The Great Gatsby This passage from novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald occurs at the end of chapter seven, when Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and Jordan are at the Plaza Hotel in New York. It is the hottest day of the summer and Tom and Gatsby are in the middle of a quarrel, after Tom initiates a confrontation with Gatsby whereby he accuses Gatsby of running a bootlegging operation. This then turns into a quarrel over Daisy, which eventually results in Daisy feeling closer to Tom and away from Gatsby.
This passage is significant in the way that if reflects some of the most prominent themes of this novel, such as Gatsby’s undespairing hope and man’s amoral pursuit of wealth. These themes are explored by the use of various literary features such as symbolisms and imagery. The failure for Gatsby to achieve his long-yearned dream is confirmed in this passage, which is then later used to accentuate Gatsby’s hopeful nature. This confirmation initially happens through Tom’s definitive proof of Gatsby’s past criminal activities- “That drug-store business was just small change, but you’ve got something on now that Walter’s afraid to tell me about”.
This then exposes to the audience a strikingly flawed aspect of Gatsby’s character; especially from Nick’s description of Gatsby’s startling face expression- “He looked… as if he had ‘killed a man’”. This aspect is further highlighted when Gatsby begins to “talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made”. It is evident at this point in the passage that up until this point in the novel, Fitzgerald has been intentionally shrouding this aspect of Gatsby with a mysterious, distant impression of Gatsby, his background and the source of his wealth.
Consequently, an equally striking impression of Gatsby’s “dream” is exposed to the audience- rather than being a hopeful dream, it is portrayed to be more of a naive obsession of recovering a blissful past with Daisy. This is also shown earlier on in the chapter when Gatsby desperately asks Daisy to say that she never loved Tom and only ever loved him, which is primarily what makes Daisoy realise that she once did love Tom and that Tom is almost like her comfort zone. Therefore here, Gatsby’s dream is eradicated.
However amid this condescending characterisation of Gatsby, there is nevertheless an indication of his extraordinary hope- “…only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room”. This image of Gatsby “undespairingly” struggling to grasp what is already lost (Daisy) suggests that his hopefulness, regardless of what intention it is towards, is still alive. In the end, Gatsby is revealed to be just an innocent, extraordinarily hopeful man who tries to invest Daisy with an idealistic perfection –wealth.
He continues to dream with a passionate zeal but this dream becomes eradicated by the corruption caused by his pursuit of wealth. This leads onto the second notion that is portrayed in this passage; men’s amoral pursuit of wealth and its conquest of our subconsciousness. This theme is first established earlier on in the novel when the theme of industrialism and materialistic tendencies of men are introduced and symbolised by the Valley of Ashes (a dumping ground for industrial ash). In this passage, the theme is primarily associated with Gatsby and his blind chase for wealth through committing amoral activities.
Although now we know that this is only an illustration of Gatsby’s willingness to stake everything on his dream of Daisy, it is nevertheless what eventually causes Gatsby’s downfall. This notion of the pursuit of wealth corrupting man’s moral values, is shown right from the start of this passage where Gatsby clarifies with Tom that the reason he let Tom’s friend Walter Chase go to jail was because “(Walter) came to (Gatsby) dead broke. He was very glad to pick up some money, old sport”. Here, it is evident that in this situation, Gatsby had little, or no, consideration for the morality of his actions when making his decision.
Moreover, towards the middle of the passage when Tom is about to leave the hotel after his heated argument with Gatsby, he casually asks Tom if he wants a bottle of whisky- “After a moment Tom got up and began wrapping the unopened bottle of whisky in the towel. ‘Want any of this stuff? Jordan? Nick? ” This “bottle of whisky” is another representation of the materialism. The fact that this question, when asked by Tom, is subtly dismissed by the rest of the characters, perhaps reflects Fitzgerald’s piteous outlook on man’s amoral pursuit of wealth.
In addition, towards the end of the passage when Tom, Nick and Jordan are driving back to Long Island, Nick says that he was “content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind”. The image of these “tragic arguments” fading with the “city lights behind” represents how Nick, or Fitzgerald himself, wishes to leave behind the argument between Gatsby and Tom in its own premises, New York. This is coherent because New York represents the origin of the materialism, the selfish pursuit of wealth in the novel, while the argument between Tom and Gatsby is primarily a result of Gatsby’s selfish pursuit of wealth.
Through the use of symbolism and imagery, Fitzgerald effectively portrays some of the most prominent themes of this passage such as Gatsby’s undespairing hope and man’s amoral pursuit of wealth. Through his use of various characters such as Jay Gatsby and the nature of their personalities, perhaps Fitzgerald is trying to convey his hope for America’s powerful optimism, vitality, and individualism in the 1920’s to rise from its subordinate position.
