Resumo de The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Foul Dust andThe Incorruptible Dream The Great Gatsby has the reputation ofbeing ?the great American novel,? a landmark piece in the American literarycannon for capturing the gaudy, gilded splendor of the Jazz age, and the spiritof the American Dream with Gatsby as its incarnation. Gatsby is descendent fromlowly immigrants, no different than the ones who first came to the ?fresh greenbreast of the new world? in search of a bigger, brighter and better future. Itis his ?extraordinary gift for hope? and ?romantic readiness? which hasestablished him as the quintessential American, able to literally re-create andrealize that ?Platonic conception of himself.? However, the novel as a whole isnot the celebration of America,or even the American ideal, as it is in other great American works such as Song of Myself, but rather the exactopposite. There is a duality that runs through the course of the book, a threadof negativity, futility and artificial materialism that underscores everymoment of brightness and loveliness, almost as if the luminance of Fitzgerald?sprose and language has a coating of ash intermingled with its sweetness. Whattruly characterizes the novel is that of a disillusioned spectator watchinganother?s futile attempts at realizing the ultimate dream, who inevitably becomessuffocated by the foul dust of society. It is through this duality that Fitzgeraldestablishes this Americais no longer one the same as that which ?flowered once for Dutch sailor?s eyes.? Thevery construction of the novel establishes a duality in that the course ofevents are seen through the eyes of Nick Carraway, and so we receive aninterpretation of the events colored by this slightly self-righteousindividual, who is constantly conscious of his displacement in this gaudysociety of the East. The way in which Nick views Gatsby is also filled withcontrast; he sets Gatsby high up on a pedestal as having ?something gorgeousabout him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,? almostchildlike in his ability to hope, yet simultaneously representing ?everythingfor which has an unaffected scorn.? According to the popular opinion of many critics, it is Gatsby who comes to therealization of the essential quality of Daisy?s voice, that it is ?full ofmoney.? What really occurs is that there is a schism between Daisy?s voice andDaisy the girl, and the function and effect of Daisy?s voice is actually areflection of the listener?s desires and outlook upon the world. Gatsby lovefor Daisy is seen as the shining element of the novel set against a sordid,commercial backdrop,<1> andindeed there does seem to be a transcendent quality to their relationship,portrayed in the Biblical language of the incarnation occurring with a kiss.However, that commercial element is always there, and in Gatsby?s verydescription of her voice shows that the only language he has to evaluate her isinseparable from the sordid, earthly stain of money. Gatsby is not in love withDaisy the girl, ?the colossal vitality of his illusion had gone beyond her,beyond everything.? He saw Daisy as the living idea of material success andmore importantly, of social standing ? the jewel to surpass all others, and asa penniless soldier, the girl with the little white roadster in the cool whitehouse belonged in that slice of society into which he could only crane his headto gain a glimpse of. Throughout the book, Gatsby is always portrayed as aloner, even isolated and ignored at his own parties, because he does not feelthat he belongs in that upper crust class into which his wealth had propelledhim, nor do the wealthy see him as truly being one of them. When James Gatzrecreated himself, he attempts to erase all traces of his lowly birth and tookon the semblance of class by establishing himself as an Oxford man, andspeaking with ?an elaborate formality of speech just missed beingabsurd.? ThroughNick?s imagination of Gatsby?s demise, we see that he finally loses the ?oldwarm world? of his dreams, and is literally reborn, seeing an unfamiliar skyfor the first time and realizing what a ?grotesque thing? even a rose belongingto the real world is. The duality is never more poignant here, as the ?ashenfantastic figure? of Wilson glides towards Gatsby, who at this point has fadedto no less than that same shadow of a man who is so eaten up by commercialismthat he thinks of God as being nothing more than the disembodied eyes of afaded advertisement. In the end, Gatsby, the giant with the incorruptible dream,who had invented not only himself but also a world to match, finally paid thehigh price for living too long with a single dream and ended no better than themost pathetic character in the entire novel. The ending ofthe novel is completely pessimistic. It establishes that Gatsby?s dream wasdead even as it was conceived, that the ?fresh, green breast of the new world?has vanished forever, and the ending to that ?one fine morning? will neverexist for us in the future. Yet this ghastly, disillusioned message is not whatmakes the novel immortal and great; it is Gatsby?s spirit which does. Themajority of Americans are not Nick Carraways, they choose instead to believe inGatsby?s initial vision of the world, still retaining his extraordinary giftfor hope that one day, the ?last and greatest of all human dreams? can still berealized. <1>New Essays of The Great Gatsby. Bruccoli. Cambridge,Cambridge University Press, 1985. <2>Matterson, Stephen. The Great Gatsby.Hampshire: Macmillan, 1990

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