In chapter 8, Nick has just witnessed the devastation of multiple lives around him at the hands of those with a financial advantage. Daisy and Tom enjoy the freedom of living in a world in which money is easy to come by—and always has been. Nick has just heard Gatsby's personal account of all he has done to win Daisy's love. Daisy had shown him signs of great promise before he was called into battle:
They had never been closer in their month of love, nor communicated more profoundly one with another, than when she brushed silent lips against his coat's shoulder or when he touched the end of her fingers, gently, as though she were asleep.
However, when faced with his physical absence, Daisy proves to be have a fickle and wandering heart. Her
artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year.
She began dating a half a dozen men each day, needing an immediate "shape" to her life. And she finally decided on Tom, leaving Gatsby as a whisper in the past.
At this point, Gatsby realizes that men like Tom have what he himself cannot provide for Daisy: a life of luxury. He sets out on an ambitious quest to make himself into everything Daisy desires, including obtaining extraordinary wealth.
It works—for a season. He obtains the wealth. He works himself back into her world. And he seems to win her affections one more time.
However, when faced with the choice, Daisy finds that she cannot leave Tom, her husband who neither respects their marital boundaries nor her voice as a partner. She chooses the wealthy man who belittles her over the man who adores her and has tried to be everything she desires.
Nick sees the hypocrisy that these characters embody and the sacrifices that Gatsby is still willing to make on Daisy's behalf. In contrast, Daisy is willing to let Gatsby lose everything so that she can maintain her shallow life of luxury.
Nick tells Gatsby that he is better than all of these superficial people combined. Although not a perfect man, Gatsby embodies more greatness than the rest of the group could collectively hope to attain.
Nick says that Jay Gatsby is "'worth the whole damn bunch put together,'" calling everyone, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, his party guests, pretty much all of the people Gatsby knows or interacts with, a "'rotten crowd.'" He explains in the first chapter that
there was something gorgeous about [Gatsby], some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.
Gatsby has a special kind of optimism; he believes in hope, and he believes that it is possible to recapture the past, to rekindle a lost love. It's as if, despite the fact that he's a criminal bootlegger who is apparently getting involved with something even bigger and worse, he is still somehow innocent. Gatsby has dreams, and he isn't afraid to make himself totally vulnerable in the pursuit of those dreams.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, on the other hand, are "careless people" who
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...
They use people without any regard for those other people's feelings and lives. They seem only to care about themselves, ultimately, and the money that enables them to essentially do whatever they want; Daisy doesn't even send a flower to Gatsby's funeral. These people are not worth much in comparison to Gatsby.
No comments:
Post a Comment