love of his life, Daisy.
Material wealth and status is of the utmost importance to Daisy. She is theatrical, shallow, aimless and asinine.
“I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a – of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn’t he?” She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation: “An absolute rose?”
This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose. She was only extemporizing…1
When Gatsby and Daisy first meet in their younger years before he goes off to fight in the Great War, they were sure of each other’s love but Daisy, despite her affection for him, would not sacrifice wealth and status for love. Gatsby knew this too and as a result he went to all extremes, even corruption, to gain copious amounts of money to impress Daisy’s pockets in the hopes that it may stimulate her heart in his favour.
His dreams of a love...