Jacob
Anason
The
Great Gatsby
“The
Great Gatsby” is filled with characters that use wealth to get what
they want, the most obvious being Jay Gatsby. It also has characters
with strange behavior that can be analyzed to find out their deeper
thoughts. Gatsby himself is especially interesting to get a better
look at. He throws big extravagant parties but at the same time is
somewhat withdrawn and seems distracted. He has a big house and lots
of money but doesn’t seem happy with it all. Gatsby needed all of
his wealth to make him happy, but it wasn’t the wealth itself that
he thought would accomplish that, it was the love he thought would
come with it. This essay will look at “The Great Gatsby” through
the psychological and economic lenses.
West Egg and East Egg were two very different communities. East Egg
was very wealthy and fashionable. It was filled with giant houses
that looked more like palaces than homes. Across the bay was West
Egg. The west was very different. Nick describes it best when he
says, “I lived at West Egg- the well, the less fashionable of the
two” (page 5). It is easy to see the difference in social class
here. On one side you have rich fancy mansions, and on the other Nick
is paying $80 a month rent. Gatsby’s mansion was an exception to
this however; he had a magnificent mansion next door to Nick. There
is a reason that Gatsby chose to live in the less wealthy Egg. He was
plenty fashionable to live in the East, but there was a specific
reason he didn’t. That will come up later in the essay.
Gatsby
has plenty of money and shows it by his popular parties every
Saturday night. Few people at these parties had actually been
invited; the rest had just come from the city to have a good time.
Many of them were not of wealth and came to take advantage of
Gatsby’s money and generosity. Gatsby doesn’t seem to care about
this fact and it even seems like he isn’t happy at these parties.
“Some time before he introduced himself I’d gotten a strong
impression that he was picking his words with care. “Almost at the
moment when Mr. Gatsby identified himself, a butler hurried over
toward him with information that Chicago was calling him on the wire”
(page 48). He puts on a face for the parties to seem happy but inside
he isn’t. His work is more important to him than being social at
his own party.
Why
isn’t he happy if he is so rich? Why does he throw the parties if
he doesn’t enjoy them? By using the psychological lens to look at
what we have learned from the economic lens we can find the answers
to these questions. On page 21 Nick sees Gatsby staring off his dock
at a distant green light. With all of the money that Gatsby has it
seems reasonable to think that there is nothing he would long for.
Yet, Nick observes him reaching out towards the light as if it’s
something he wants that is just out of his reach. What could it be
that he is reaching for? Gatsby is reaching for love. He knows that
Daisy, the girl he loves, is just across that water and he is
reaching for her. The only reason he worked so hard to get his money
was because he thought it would bring her to him. This is why he
lives in the less fashionable egg. He wants to be as close to Daisy
as he can, but he isn’t confident enough to live right by her.
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year
by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter-
tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out arms farther… And one fine
morning-” (Page 180). The green light was more than just a symbol
of Daisy, it represents the entire human race’s struggle to
recreate the past and achieve their life goals. “’I wouldn’t
ask too much of her,’ I ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the past.’
‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of
course you can!’” (page 110) This quote shows Gatsby and Nick
talking to each other, Nick believes you can change the past. but
Gatsby thinks differently. The past is what he longs for when he
reaches toward the green light. Nick clearly thinks that whats in the
past is forever in the past and he has learned to move on, but Gatsby
can't let it go. He got a taste of perfection in his youth and has
been chasing it ever since.
From
studying Gatsby it is clear to see that even though he worked hard to
acquire his wealth, it is not the wealth that he wants. His
acquisition of wealth, the parties, moving to West Egg, everything he
did was another step in his persistent quest to recreate the past he
had with Daisy. The money was merely a means to an end. Gatsby
understands that the best things in life can't be touched or even
seen, but they are the things we feel inside and make us happy. In
the end Gatsby died, but he died happy. He finally got to be with
Daisy and that was all he ever wanted. He was happier dying young
knowing he accomplished what he wanted to than if he had lived to be
100 and never got back together with Daisy. Gatsby said it best when
he said, “What was the point of doing great things if I could have
a better time telling her what I was going to do?” (page 150)
Everything in life is so much better when there is someone to share
it with.
Cite
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
